SPREAD BETTING

What is spread betting?

Spread betting isn’t the same as owning shares, but it lets you speculate on changes in share prices, indices, currencies and other financial assets. Unlike traditional investing, there’s no major upfront outlay, and you can still make profits if prices or values fall.

With spread betting you make a profit, or a loss, based on the price of the asset when you opened the trade, and its price when you closed the trade.

Just like traditional investing, there are two prices for a spread bet — the offer (buy) price and the bid (sell) price. The difference between the two is called the spread. At Spread Co we try to keep our spreads among the lowest in the market. This means that less of your spread betting stake is eaten up by charges.

Visit our spread betting explained page to find out more. 

Discover more by visiting our How to spread bet page.

Advantages of spread betting

The trouble with traditional investing is that you can only make money when prices rise. When they fall, you make a loss. Spread betting is different. You can make gains when prices rise or fall. All you have to do is correctly predict which way the markets will go.
 
One of the major advantages of spread betting is the low cost of entry. When you place a spread bet you only have to pay a fraction of the value of an asset, not its full price. This can be as low as 0.5% depending on the market you’re trading. Therefore, a £100 spread bet could give you exposure to an equivalent direct investment of £20,000. If you call the market correctly, your gains will be calculated on an investment of £20,000, but so will your losses if markets don’t move the way you hoped.

• No tax liability* - and no Stamp Duty or Capital Gains Tax
• No commission to pay - trading costs are included in our spreads – and they’re among the lowest you’ll find
• Manage your risk - with Spread Co’s stop loss and limit order features
• Low initial outlay - you don’t pay the full price to trade the asset
• 24-hour trading - you don’t need to wait until the markets open until you can place your spread bets

Low cost spread betting with Spread Co

Like all forms of investing you have to pay charges, that’s why it makes sense to trade with a company that offers competitive spread betting charges. There are four key charges you need to be aware of:

• Spreads - the difference between the bid and the offer price. Ours start at just 0.8 for spread bets on the FTSE 100 and US DJIA Index.
• Margins - the minimum cost of a spread bet. With Spread Co it’s just £25 for the FTSE 100.
• Overnight financing - when you hold a spread bet trade overnight. We don't charge any financing fees for short index and equity positions, and our charges for long positions are only LIBOR +2%.
• Additional spreads on equities - typically an additional spread is wrapped around the market spread for equities, these can be as high as 0.10%. Our wrap is as low as 0.05% for FTSE 100 equities.

Remember, when you choose to trade with Spread Co…

You’ll benefit from over a decade of spread betting experience, be able to access thousands of investment markets with our online service and mobile and tablet apps.

You can also keep up to date with our regular insights and call our help team when you need support.

Open an account today

Our trading platforms

At home, in the office or on the move. Spread Co's trading platforms mean you never have to miss out on a great trading opportunity. All of our trading platforms offer advanced, interactive charting and live pricing as standard on over one thousand tradable markets.

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