Financial spread betting is becoming a more and more popular way for day traders to make money. This type of financial betting is all about speculating on the movement of markets, and making a profit from either a rise or drop in market prices.
Unlike traditional financial trading, spread betting does not involve the purchasing of an financial assets or instruments. You are simply gambling on the movement in value of a particular indices or commidty price by placing a bet against a bookie.
To place a spread bet, you will first of all need to register to a spread betting platform and open a deposit account. Usually the minimum deposit is around £100. You will then have to select a particular stock or indices to bet on. After you have chosen a particular stock, you will need to ask your financial trader for a “bid” or buy price. This is the market value that the trading company will offer you. If you think the share price of value of that stock will increase, then you can wager a fixed amount on a per points movement basis. For example, you can wager £10 per point on the movement of a stock price. If, when the time comes to close you bet, the stock price has risen 10 points, then you will have made £100 profit. If the stock had dropped 10 points however than you would likewise lose £100.
The “spread” is the difference between the “bid” buy price and the “offer” sell price given to you by the trading platform. The bid price will always be slightly higher than the sell price – this is where the platform takes its commission. For example, if the bid price of Microsoft stock is 156p, than the sell price will be 155p (the spread is 1p).
The main advantage of spread betting is that you are trading on leverage (margins), and as soon you can make a massive amount of profit starting with a small capital reserve. For example, you can make 1,000% profit on trades by betting correctly on movements in the market. In comparison to regular financial share trading, you would never be able to make such massive profit margins without have to purchase a large amount of assets. For example, if you had £10,000 worth of shares trading at 100p each in Microsoft and the value increased by 1p, than you would only make £100 profit. On the other hand, if you spread bet £200 per point on Microsoft shares than you would make twice as much profit from just a £200 investment!
Spread betting in the UK is also tax-free and exempt from stamp duty. This makes it far more profitable than ordinary financial trading.
For more spread betting tips, see my FTSE Spread Betting website.