Traders however need to be aware leverage works both ways. A 10% increase in the share price would then give you a profit of £1,000 before costs.
You can open a £10,000 exposure to a blue chip like British Airways with just a £500 initial deposit in your account. Trading on margin allows you to magnify your gains. All are accessible through the one account with the trading hours generally the same or better than the underlying exchanges. These include popular areas like UK and overseas shares, indices, currencies and commodities. There is no stamp duty and any gains from spread betting are completely tax-free.Īnother of the main attractions is the sheer degree of choice, with clients typically able to trade thousands of different markets. Unlike a normal share dealing account you can also sell short so as to profit from market weakness. A spread betting account allows you trade on margin, which makes it viable to target much smaller price movements.
Shorter-term traders will normally prefer the sort of leveraged exposure they can get from trading spread bets.
