Yes, right £10 per point is the equivalent exposure to 1000 shares. If you only have £1000 and you want to buy shares in a £1 stock then the equivalent to buying 1000 stock for £1000 is £10 per point. The temptation with leverage is to buy far more by using the £1000 to equal £10k (or whatever leverage spread betting providers will allow). But you don’t have £10k, you have £1k.
The best way to approach spreadbetting is not to utilise the leverage. If you have £1000 then you can bet £10 a point. That way you will never get a margin call.
In essence what I want to understand or find out where can I go to find out what a stock price movement per point is e.g is the stock price priced per point by
- 1
- 0.1
- 0.01
- 0.001
E.g if a share is price ay 2409.1… what is the price movement i am laying my bets against.? is the movement before the decimal or after the decimal?
UK shares are priced in pennies and as such you need to look at the number before the decimal point. However, the absolute price does make a difference with a 1p move being a lot for some stocks and next to nothing for others.
On a high priced stock like RIO (3232.4p), it doesn’t take much for it to move up or down by 1p (0.03%).
On a lower priced stock like VOD (209.9p) however, a 1p move up to 210.9p or down to 208.9p equates to a bigger move (0.5%).
Both involve 1p moves but you’d be making or losing more for every 1p move on Vodafone than you would for RIO.
Lower priced stocks trade with more decimal points to allow them to trade in the same % increments as higher priced stocks.
£1/point = equivalent to holding 100 shares; £10/pt = 1,000 shares; £50/pt = 5,000 shares.
£1/point on Vodafone for example = £210 exposure (£1/point X 210p share price). If the price rises by 1p to 211p your £1/point trade is now worth £211. You’re up £1/point as your shares are up 1p.
£1/point on Rio Tinto = £3,232 exposure (£1/point X 3232p share price). So if the price rises to 3,233p your £1/point trade is now worth £3,233. You’re up £1/point as your shares are up 1p.
The above can be scaled up by using the below.
For every £1/per point trade, a 1p move = £1 gain/loss; For every £10/per point trade, a 1p move= £10 gain/loss; For every £100/per point trade, a 1p move = £100 gain/loss; For every £1000/per point trade, a 1p move = £1,000 gain/loss
The more contracts you trade and the more pennies the price moves the more you stand to win or lose. The higher the share price the easier it is to see a 1p movement. But the higher the share price the bigger the trade size and the more margin you will have to put up. Swings and roundabout.