Financial Spread Betting

kamzy

Hey

Appologies if this is the wrong forum, I did look in the GIOL forum regarding spread betting but i'm not really looking to use deposit bonus's to guarentee profit. I'm looking to start financial spread betting done quite a bit of reading and I understand that the losses can be enormous.

Just wondering if anyone does it on here and who they use, I'm currently researching who to open the account with but I thought may as well ask on here?

Thanks
Kam

jimmyss1

I use igindex. So far, very good. They're good as you can place spread bets on so many things ie. indices, currencies, commodities, shares etc.. The good thing about the shares is that they do a huge range of markets, including most small cap/aim companies which I think a lot of other spread bet firms don't do. They also do quarterly contracts up to 9 months ahead, which I find is extremely useful (not sure whether any other company does this). Also customer service has been very good whenever I've used it.

Anyway, if you're on the electoral role, it only takes a few minutes to sign up. I think they offer something like 10p a point trades to at the beginning too.

Blah99

I use IG Index also. When you sign up, don't go for their low risk account (or whatever it's called). It sounds good when you read the blurb about stop loss functionality etc, but when you actually open the account it turns out they enforce a guaranteed stop on every trade, which increases the spread and therefore your costs.

They've probably changed their website but a couple of years ago when I signed up with them I got caught by this. Had to call up and change up my account...

sabretoothtigger

What size spread do they offer on ftse with this guarantee. I think its better they start off safe and phone up if need be, doesnt take a minute to change right

atypical

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

What size spread do they offer on ftse with this guarantee. I think its better they start off safe and phone up if need be, doesnt take a minute to change right

Normal spread is 2, spread with guarantee is 4. You don't even need to phone them to convert the account, you can do it online.

Blah99

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

What size spread do they offer on ftse with this guarantee. I think its better they start off safe and phone up if need be, doesnt take a minute to change right

Yep, but you can select a guaranteed stop or a normal stop (or no stop at all) with any account. However the safety account *only* lets you chose guaranteed stops.

Anyway, like I said, it was a few years ago since I opened the account so it's probably changed by now.

atypical

Blah99 wrote: »

Anyway, like I said, it was a few years ago since I opened the account so it's probably changed by now.

It hasn't.

kamzy

Thanks for the info. I seem to be leaning towards IG Index but a friend who does it has capital spreads and he says they are very good. Looking at them they seem to be owned by London Capital Group which also runs TradeFair, TradeFair have a £75 free matched deposit which I suppose is pretty good. I'll make my decision tomorrow and let you know.

Thanks again
Kam