Spread Betting Big Losses

Spread Betting Big Losses

Spread betting and CFD trading carry a high level of risk to your capital and you may lose more than your initial investment. Spread betting and CFD trading may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Risk Warning: Spread betting and CFD trading carry a high level of risk to your capital and you may lose more than your initial investment. Spread betting and CFD trading may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

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Shobhit Seth is a freelance writer and an expert on commodities, stocks, alternative investments, cryptocurrency, as well as market and company news. In addition to being a derivatives trader and consultant, Shobhit has over 17 years of experience as a product manager and is the owner of FuturesOptionsETC.com. He received his master's degree in financial management from the Netherlands and his Bachelor of Technology degree from India.

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Samantha Silberstein is a Certified Financial Planner, FINRA Series 7 and 63 licensed holder, State of California life, accident, and health insurance licensed agent, and CFA. She spends her days working with hundreds of employees from non-profit and higher education organizations on their personal financial plans.

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Katrina Ávila Munichiello is an experienced editor, writer, fact-checker, and proofreader with more than fourteen years of experience working with print and online publications. In 2011, she became editor of World Tea News, a weekly newsletter for the U.S. tea trade. In 2013, she was hired as senior editor to assist in the transformation of Tea Magazine from a small quarterly publication to a nationally distributed monthly magazine. Katrina also served as a copy editor at Cloth, Paper, Scissors and as a proofreader for Applewood Books. Since 2015 she has worked as a fact-checker for America's Test Kitchen's Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines. She has published articles in The Boston Globe, Yankee Magazine, and more. In 2011, she published her first book, A Tea Reader: Living Life One Cup at a Time (Tuttle). Before working as an editor, she earned a Master of Public Health degree in health services and worked in non-profit administration.

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Spread betting lets people speculate on the direction of a financial market or other activity without actually owning the underlying security; they simply bet on its price movement. There are several strategies used in spread betting, from trend following to news-based wagers. Other traders look to capitalize on rare arbitrage opportunities by taking multiple positions in mispriced markets and putting them back in line.

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Spread betting refers to speculating on the direction of a financial market without actually owning the underlying security.

An outright option is an option that is bought or sold individually and is not part of a multi-leg options trade.

Options are financial derivatives that give the buyer the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a stated price within a specified period.

A derivative is a securitized contract whose value is dependent upon one or more underlying assets. Its price is determined by fluctuations in that asset.

An iron condor involves buying and selling calls and puts with different strike prices when a trader expects low volatility.

A short call is a strategy involving a call option, giving a trader the right, but not the obligation, to sell a security.

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Among the many opportunities to trade, hedge or speculate in the financial markets, spread betting appeals to those who have substantial expertise in identifying price moves and who are adept in profiting from speculation . One thing should be made clear: spread betting is currently illegal in the United States. 1 That said, it's still a legal and popular practice in some European countries, particularly in the United Kingdom. For this reason, all examples quoted in the following strategies are cited in British pounds, or GBP (£) .

Spread betting comes with high risks but also offers high-profit potential. Other features include zero taxes, 2 high leverage , and wide-ranging bid-ask spreads . If spread betting is legal in your market, here are few strategies you could follow.

Popular betting firms like U.K.-based CityIndex allow spread betting across thousands of different global markets. Users can spread bet on assets like stocks, indices, forex, commodities, metals, bonds, options, interest rates, and market sectors. 3 To do so, bettors often apply trend following , trend reversal , breakout trading, and momentum trading strategies for various instruments, and across various asset classes such as commodities, FX, and stock index markets.

Corporate moves can trigger a round of spread betting. For example, take when a stock declares a dividend and the dividend subsequently goes ex (meaning to expire on the declared ex-date ). Successful bettors keep a close watch on particular companies' annual general meetings ( AGM ) to try and get the jump on any potential dividend announcements, or other critical corporate news.

Say a company whose stock is currently trading at £60 declares a dividend of £1. The share price starts to rise up to the level of the dividend: in this case, somewhere around £61. Before the announcement, spread bettors take positions intended to gain from such sudden jumps. For example, say a trader enters a long-bet position of 1,000 shares at £60, with a £5 per point move. So in our example, with the £1 price increase upon the dividend announcement, the trader gains:

Similarly, bettors will seek to take advantage of the dividend's ex-date. Assume that one day before the ex-date, the stock price stands at £63. A trader may take a short position of 1,000 shares with a £10 spread bet per point. The next day, when the dividend goes ex, the share price typically falls by the (now-expired) dividend amount of £1, landing around £62.

