Why Spread Betting
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Why Spread Betting
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Spread betting refers to speculating on the direction of a financial market without actually taking a position in the underlying security. The investor does not own the underlying security in spread betting, they simply speculate on its price movement using leverage. It is promoted as a cost-effective method to speculate in both bull and bear markets.
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A contract for differences (CFD) is a marginable financial derivative that can be used to speculate on very short-term price movements for a variety of underlying instruments.
Stop-loss orders specify that a security is to be bought or sold at market when it reaches a predetermined price known as the stop price.
Day traders execute short and long trades to capitalize on intraday market price action, which result from temporary supply and demand inefficiencies.
An exit point is the price at which a trader closes their long or short position to realize a profit or loss. Exit points are typically based on strategies.
The E-mini S&P 500 is an electronically-traded futures contract representing one-fifth of the value of the standard S&P 500 futures contract.
Futures are financial contracts obligating the buyer to purchase an asset or the seller to sell an asset at a predetermined future date and price.
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Thomas J Catalano is a CFP and Registered Investment Adviser with the state of South Carolina, where he launched his own financial advisory firm in 2018. Thomas' experience gives him expertise in a variety of areas including investments, retirement, insurance, and financial planning.
Spread betting refers to speculating on the direction of a financial market without actually owning the underlying security. It involves placing a bet on the price movement of a security. A spread betting company quotes two prices, the bid and ask price (also called the spread), and investors bet whether the price of the underlying security will be lower than the bid or higher than the ask.
The spread bettor does not actually own the underlying security in spread betting, they simply speculate on its price movement.
Spread betting should not be confused with spread trading , which involves taking offsetting positions in two (or more) different securities and profiting if the difference in price between the securities widens or narrows over time.
Spread betting allows investors to speculate on the price movement of a wide variety of financial instruments, such as stocks , forex , commodities , and fixed-income securities . In other words, an investor makes a bet based on whether they think the market will rise or fall from the time their bet is accepted. They also get to choose how much they want to risk on their bet. It is promoted as a tax-free, commission-free activity that allows investors to profit from either bull or bear markets.
Spread betting is a leveraged product which means investors only need to deposit a small percentage of the position's value. For example, if the value of a position is $50,000 and the margin requirement is 10%, a deposit of just $5,000 is required. This magnifies both gains and losses which means investors can lose more than their initial investment.
Spread betting is not available to residents of the United States due to regulatory and legal limitations.
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.
Let’s assume that the price of ABC stock is $201.50 and a spread-betting company, with a fixed spread, is quoting the bid/ask at $200 / $203 for investors to transact on it. The investor is bearish and believes that ABC is going to fall below $200 so they hit the bid to sell at $200. They decide to bet $20 for every point the stock falls below their transacted price of $200. If ABC falls to where the bid/ask is $185/$188, the investor can close their trade with a profit of {($200 - $188) * $20 = $240}. If the price rises to $212/$215, and they choose to close their trade, then they will lose {($200 - $215) * $20 = -$300}.
The spread betting firm requires a 20% margin, which means the investor needs to deposit 20% of the value of the position at its inception, {($200 * $20) * 20% = $800, into their account to cover the bet. The position value is derived by multiplying the bet size by the stock’s bid price ($20 x $200 = $4,000).
Investors have the ability to bet on both rising and falling prices. If an investor is trading physical shares, they have to borrow the stock they intend to short sell which can be time-consuming and costly. Spread betting makes short selling as easy as buying.
Spread betting companies make money through the spread they offer. There is no separate commission charge which makes it easier for investors to monitor trading costs and work out their position size.
Spread betting is considered gambling in some tax jurisdictions, and subsequently, any realized gains may be taxable as winnings and not capital gains or income. Investors who exercise spread betting should keep records and seek the advice of an accountant before completing their taxes.
Because taxation on winnings in some countries is far less than that on capital gains or trading income, spread betting can be quite tax-efficient, depending on one's location.
Investors who don’t understand leverage can take positions that are too large for their account, which can result in margin calls . Investors should risk no more than 2% of their investment capital (deposit) on any one trade and always be aware of the position value of the bet they intend to open.
During periods of volatility, spread betting firms may widen their spreads. This can trigger stop-loss orders and increase trading costs. Investors should be wary about placing orders immediately before company earnings announcements and economic reports.
Many spread betting platforms will also offer trading in contracts for difference (CFDs), which are a similar type of contract. CFDs are derivative contracts where traders can bet on short-term price moves. There is no delivery of physical goods or securities with CFDs, but the contract itself has transferrable value while it is in force. The CFD is thus a tradable security established between a client and the broker, who are exchanging the difference in the initial price of the trade and its value when the trade is unwound or reversed.
Although CFDs allow investors to trade the price movements of futures, they are not futures contracts by themselves. CFDs do not have expiration dates containing preset prices but trade like other securities with buy and sell prices.
Spread bets, on the other hand, do have fixed expiration dates when the bet is first placed. CFD trading also requires that commissions and transaction fees be paid up-front to the provider; in contrast, spread betting companies do not take fees or commissions. When the contract is closed and profits or losses are realized, the investor is either owed money or owes money to the trading company. If profits are realized, the CFD trader will net the profit of the closing position , minus the opening position and fees. Profits for spread bets will be the change in basis points multiplied by the dollar amount negotiated in the initial bet.
Both CFDs and spread bets are subject to dividend payouts assuming a long position contract. While there is no direct ownership of the asset, a provider and spread betting company will pay dividends if the underlying asset does as well. When profits are realized for CFD trades, the investor is subject to capital gains tax while spread betting profits are usually tax-free.
