City Traders do it! So why aren’t you?
Financial spread betting has probably been around quite a bit longer than you think. It has only recently surged in popularity amongst retail investors but the concept was originally developed in the 70’s. You don’t have to pay tax in Ireland and the United Kingdom because it is considered as a ‘betting activity’. You don’t even have to pay stamp duty…
SPREAD BETS HAVE BECOME ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR INSTRUMENTS AMONG TRADERS IN THE UK.
While some of this can be credited to advances in online trading technology, spread betting has attracted all kinds of traders, from individuals transitioning from traditional markets to those who enjoy the thrill of speculation. In fact, recent estimates of the number of spread bettors in the UK are in the hundreds of thousands.
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UK financial betting is an increasingly popular way for financially-savvy individuals to make money either professionally or as a supplementary income to their primary job. Financial betting in the UK is now one of fastest-growing areas of financial speculation and spread trading has made this a highly accessible and straightforward so that everyone has the potential to be a successful trader. UK financial betting has developed from traditional stock and currency trading, however, unlike these big-money and high risk investments; spread betting on price movements provides an excellent alternative to trade exactly the same markets.
Financial betting in the UK requires that you have an online spread betting account. It is incredibly simple to open one of these and they are made as user-friendly and uncomplicated as possible. Furthermore, in order to become involved in UK financial betting you no longer have to prove that you have a certain amount of capital available as used to be the case several years ago. In fact, you can open a spread betting account with the best brokers for as little as 50GBP with access to all of the features of large account holders. Once you have opened a UK financial betting account you will be able to begin looking at which markets you want to trade and identifying good trading opportunities. One of the major benefits of financial spread trading is that a wide range of markets are available to trade through just a single platform. You no longer need to have a broker for currencies, a broker for stocks and a separate commodities broker as these are all available on a single platform.
Trading using the online platforms are incredibly simple and the basis of UK financial betting is that traders place a ´bet’ against a possible price movement-wither long or short. The bet has a value per point movement and with individual markets moving several hundred points per day there are ample opportunities to spot good trading set-ups. Despite being described as ´gambling´ spread trading and UK financial betting generally has very little to do with pure gaming. The stylish and technologically-advanced platforms available to traders allow spread betters to analyze and look for trading opportunities in exactly the same way as professional traders. The only difference being that a spread trader never actually owns any of the stock, currency or commodity that they are speculating on and therefore it becomes a ´bet’ on which way price is going to go. Due to the fact that UK financial betting is based on derived markets, they reflect the real market but without any physical exchange of the underlying asset.
UK financial betting has the added bonus of operating outside of income or capital gains tax regulation for British residents. Due to its status as ´gambling ´ any profits gained from this are considered non-taxable which makes it a very popular means of trading the financial markets. With non-taxable profits, UK financial betting can obviously become a very lucrative business and many traders who have learnt how to spread trade effectively can do this as the ideal work-from-home job; with no boss and their own timetables. Becoming a confident and successful trader, however, takes both time and energy. A beginner must be prepared to accept losses before risking their hard-earned capital and there are many spread trading and UK financial betting books and course material available to provide an initial education and introduction to spread trading.
Many online brokers also offer educational material as part of their welcome package and it really is worth getting as clued-up as possible before risking any money through UK financial betting. The quality of the major brokers and spread betting platform are extremely high and many try to out-compete one another with offers and incentives to attract new account holders. The markets they offer go beyond betting on only UK financial markets but include all major and minor commodities, stocks from across Europe, North America and soft, energy and metal commodities.
Due to the high level of competition to attract traders to use their platforms these markets are broad and UK financial betting offer some of the most competitive trading spreads available. Currencies can be traded at less than 1 point by the largest spread betting brokers such as IGindex whilst the continuous battle to stay ahead of the rest means that other markets are also kept to the smallest spread possible
Unlike traditional trading UK financial betting also has no hidden costs. This means that no commission aside from the spread is ever paid to either buy or sell. Many traditional brokers who offer investors the opportunity to purchase shares and currency charge a commission and this is often to both buy and sell. The flexibility offered by UK financial spread betting also greatly enhances a trader’s experience. Trading multiple markets through one platform and with developments such as binary options trading incorporated into many of the larger platforms the potential for innovation and development really does put UK financial betting at the forefront of modern trading.