The trader will close his position by pocketing the difference: in this case, a £10,000 profit:

Experienced bettors additionally mix spread betting with some stock trading. So, for instance, they may additionally take a long position in the stock and collect the cash dividend by holding it beyond the ex-date. This will allow them to hedge between their two positions, as well as gain a bit of income through the actual dividend.

Structuring trades to balance profit-and-loss levels is an effective strategy for spread betting, even if the odds aren't often in your favor.

Say that on average, a hypothetical trader named Mike wins four spread bets out of five, with an 80% win rate. Meanwhile, a second hypothetical trader, Paul, wins two spread bets out of five, for a 40% win rate. Who's the more successful trader? The answer seems to be Mike, but that might not be the case. Structuring your bets with favorable profit levels can be a game-changer.

In this example, say that Mike has taken the position of receiving £5 per winning bet and losing £25 per losing bet. Here, even with an 80% win rate, Mike's profits are wiped out by the £25 he had to pay on his one bad bet:

By contrast, say Paul earns £25 per winning bet and only drops £5 per losing bet. Even with his 40% win rate, Paul still makes a £7 profit (0.4 x £25 –0.6 x £5). He winds up the winning trader despite losing 60% of the time.

Spread betting often concerns the price moves of an underlying asset, such as a market index. If you bet £100 per point move, an index that moves 10 points can generate a quick profit of £1,000, though a shift in the opposite direction means a loss of a similar magnitude. Active spread bettors (like news traders ) often choose assets that are highly sensitive to news items and place bets according to a structured trading plan. For example, news about a nation's central bank making an interest-rate change will quickly reverberate through bonds, stock indices, and other assets.

Another ideal example is a listed company awaiting the results of a major project bidding. Whether the company wins or loses the bid means a stock price swing in either direction, with spread bettors taking positions based on both outcomes.

Arbitrage opportunities are rare in spread betting, but traders can find a few in some illiquid instruments. For example, say a lowly tracked index is currently at value 205. One spread-betting firm is offering a bid-ask spread of 200-210 for the closing price, while another offers a 190-195 spread. So a trader can go short with the first firm at 200 and long with the other at 195, each with £20 per point.

In each case, she still gets a profit of £250, as she nets five points, at £20 per point. However, such arbitrage opportunities are rare and depend on spread bettors detecting a pricing anomaly in multiple spread betting firms and then acting in a timely manner before the spreads align.

The high profit potential of spread betting is matched by its serious risks: the move of just a few points means a significant profit or loss. Traders should only attempt spread betting after they've gained sufficient market experience, know the right assets to choose, and have perfected their timing.

City Index by Gain Capital. " What Is Spread Betting? "

Dan Blystone is the founder and editor of TradersLog.com, as well as the founder of the Chicago Traders Meetup Group.

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Spread betting allows traders to bet on the direction of a financial market without actually owning the underlying security. Spread betting is sometimes promoted as a tax-free, commission-free activity that allows investors to speculate in both bull and bear markets, but this remains banned in the U.S. Like stock trades, spread bet risks can be mitigated using stop loss and take profit orders.

The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where listings appear. Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace.

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Spread betting refers to speculating on the direction of a financial market without actually owning the underlying security.

An employee stock option (ESO) is a grant to an employee giving the right to buy a certain number of shares in the company's stock for a set price.

Options are financial derivatives that give the buyer the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a stated price within a specified period.

Investing is allocating resources, usually money, with the expectation of earning an income or profit. Learn how to get started investing with our guide.

Quadruple witching refers to a date on which stock index futures, stock index options, stock options, and single stock futures expire simultaneously.

A bull spread is a bullish options strategy using either two puts, or two calls with the same underlying asset and expiration.

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Spread betting is a derivative strategy, in which participants do not own the underlying asset they bet on, such as a stock or commodity. Rather, spread bettors simply speculate on whether the asset's price will rise or fall, using the prices offered to them by a broker.

