Best 8 Spread Betting Brokers & Platforms 2022

Are you interested in making money through spread betting but don’t know yet which of the many spread betting brokers you should go for?

Spread betting is a type of investment that involves betting on the rise or fall in the value of assets, while not physically owning the asset. Spread betting platforms will grant you access to a number of global markets. Through your spread betting broker, you’ll be able to bet on ETFs, bonds, futures, commodities, forex, indices, cryptocurrencies, options and more.

Read our comprehensive guide below and discover some of the popular spread betting brokers in the UK, and which providers offer mobile apps. As with all investments spread betting incurs risk, and aspiring traders should never risk more than 5 percent of their bankroll on a single spread bet.

Popular Spread Betting Platform UK 2022 List

Before we take an in-depth look at spread betting brokers, here’s a quick list of the popular spread betting platform UK and some other good options.

1. Pepperstone – Popular UK spread betting broker
2. Trade Nation – Spread betting with risk management tools
3. FXCM – Advanced spread betting platform
4. IG – Over 10,000 assets to spread bet on 
5. City Index – Excellent research tools 
6. Spreadex – Low fees for spread betting 
7. ETX Capital – Strong educational content

What is spread betting?

Spread betting is a trading strategy that allows you to speculate on the price movement of different financial instruments. By spreadbetting, a trader is taking a position (a wager/bet) on whether the price of a given financial instrument will rise or fall. It doesn’t involve buying or selling the underlying asset and spread betters will, therefore, not enjoy the rights and privileges associated with these instruments like the dividends related to shares and bonds.

A spread bet is the amount of money you wish to place on a trade, per point in movement. Your profits increase when the market moves in your favour. How much you make from the bet is calculated by multiplying the pip change (the difference between the trade opening and closing price) and the value of your spread bet. Spreadbetters have access to leverage, and the earnings from spreadbetting are not subjected to capital gains tax.

Spreadbetting Vs CFD

Spread betting is a trading strategy that allows you to bet on whether the price of a commodity will rise or fall. It doesn’t involve buying or selling the underlying asset, and the profits realized aren’t subject to tax.

CFDs, on the other hand, are financial derivatives of different financial instruments. By CFD trading, you are essentially buying and selling contracts that represent the value and price of particular financial instruments without necessarily taking ownership of the asset.

CFDs and spread betting share a wide range of similarities, including access to leverage. They are both derivatives of financial products and neither involves taking ownership of the underlying product.

However, they differ significantly in tax treatment given that earnings from spreadbetting aren’t subjected to capital gains tax.

Popular Betting Brokers in the UK

What are the some Popular Spread Betting Mobile Apps?

If you want to be connected to the market on the go, spread betting mobile apps are a necessity, after all, it’s not always possible to be plugged into a laptop or desktops all the time. Most trading apps will help you safeguard your trading positions anywhere you can get a signal.

IG and CMC Markets provide some of the popular mobile apps. They have great features that support spread betting, MT4 and CFDs.

All our reviewed spreadbetting broker platforms offer mobile apps to help you grow your portfolio. Spreadex and ETX Capital are noted as providing some of the popular mobile app services with good screen execution of commands.

PayPal Spread Betting Brokers

Even though the use of cards and wire transfer makes it convenient for traders to deposit and withdraw their funds, many still consider PayPal as their number one payment option.

Paypal spread betting brokers allow traders to use PayPal as their payment method. By using PayPal, they are not required to provide all their personal information and card details. The process of depositing and withdrawing funds is also quicker, more efficient and sometimes less costly when using PayPal.

Forex Spread Betting Brokers

Forex spread betting is a subcategory of spread betting. It involves taking a bet on the price appreciation or depreciation of currency pairs.

A forex spread betting broker will quote two prices. These are the bid price and ask price. These two prices are what spread betting traders call as the spread. Traders bet whether the currency pair price will be higher than the ask price or lower than the bid price. The transaction cost of the trade will be low if the spread is narrow.

The popular spread betting brokers for Forex include FxPro, Oanda, ActivTrades, ThinkMarkets, LCG and ATFX.

What To Look For In A Spread Betting Broker Firm

Can You Make Money Spread Betting?

Yes, you can make money spread betting.

Spread betting is a trading mechanism that offers you a wide variety of markets to choose from. Correctly predicting the price movement of the tradeable assets and selling at the right time results in your profit margin.

Being able to bet on every price move of an asset is what makes spread betting totally different from the normal betting. For example, if you bet £1 for every point on an asset that is valued at 100 and then it drops to 0, you can lose up to £100. On the other hand, if you place the same bet and it goes up to 500 then you can win up to £400.

Finding a broker that you can use easily is a vital factor when choosing the right spread betting platform for you. You also need to look out for the liquidity, research tools, educational content and the range of markets it provides. Remember to take your time and do some due diligence before you can open an account with any broker.

How Important Are Tight Spreads When Spread Betting?

The spread is just the difference between the buying price of an asset and the selling price of that asset. For example, in case the buying price of an asset was 124.6 while the selling price was 125.4, then the 0.8 difference between the prices is the spread.

Making a profit while spread betting dictates that the underlying amount exceeds the spread amount. The asset prices have to move by at least the same spread points for you to make a profit. For instance, to make a profit using a two-point spread, the asset point needs to move by at least two points at the time you are closing your position. If this doesn’t happen, then you’ll make money.

Tight spreads are very important during these small movements in the value and prices. They aid in making quick profits from the small movements in the values and prices of the asset.

Regulation And Its Importance For Spread Betting Brokers

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a body that regulates and governs financial institutions in the UK as well as markets and trades.

This body ensures that no one manipulates the trading market to their benefit at the expense of others. It is, therefore, a legal requirement for all UK brokers to be regulated by FCA. The ones that aren’t regulated operates on illegal grounds.

The FCA acts as a referee to set the rules by which trades can take place. Its presence is very important for spread betting brokers since it sees to it that there are no fraudsters and illegal activities during trading. The ground has to be fair for all the parties so the need for a powerful independent body to regulate the activities is a necessity. Regulation of spread betting brokers also guarantees the reputation of the brokers as well. This, however, doesn’t mean that you have chosen the perfect broker just because they are regulated. Find out other qualities before you select a broker you want to trade with.

Golden Rules Of Day Trading Via Spread Betting

Every game has got its rules and this is no different for spread betting if you want to make money. The following are some of the golden rules you need to stick with in order to make profits day trading via spread betting.

i) Follow the trend

This simply requires you to go with the market trend and learn when to get out.

The key to making a profit here is to follow the flow of the market and step out at the right time. For instance, a downward chart continues to go down. You know that this will last for some time before it shifts again. At this moment, you need to sell your assets.

Irregular charts like the zig zaggy ones are quite difficult to predict so you should wait for the chart to become more regular before making a move. The trick in making money is staying closer to the most liquid assets like the FX pairs and the major indices.

ii) Use stops And limits

Spread betting requires an understanding of what are reasonable price movements in order to create realistic benchmarks for when to get in or get out. Set a standard amount that you are willing to lose on every trade. Managing your risks comes out when you stick to your set limits and using stops to cut some losing positions.

iii) Diversification

A successful trader takes time to sample and analyze a wide variety of trends and a lot of charts. This aids in knowing some of the basics and the trends that exist during trading. It also gives you some set of open diverse positions to work with. You’ll be able to have positions on indices, commodities, FX and stocks.

Once you have found some good open positions to work with, it will be easier for you to know what is happening as afar as profits and losses are concerned. In doing so, you can learn the art of closing positions since this is all that matters. You can earn a lot of profits by knowing when to close the right position at the right moment.

How to Use Spread Betting If the Market Going Down?

Being able to bet on a market that is going down is an important skill that every trader should have. In fact, even hedge funds are doing this process.

This is how the process takes place.

• Trader X anticipates a drop in the value of Amazon, prompting him to bet on the drop that will take place in a few months time.
• Trader X knows that Trader Y has long term shares in Amazon.
• Trader X asks Trader Y if he can borrow the Amazon shares and sell them to a different party.
• Trader Y accepts the offer and charges a fee of 5% on the price of the shares.
• Trader X sells the shares on the London Stock Market.
• After a short period of time, the value of the Amazon shares drops and Trader X buys them back.
• Trader X completes its deal by giving back the shares to reserve Y.

Private spread betting traders don’t need to face the hassle of requesting for stocks from anyone since they can just bet on certain values for each point that the shares will depreciate in order to make money.

Technical Analysis Versus Fundamental Analysis In Spread Betting

Both the technical analysis and fundamental analysis are very crucial when spread trading. This is because they are useful at different durations of the trade.

The fundamental analysis comes in handy to give good guidance for long-term investments while the technical analysis helps in short-term trading. So then which one is better?

There is no straight answer as to which one is better solely because they compliment each other. Another reason is that they are used for different purposes and that they are client-inclined. Some clients prefer either but they consider both before going into trade. Timing is vital and you don’t want to go into an investment without checking the technical analysis.

The technical analysis, as well as the fundamental analysis of different assets, are easily accessible via most brokerage accounts. The spread betting broker accounts provides you with different tools that are based on fundamental and technical analyses.

How to Avoid Currency Risk When Liquidating

There should be no currency risk during the liquidation of your positions when you are spread betting with foreign currency dominated securities. This is because when the USD depreciates or goes up, the profit or loss from that spread bet needs to capture the percentage profit or loss on the basic currency pair and should be paid in that percentage in USD.

For instance, in case a trader from the US speculates a £1 move on a UK asset valued at £10 for each share and he places $0.05 per £1 and the stock market moves up to £15 during the closing time, then the profit should be 50% regardless of the exchange rate between dollars and pounds.

How Safe Is Your Money When Using Spread Betting Brokers?

It is very important to look out for your spread betting broker’s financial stability and capital strength. The broker firm should step up and solve issues quickly and efficiently so that you can maintain smooth trading.

The safety of your money, depends on the financial soundness of your broker firm and its capital base. Going for public companies can be a good idea since it is a legal requirement for them to make their financial accounts public on a regular basis. Firms like IG and Plus500 regularly post their financial accounts.

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