Before you start financial spread betting with real money you may wish to open a spread betting demo account. This will be a risk-free way to see if spread betting is right for you without risking any of your capital.
Once you are ready to open a financial spread betting account then you should look at providers to see which one offers features and functionality that are important to you, e.g. the tightness of spreads, any special offers and the trading platform itself.
In practice spread betting can be as simple as following these steps:
- You select a contract, the quoted price of which you think will either rise or fall over a certain period in the future
- You start by checking the ‘price’ the spread betting provider is quoting for the share
- The quote consists of two figures - the 'sell' and the 'buy' price. The sell price is the lower of the two, unless you are trading on "Zero Spreads" and is quoted first
- You must decide whether you think that the price of the contract will go and choose buy or sell depending on your decision
- You decide on a stake per point and make the trade