A lot of people don’t know what FTSE spread betting is. It is a way of trading the financial markets which is a bit different from owning the actual shares. You make a bet on which direction you think that the market will go either up or down (you go either long or short).

There are a couple of different styles of bets that you can use. The first is the binary bet. This is very similar to bets in the sporting arena where you know the how much you can we or lose before you start. It is a very transparent way of doing it.

The second way of FTSE spread betting that I will go through is the rolling daily bet. These bets are probably the most common at the moment but the binary bet is becoming more popular. The main difference between the two is that with the rolling daily bet you win or lose depending on how right you were. If you are marginally right you will win a little but if you are very right you win a lot more.

Trading this way gives you great flexibility but at the same time it can be very risky. You trade on a margin so you are using leverage. This means you can lose more than your initial deposit if you get it wrong.

There are advantages and disadvantages to FTSE spread betting. Another advantage is that it doesn’t incur capital gains tax in the UK. Capital gains tax was increased in the budget today so makes this more appealing.

Trade Forex, Commodities, Stocks and more, trade CFDs on the Plus 500 CFD trading platform! *CFD Service. 80.6% lose money - Register a real money account here and get trading right away.