Best share spread betting account?

cepheus

khampson wrote: »

Will I be better off buying a full shares?

No, worse because you will pay half a percent stamp duty on most purchases; so for frequent trading that will virtually guarantee losing long term.

If you do the research and stick to your strategy with SB you won't necessarily lose, unfortunately few people do both, so they lose in the long run, sometimes after a winning streak and being overconfident.

cepheus

EdGasket wrote: »

Ok well you're obviously more clever than me. The bit about needing 'inside information' to win at spreadbetting was a quote on the radio from an IG Index dealer; so straight from the horses mouth. Anyway you'll find out the hard way.

It must help a lot, but illegal, and it's never bothered the City before!

Strange thing to say though, since IG need the 'ignorant' masses for their business. What programme was this on, was he speaking anonymously?

EdGasket

cepheus wrote: »

It must help a lot, but illegal, and it's never bothered the City before!

Strange thing to say though, since IG need the 'ignorant' masses for their business. What programme was this on, was he speaking anonymously?

Must admit I thought it very candid. I am sure it was radio 4; many years ago in the early days of spread-betting. It went something like :
IG "No one makes a profit spread-betting without an edge"
Interviewer "Do you mean inside information"
IG "Yes"
They highlighted the case of a school dinner lady who had lost quite a few grand !

bowlhead99

plunt wrote: »

just out of curiosity, what brokers have allowed you to trade on leverage? and what interest if any do they charge when you utilize this?

I have been trading on extended settlement terms for years with my broker (TD Direct Investing, formerly TD Waterhouse UK). When I opened my account I had a trading level in excess of my cash deposits, and when my portfolio is larger and/or more liquid my trading level grows. When I place the trade on standard settlement I need to ensure I have cleared cash in my account in 3 days at the latest to avoid penalties. However if I trade on extended settlement (T+5, T+10, T+20), I have up to 20 business days to get the money in my account to settle. This is basically a month in calendar days. If after three weeks days my shares are showing a profit I can sell them out on a standard T+3 settlement and never actually put any cash into the account, just take the profits.

Of course, if I'm trying to buy shares on T+20 I might find the quoted price is higher than the T+3 price but often it is not or only imperceptibly so - and this isn't the broker screwing me, this is just the market. The broker makes their 8.95 fee either way (or 12.50 if I don't trade often enough, which is most months).

In my ISA with the same firm there is no credit and you have to have cleared funds in the ISA from share sales or deposits before you place the trade.

This is a form of margin trading but I only really use if for convenience rather than as a 'strategy' because choosing to buy shares on very short term credit is just gambling really. For longer term proper margin trading I could CFDs with the same broker but I'm not up on the current charges having used spreadbets more often in recent years.