You can see the prices you are trading at. You can choose to deal straightaway or to place orders. You can trade everything simply from one account at your fingertips. You really are in control and not reliant on other people to undertake your trading for you.

Please see Market information for the list of instruments that you can trade with Spread Co. As you will see, you can trade equities, indices, currencies and commodities all from the same account and all in real-time.

Since CFDs are traded on margin, your capital can be spread more effectively over a wider portfolio. You will only need to put down a percentage of the total value of your trades, that percentage or "margin" depending on what type of instrument you are trading.

Spread Co offers extended hours trading on many CFDs, giving you more opportunity to trade. For example, Spread Co may quote Vodafone and Barclays CFDs even after the London Stock Exchange has closed for the day. You can trade many instruments 24 hours a day at any time between 10pm on Sunday evening (London Time) and 10pm on Friday evening (London Time).

Unlike trading physical shares, when trading CFDs with Spread Co you can trade as little as one share, one index unit or 10000 base currency units for FX.

When trading CFDs with Spread Co, your trade will be confirmed as soon as you hit the buy / sell button (this is subject to the deal or order size being within permitted limits and the instrument being priced correctly). You should not have to wait more than a few seconds for prices to be confirmed, except in unusual market circumstances.

There is no stamp duty on equity CFD transactions, which makes trading CFDs a cheaper way to gain exposure to equities than trading physical shares.

CFDs never require physical settlement. They are always just settled in cash. For example, you will never have to buy physical shares or deliver physical coffee. Conversely, many options, warrants and futures require physical settlement.

When trading CFDs with Spread Co you can go short as well as long on any instrument. “Going long” means buying a CFD on an instrument, in order to sell this at a later date, in the anticipation that the price will have risen between the buy and sell dates. “Going short” means selling a CFD on an instrument that you do not own, in order to buy this back at a later date, in the anticipation that the price will have fallen between the sell and buy dates.

When you sell a CFD and enter into a short position, you are treated as a lender of the asset. The borrower of the asset (i.e. Spread Co) may pay you interest in respect of this short position if held open overnight. The interest payable is dependent on the underlying currency interest rates.

Spot CFD prices mimic their underlying instruments very closely. Conversely, options, warrants and futures prices do not mimic the underlying instrument, may include forward interest and may have unpredictable leverage. It is therefore much easier to see the price you are obtaining when trading a CFD.

CFD trading carries above average risk and is not for everyone, so please ensure you understand the risks. You should be aware that it is possible to lose more money than your initial deposit and that you may be required to make further deposits at short notice. Please read the risk warning.