Advertisement

Spread betting at a glance

• Spread betting is a financial product that allows retail and professional investors access to the widest possible number and types of exchange traded instruments.

• The spread betting company that you trade through is the market maker, the trader does not actually take ownership of any underlying product. Hence, most jurisdictions do not charge stamp duty on any gains.

• The notion that you don't actually own the product ensures spread betting platforms are able to almost instantaneously execute orders on behalf of their client.

• Spread betting is a leverage product, your money is able to realise you impressive gains as your earnings come in multiples of the actual change in the underlying product that you are trading.

• This is of course where spread betting can also go spectacularly wrong. Losses can be huge, therefore we advise those that are spread betting, or are looking to go into spread betting, to enter each trade with a well thought out strategy. This also means setting a pre-determined stop loss so that losses are cut at a manageable level.

• This website is here to offer more insight into this fascinating trading instrument.