Financial Spread Betting & FTSE
If the June FTSE expired at 6432, you would make £600 profit (6432 minus 6312, times £5). But if the market went the wrong way you would make equivalent losses. If June FTSE expired at 6192, your losses would be £600 (6312 minus 6192, times £5).
In practice, most spread-betting customers do not hold their bets all the way till expiry. Spread bets can be “closed out” at any time – even on the day they are opened.
Financial spread betting has been around for 25 years, but it was only a few years ago, when bookmakers started to offer bets on individual shares, that its popularity began to rocket. In the last 12 months, volumes have grown by more than 100 per cent.