Spreadbetting Account

This is probably for UK traders. Can anyone reccomend a good spreadbetting firm in the UK.

Ive had bad experiences with mine. Probably my own fault for not reading small print but my trades are closed at 8pm automatically and then reopened and charged spread again at whatever price is at 8pm. So if im in a loss it closes it in a loss and reopens at current price minus spread!

Also I cant move stop loss closer than 20 points from current price. So in order to move stop loss to break even I have to make 26 pips first! Yes spread is 6 even though advertised as 3.

Suffice to say with these 2 tricks I wasn't aware of I have lost quite a bit of money, I thought spreadbetting would be like my normal trading account using lots being able to hold trades open indefinately.

So big questions, is there a speadbetting firm that doesnt close trades/bets over night and has a normal functioning stop loss? Are all spreadbetting firms set up this way?

Ive left company names out so as not accused of promoting etc

Thanks

I'm using capital spreads to trade at the moment. Going to upgrade to Oanda once i get some more capital but so far they've been pretty good. Stop losses are normally a minimum of 5 pips from current price though sometimes (i don't know why) it's just 1 pip. You can leave trades overnight, but you get charged a couple of bucks (think it's a % of the trade amount, might want to read the fine print on it before doing so). Beyond that i've heard CMC is also pretty good. Only ever tried capital spreads though, still can't complain about them so far.

CMC was on my shortlist to use, I will give capital spreads a look.

Ive only been trading live 8 days now and when my trades were closed at 8pm for pretty big losses I almost cried lol. Worst thing was the next day my trades would have been back in profit!

I do have Oanda and have had no problems but the lure of not having to pay capital gains tax of 40% on profits on spreadbetting is why I need one of these accounts.

I will read the small print and email the company first to confirm these details. Silly noob I am for thinking t would be the same as Oanda.

el_duende, like seraph I use capital mostly as well, their spreads aren't too bad and there shouldn't be any problems with after hours trading. One of the other things I like about them is that their spread remains constant. During big news or volatile periods some of the other SB firms widen their spread at these times and this can be a real kick in the teeth when you least need it. The only downside I have found is their charting which I don't use now, can be very slow in busy times and is very limited on the tech side.

Wish you well with whatever you choose, let us know how you go though.

strada

Have you tried Finspread, IG Market & City Index? They are the top in UK.
One more thing, why did you choose a spreadbetting firm huh? A specialized forex broker is much more suitable for you. I can recommend GCI Financial.

Cheers guys will check those companies out

CWH being based in England spreadbetting accounts are classed as betting accounts and so are tax free on the profits (one hopes to make)

Other standard trading accounts like the oanda one I have, are eligible for 40% capital gains tax on profits. Paying old Gordan Brown 40% of my money to squander is what im trying to avoid.

Yes, those are some strange accounting procedures. I think, maybe a hold over from futures trading.

I too agree that Oanda is a good choice. Their accounting is just as you would expect it to be, or want it to be-- very simple and very easy. They also have the best spread around. I've been using them for a few months now.

Originally, I opened the account to trade their gold and silver pairs, which is unusual in a Forex account, but I've also noticed that their stops and limit orders seem be very trustworthy, which is more than I can say about some other brokers.

http://oanda.com