Financial spread trading
Financial spread trading (also known as financial spread betting) is a high-risk activity that can offer you a tax-efficient way of gaining exposure to a wide range of investments across global financial markets.
A spread trade is an agreement between a client and a provider to exchange the difference between the opening and closing value of the trade at a future date. Your profit or loss is the difference between the opening price and closing price of your trade multiplied by your stake.
Spread trades can allow you to make significant profits, as their geared nature means that a relatively small movement in price of the underlying security will result in a much larger movement in the value in the spread trade. For this reason, it's also possible to quickly lose more money than your initial deposit.
Through Barclays Stockbrokers, we can offer you the opportunity to spread trade a variety of instruments, including major indices, currencies, commodities, individual equities quoted on leading exchanges and their associated options. You can benefit from:
- Competitive deposit requirements
- Instant online execution
- The ability to profit from rising or falling markets
- Extended trading hours in certain markets
- The ability to reduce risk by implementing a guaranteed stop loss order in certain markets
- Small minimum stake sizes - from £3 per point
- Profits that are free from capital gains tax
- No stamp duty
Financial spread trading carries a high level of risk to your capital. The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you can lose significantly more than your initial margin or deposit payment. Talk to us about whether spread trading is suitable for you.
