Spread Betting
Spread Betting •
Spread Betting is a flexible and tax-free* way to trade financial instruments including Forex, Spot Indices, Spot Metals and Spot Energy. Spread Betting is a form of derivatives trading, which means you aren’t taking ownership of the underlying asset. You open a position based on whether you think the value of an instrument will rise or fall. If the asset price moves in your favour, you profit, if it goes against you, you incur a loss.
The spread in Spread Betting refers to the difference between the buy (or ask) price and the sell (or bid) price. Unlike CFD trading, Spread Betting doesn’t involve trading lots of currency or a number of units. Instead, you buy or sell a certain amount of the instrument you are trading, which is referred to as your stake.
Spread Betting is a leveraged product. This means that you can open a larger position without having to put up the full capital. Your profit or loss is then calculated by multiplying your stake by the number of points the market moves.
As a leveraged financial product, Spread Betting has the potential to be profitable albeit involving a certain amount of risk. As such, Spread Betting may be more suitable for active traders that are:
Tax laws are subject to change and depend on individual circumstances.
Unlike other forms of online trading, Spread Betting doesn’t involve trading lots of currency or a number of units. Instead, you buy or sell a certain amount of the instrument you are trading. This is referred to as your stake. Your profit or loss is then determined by multiplying your stake by the number of points the market moves.
When Spread Betting, if you think the asset price will rise, you place a buy order (or go long). If you think the price will fall, you place a sell order (or go short). The spread is the difference between the buy and the sell price.
A typical Spread Bet works as follows:
Choose from hundreds of instruments across Forex, Spot Indices, Spot Metals and Spot Energy.
Trade both rising and falling markets. If you think an asset’s price will rise, go long. If you think it will fall, go short.
Decide how much capital to invest per point of market movement.
Set your stop-loss and take-profit levels to effectively manage your risk.
Place your trade by clicking on either ‘Buy’ or ‘Sell’.
You can manually close your trade at any time, regardless of your stop-loss and take-profit levels.
The currency pair EUR/USD is trading at a buy price of 1.11095 and a sell price of 1.11085. You believe that the value of the euro will rise against that of the dollar, so you decide to go long on EUR/USD and set a stake of £5 per point movement at 1.11095.
The market proceeds to move in your favour and the sell price of EUR/USD rises to 1.11165, so you decide to close your trade. Your profit would be calculated as follows:
Gold is trading at a sell price of 1675.00 and a buy price of 1675.30. You anticipate that the value of Gold will decrease, so you decide to go short and set a stake of £2 per point movement at 1675.00
On this occasion, the market moves against you and the buy price for Gold rises to 1675.80, so you close your trade. In this situation, your loss would be calculated as follows: