With a spread betting account you can trade on a range of markets. These can be grouped into the following categories:

• Indices
• Stocks and shares (equities)
• Foreign exchange
• Commodities
• Treasuries
• Sectors

Indices

Spread betting on the World’s indices has become popular. The UK 100 tracks the performance of the top 100 UK public companies by market capitalisation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 primarily track US markets. By taking a position on an index you are taking a position on the market direction as a whole rather than individual stocks and shares.

In spread betting, many of the prices offered may also be available 24 hours a day by your spread betting provider to allow you to react to global news even when the markets are closed.

WorldSpreads offers the ability to trade on many indices including:

• UK 100 (FTSE 100)
• Wall Street (Dow Jones)
• NASDAQ 100
• DAX
• CAC
• Hang Seng
• Nikkei
• S & P 500

Stocks and shares

Equity spread betting allows you to place a trade on shares without physically owning the shares. The tax efficiencies for stocks and shares, as with all profits on spread betting, are that there is no capital gains tax or income tax.

A good spread betting company should offer a range of companies within an index and quote prices 24 hours a day.

Foreign Exchange

Foreign exchange, also known as Forex or FX is the most traded and liquid market in the world. Forex is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another, for example The Euro and the US Dollar (EUR/USD) or the British Pound and Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY).

WorldSpreads offers 40 Forex markets.

Commodities

Commodities are often volatile and traded at large volume so can be a favourite of many spread betters . This can mean larger profits but potentially larger losses too, especially when the background to recent geo-political and physical events are considered. Some popular commodities to trade are:

• Gold
• Crude Oil – US
• Crude Oil – UK
• Silver
• Natural gas
• Wheat
• Copper
• Coffee
• Cocoa

Treasuries

Many spread betting companies will offer the ability to spread bet on key interest contracts including Gilts, government bond futures and interest rate futures. Treasuries may be popular as they enable you to balance your investment strategy if you have exposure to more volatile instruments such as commodities and equities.
Treasuries which spread betting companies may offer could consist of:

• Bund
• Gilt
• US T-Bonds
• Bund Future 6%
• US 10 Year Treasury Note
• EURIPOR
• 3 Month Euro$
• Bund/Gilt
• 2 Year Treasury Notes
• Short Sterling
• BOBL
• US 5 Year Notes
• Schatz

Sectors

A sector bet is focused on a particular segment of industry, this allows for greater focus. Sector bets also allow for greater diversification of risk when compared with individual stocks. Spread betting companies which offer sector spread betting may enable trading on:

• Aerospace & Defence
• Banks
• Beverages
• Chemicals
• Construction & Materials
• Electricity
• Fixed Line Telecoms
• Food
• Food & Drug Retailers
• Gas, Water & Multi Utilities
• General Industries
• General Retail
• Health Care Equipment & Services
• Household Goods & Home Construction
• Industrial Engineering
• Life Insurance
• Media
• Mining
• Mobile Telecoms
• Non Life Insurance
• Oil & Gas Production
• Personal Goods
• Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology
• Real Estate Investment Services
• Real Estate Investment Trust
• Software & Computer Services
• Support Services
• Tech Hardware & Equipment
• Tobacco
• Travel & Leisure