Introduction to Spread Betting – What you need to know
Financial Spread betting also know as Financial Spread Trading has seen massive growth over the last decade in the UK and is a flexible and tax-efficient way to back anything from shares, currencies, commodities, Bonds, stock indices and even house prices.
Financial spread betting lets you gain exposure to the performance of key markets, without having to put up the full value of the transaction as you’re trading on margin.
So you can profit from market moves while only putting forward a margin deposit as collateral, this can be as low as 10% of the contract value.
As your transaction is a bet, your profits are free from UK capital gains tax and income tax, and trades on individual shares are free from stamp duty. Those outside the UK may also be able to Spread Bet however the same tax advantages do not apply.
One of the major advantages of financial spread betting over conventional share trading is that it is just as easy to go short as it is to go long. That is, you can profit even when a particular market is falling, you simply open a SELL/DOWN bet rather than a BUY/UP bet. Other methods of shorting shares are often expensive and not easily available to smaller private traders.
Financial Spread betting can be used to trade from less than one minute up to 12 months and can be used to cover a range of different investment strategies. For instance, you could use spread bets to hedge the value of your existing holdings, Hedge against a currency exchange movement or to speculate on market volatility. You also have the flexibility to respond quickly to any changes in market conditions as most Financial Spread Betting companies are open 24 hours a day.
As the popularity of Financial Spread Betting has grown so have the number of Financial Spread Betting Brokers, as traders this is good news as the competition has lead to better products, lower spreads and smaller bet sizes.
Another advantage is the ability to trade in your base currency for instance sterling, even though the market may be traded in US Dollar for example Gold or Oil, this means you don’t have to worry about exchange rates.
Get some good training before you dive in
Before starting Spread Betting it’s a good idea to get good independent training. One of the best known courses is produced by self made multi millionaire Vince Stanzione who has been trading for own 25 years. His course is ideal for those starting out and you can learn from his vast experience.
To find out more go to www.thefintrader.net