How It Works
The concept of spread betting is simple. If you think a market is set to rise you 'buy' at the top end of our quote (the offer price), or if you think the market will fall you 'sell' at the bottom of our quote (the bid price).
Your position is a bet: you never actually own the instrument you are 'buying'. The important fact is that when you 'buy' you want the price to go up, and when you 'sell' you want the price to drop.
The difference between the bid and offer prices is known as the 'spread'. Our dealing spread is the only charge you pay; there are no fees or commission.
The PureDeal platform
Deals are transacted through our PureDeal trading platform, a customisable interface which provides quickfire one-click dealing and full account management. Through PureDeal we also offer a full range of free trading tools and charting packages which provide up-to-the minute news and research to help your trading.
The size of the bet which you place through PureDeal is entirely your choice, providing you meet the minimum size for that market. If you 'buy' at £5 per point, for example, this means you make £5 for every point the price goes up and lose £5 for every point it moves down.
Example: 'Buying' Vodafone
Say Vodafone is trading in the market at 166/166.3p. Our Daily quote for Vodafone stands at 165.8 - 166.5, and you decide to 'buy' £50/point at 166.5, our offer price.
This means you will make £50 for every point that our 'sell' (or bid) price rises above 166.5 and lose £50 for every point the bid price falls below 166.5.
Our live price for Vodafone updates with every market move throughout the trading day. By mid-afternoon our quote has reached 170.5 - 171.1 and you decide to take your profit.
You close your bet by 'selling' £50/point at 170.5, our bid price. You have made (170.5 - 166.5) x £50 = £200. And with no tax to pay!
To find out more please see our Detailed Example. And remember, you can also place an absolute limit on potential losses with our Controlled Risk service.