What is spread betting?
Financial spread betting is a way of speculating on price movements in international markets, without actually purchasing the instrument in question.
You are essentially betting on whether a share, index, commodity or other asset will rise or fall in value.
As a result, you do not require as much capital to spread bet as you would if you were actually buying and selling shares, for example.
You are also able to profit from upward or downward movements on the markets, depending of course on which way you bet.
Spread betting offers you much greater flexibility than more traditional forms of trading and because it uses leverage, it is more affordable however, that also means it has more risk than other options.
A further advantage is the speed with which you can access markets and open or close positions, with real time market updates allowing you to react instantly to any changes that may affect your open trades.
All about spread betting instruments
With ETX Capital, you can spread bet on a wide range of instruments, giving you access to some of the most highly traded and liquid financial markets in the world.
Shares and indices are two of the most popular choices for spread betting, in part due to the large amount of information available to help traders make decisions about future market movements.
Foreign exchange - or Forex - markets are also favoured by spread betters, because the high volatility of certain currency pairs can result in substantial gains if fluctuations are gauged correctly and of course magnified losses should the market turn against you.
Having an account with ETX Capital gives you access to a wide range of instruments including bonds, interest rates, options, commodities and exchange traded funds (ETFs).
Why spread bet?
One of the main things that attracts investors to spread betting is the leveraged nature of this kind of trading.
All spread bets are traded on margin, which means that you are only required to deposit a small percentage of the overall value of the trade in your account in order to open a position, while being exposed to its full value when calculating your profit or loss.
This means you can potentially generate substantial returns from a relatively small initial stake; however, there are risks associated with spread betting and you should be aware of the possibility of making significant losses too.
As spread betting is considered gambling under current British law profits from spread betting in the UK is not subject to either capital gains or income tax.*
Spread betting allows you to trade on global markets that you would otherwise be unlikely to gain access to.
Spread betting with ETX Capital
Having recently been ranked as the best value for money by Investment Trends research (2011) there are now even more reasons to trade up to ETX Capital.
ETX Capital offers access to a wide range of markets and instruments on which you can spread bet. Whether you are new to spreadbetting or just new to ETX Capital, there are many reasons to start trading with ETX Capital today.
We provide our clients with a comprehensive trading platform to ensure you can access the markets in real time and make quick decisions on your trading positions, our fast and smart iPhone® App will get you straight into the trade when you are on the move, and our free, new, innovative trade through charts enables you to enhance your analysis giving you the best possible trading advantage
As part of the package, you can expect service from your dedicated account executive, support from our customer service team during trading hours, while we also offer seminars and webcasts about spread betting to help our clients make the most of their trading activities.
ETX Capital is the trading name of Monecor (London) Limited and we are regulated and authorised by the Financial Services Authority. We are also a member firm of the London Stock Exchange.