Financial Spread Betting & Playing the Financial Markets
That is a pity, because lurking behind the ‘f’, ‘s’ and ‘b’ word is one of the most flexible methods in the world for playing the financial markets. It is a tool for the speculator, the short-term investor and also, on occasion, for people who want to hedge a financial
exposure they already have.
That is not to deny that there are risks. Spread betting can result in big losses. It is essential for newcomers to read up carefully in advance and then to bet with small stakes. No one should go into spread betting unless they have some money to spare.
There are five specialist bookmakers.
IG Index, the largest, floated on the stock market last year as IG Group and now commands a £250 million valuation. The others are City Index, Cantor Index, Financial Spreads and Spreadex.
Some 50,000 people have accounts with one of these bookies. Each account allows positions to be taken in the FTSE100 index, the Dow Jones and many others, in hundreds of individual shares, in bonds, in
currency rates, commodities and options.