number of stocks, and major Stock Indexes such as the FTSE 100 Index, or Dow Jones Index, or the S&P 500 index, etc.
An ideal website to visit, to start learning about spread betting is www.financial-spread-betting.com who offer a very comprehensive quick-learning page on their site.
We start with a few opening basics about spread betting
Firstly, do not be put off by the word bet which carries for many people, a number of totally unnecessary, negative connotations and preconceptions…
Spread betting is not like traditional betting, where a bookmaker gives you odds and usually ends up taking 100% of your original outlay. Spread betting is, in a nutshell, the offering of a middleman in a cross-trade (very similar to CFDs) between one party (you) and another party (another person like you who takes an opposite view on a stock or index price). To explain further…
For example, if you bet that the FTSE index will go up, then, unlike traditional betting, you are not betting against the dealer, but someone else (another trader just like you who could be on the other side of the planet) who has an opposite view of the market (he or she...