Financial Spread Betting: Practice Before You Invest
September 6, 2010 2:16 pm
One form of trading that has become quite popular is financial spread betting. That is so because this form of trading lends itself well to those who wish to play the market without putting up big capital as is required when they trade stocks in cash. As opposed to the cash trading where you own the stock and have to pay statutory duties and taxes, spread betting allows you to take positions on stocks without having to own them. You can thus take leveraged positions by paying very reasonable margin money and depending on how the market moves, can make decent profits if you are a nimble trader. Spread betting necessarily involves margined trading where you put up the margin to take care of trades that do not quite go your way. This money is required to pay the stock broking company. Very rarely do people put up their own money and take positions.
The risk with such trading is that just as you can make quick money, you can also lose it. That is because many market players such as big financial institutions, arbitrageurs and big stock market players can often influence the movement of certain stocks based on information they are privy to and since they invariably get such information before smaller players, they are able to reap the benefits much faster and before the smaller players.
It is therefore advisable for beginners to start trading with a demo account so that nuances of spread betting through margined trading becomes clear and they are not caught on the wrong foot early on in their trading career. The demo account also helps you trade with some initial amount that the broking house will provide so that you develop the confidence and can then go on to trade with your own money.
One form of trading that has become quite popular is financial spread betting. That is so because this form of trading lends itself well to those who wish to play the market without putting up big capital as is required when they trade stocks in cash. As opposed to the cash trading where you own the stock and have to pay statutory duties and taxes, spread betting allows you to take positions on stocks without having to own them. You can thus take leveraged positions by paying very reasonable margin money and depending on how the market moves, can make decent profits if you are a nimble trader. Spread betting necessarily involves margined trading where you put up the margin to take care of trades that do not quite go your way. This money is required to pay the stock broking company. Very rarely do people put up their own money and take positions.
The risk with such trading is that just as you can make quick money, you can also lose it. That is because many market players such as big financial institutions, arbitrageurs and big stock market players can often influence the movement of certain stocks based on information they are privy to and since they invariably get such information before smaller players, they are able to reap the benefits much faster and before the smaller players.
It is therefore advisable for beginners to start trading with a demo account so that nuances of spread betting through margined trading becomes clear and they are not caught on the wrong foot early on in their trading career. The demo account also helps you trade with some initial amount that the broking house will provide so that you develop the confidence and can then go on to trade with your own money.
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