As in stock market trading, two prices are quoted for spread bets—a price at which you can buy (bid price) and a price at which you can sell (ask price). The difference between the buy and sell price is referred to as the spread. The spread-betting broker profits from this spread, and this allows spread bets to be made without commissions, unlike most securities trades.

Investors align with the bid price if they believe the market will rise and go with the ask if they believe it will fall. Key characteristics of spread betting include the use of leverage, the ability to go both long and short, the wide variety of markets available, and tax benefits.

If spread betting sounds like something you might do in a sports bar, you're not far off. Charles K. McNeil, a mathematics teacher who became a securities analyst—and later a bookmaker—in Chicago during the 1940s has been widely credited with inventing the spread-betting concept. But its origins as an activity for professional financial-industry traders happened roughly 30 years later, on the other side of the Atlantic. A City of London investment banker, Stuart Wheeler, founded a firm named IG Index in 1974, offering spread betting on gold. At the time, the gold market was prohibitively difficult to participate in for many, and spread betting provided an easier way to speculate on it.

Despite its American roots, spread betting is illegal in the United States.

Let's use a practical example to illustrate the pros and cons of this derivative market and the mechanics of placing a bet. First, we'll take an example in the stock market, and then we'll look at an equivalent spread bet.

For our stock market trade, let's assume a purchase of 1,000 shares of Vodafone (LSE: VOD ) at £193.00. The price goes up to £195.00 and the position is closed, capturing a gross profit of £2,000 and having made £2 per share on 1,000 shares. Note here several important points. Without the use of margin, this transaction would have required a large capital outlay of £193k. Also, normally commissions would be charged to enter and exit the stock market trade. Finally, the profit may be subject to capital gains tax and stamp duty.

Now, let's look at a comparable spread bet. Making a spread bet on Vodafone, we'll assume with the bid-offer spread you can buy the bet at £193.00. In making this spread bet, the next step is to decide what amount to commit per "point," the variable that reflects the price move. The value of a point can vary.

In this case, we will assume that one point equals a one pence change, up or down, in the Vodaphone share price. We'll now assume a buy or "up bet" is taken on Vodaphone at a value of £10 per point. The share price of Vodaphone rises from £193.00 to £195.00, as in the stock market example. In this case, the bet captured 200 points, meaning a profit of 200 x £10, or £2,000.

While the gross profit of £2,000 is the same in the two examples, the spread bet differs in that there are usually no commissions incurred to open or close the bet and no stamp duty or capital gains tax due. In the U.K. and some other European countries, the profit from spread betting is free from tax.

However, while spread bettors do not pay commissions, they may suffer from the bid-offer spread, which may be substantially wider than the spread in other markets. Keep in mind also that the bettor has to overcome the spread just to break even on a trade. Generally, the more popular the security traded, the tighter the spread, lowering the entry cost .

In addition to the absence of commissions and taxes, the other major benefit of spread betting is that the required capital outlay is dramatically lower. In the stock market trade, a deposit of as much as £193,000 may have been required to enter the trade. In spread betting, the required deposit amount varies, but for the purpose of this example, we will assume a required 5% deposit. This would have meant that a much smaller £9,650 deposit was required to take on the same amount of market exposure as in the stock market trade.

The use of leverage works both ways, of course, and herein lies the danger of spread betting. As the market moves in your favor, higher returns will be realized; on the other hand, as the market moves against you, you will incur greater losses. While you can quickly make a large amount of money on a relatively small deposit, you can lose it just as fast.

If the price of Vodaphone fell in the above example, the bettor may eventually have been asked to increase the deposit or even have had the position closed out automatically. In such a situation, stock market traders have the advantage of being able to wait out a down move in the market, if they still believe the price is eventually heading higher.

Despite the risk that comes with the use of high leverage, spread betting offers effective tools to limit losses .

Risk can also be mitigated by the use of arbitrage, betting two ways simultaneously.

Arbitrage opportunities arise when the prices of identical financial instruments vary in different markets or among different companies. As a result, the financial instrument can be bought low and sold high simultaneously. An arbitrage transaction takes advantage of these market inefficiencies to gain risk-free returns.

Due to widespread access to information and increased communication, opportunities for arbitrage in spread betting and other financial instruments have been limited. However, spread betting arbitrage can still occur when two companies take separate stances on the market while setting their own spreads.

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