Spread betting is a way to bet on the change in the price of some security, index, or asset without actually owning the underlying instrument.
While spread betting can be used to speculate with leverage, it can also be used to hedge existing positions or make informed directional trades. As a result, many who participate prefer the term spread trading. From a regulatory and tax standpoint it may be considered a form of gambling in certain jurisdictions, since no actual position is taken in the underlying instrument.
The majority of U.S.-based brokers do not offer spread betting, as it may be illegal or subject to overt regulatory scrutiny in many U.S. states. As a result, spread betting is largely a non-U.S. activity.
Investopedia does not provide tax, investment, or financial services and advice. The information is presented without consideration of the investment objectives, risk tolerance, or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Type of wagering where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager
^ The Sunday Times : "World Cup to kick off boom in spread betting"
^ "The perils of spread-betting" . The Times . Sep 20, 2007. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008.
^ "Gambling Commission - Home" . www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk .
^ Gambling Times: What are the Odds? Archived 2011-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
^ The Sunday Times: Spread betting
^ "Income Tax – Assessable income derivation of income – spread betting" . Australian Government ATO. 3 March 2010 . Retrieved 26 January 2011 .
^ Budworth, David. "Spread-betting fails investors in trouble" . thetimes.co.uk . Retrieved 11 October 2013 .
^ Pfanner, Eric (2 July 2006). "Spread-bets on Cup venture into bizarre - Technology - International Herald Tribune" . The New York Times . Retrieved 11 October 2013 .
^ Rayman, Richard. "White Paper on Spread Betting" (PDF) . Cass Business School . Retrieved 11 October 2013 .
Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple "win or lose" outcome, such as fixed-odds (or money-line) betting or parimutuel betting .
A point spread is a range of outcomes and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. Spread betting has been a major growth market in the UK in recent years, with the number of gamblers heading towards one million. [1] Financial spread betting (see below) can carry a high level of risk if there is no "stop". [2] In the UK , financial spread betting is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority rather than the Gambling Commission who regulate spread betting on sports. [3]
The general purpose of spread betting is to create an active market for both sides of a binary wager , even if the outcome of an event may appear prima facie to be biased towards one side or the other. In a sporting event a strong team may be matched up against a historically weaker team; almost every game has a favorite and an underdog . If the wager is simply "Will the favorite win?", more bets are likely to be made for the favorite, possibly to such an extent that there would be very few betters willing to take the underdog.
The point spread is essentially a handicap towards the underdog. The wager becomes "Will the favorite win by more than the point spread?" The point spread can be moved to any level to create an equal number of participants on each side of the wager. This allows a bookmaker to act as a market maker by accepting wagers on both sides of the spread. The bookmaker charges a commission , or vigorish , and acts as the counterparty for each participant. As long as the total amount wagered on each side is roughly equal, the bookmaker is unconcerned with the actual outcome; profits instead come from the commissions.
Because the spread is intended to create an equal number of wagers on either side, the implied probability is 50% for both sides of the wager. To profit, the bookmaker must pay one side (or both sides) less than this notional amount. In practice, spreads may be perceived as slightly favoring one side, and bookmakers often revise their odds to manage their event risk.
One important assumption is that to be credited with a win, either team only needs to win by the minimum of the rules of the game, without regard to the margin of victory. This implies that teams in a winning position will not necessarily try to extend their margin—and more importantly, each team is only playing to win rather than to beat the point spread. This assumption does not necessarily hold in all situations. For example, at the end of a season, the total points scored by a team can affect future events such as playoff seeding and positioning for the amateur draft, and teams may "run up" the score in such situations. In virtually all sports, players and other on-field contributors are forbidden from being involved in sports betting and thus have no incentive to consider the point spread during play; any attempt to manipulate the outcome of a game for gambling purposes would be considered match fixing , and the penalty is typically a lifetime banishment from the sport; such is the lack of tolerance for manipulating the result of a sporting event for such purposes.
Spread betting was invented by Charles K. McNeil , a mathematics teacher from Connecticut who became a bookmaker in Chicago in the 1940s. [4] In North America , the gambler usually wagers that the difference between the scores of two teams will be less than or greater than the value specified by the bookmaker , with even money for either option. An example:
Spreads are frequently, though not always, specified in half-point fractions to eliminate the possibility of a tie, known as a push . In the event of a push, the game is considered no action , and no money is won or lost. However, this is not a desirable outcome for the sports book, as they are forced to refund every bet, and although both the book and its bettors will be even, if the cost of overhead is taken into account, the book has actually lost money by taking bets on the event. Sports books are generally permitted to state "ties win" or "ties lose" to avoid the necessity of refunding every bet.
Betting on sporting events has long been the most popular form of spread betting. Whilst most bets the casino offers to players have a built in house edge, betting on the spread offers an opportunity for the astute gambler. When a casino accepts a spread bet, it gives the player the odds of 10 to 11, or -110. That means that for every 11 dollars the player wagers, the player will win 10, slightly lower than an even money bet. If team A is playing team B, the casino is not concerned with who wins the game; they are only concerned with taking an equal amount of money of both sides. For example, if one player takes team A and the other takes team B and each wager $110 to win $100, it doesn't matter what team wins; the casino makes money. They take $100 of the $110 from the losing bet and pay the winner, keeping the extra $10 for themselves. This is the house edge. The goal of the casino is to set a line that encourages an equal amount of action on both sides, thereby guaranteeing a profit. This also explains how money can be made by the astute gambler. If casinos set lines to encourage an equal amount of money on both sides, it sets them based on the public perception of the team, not necessarily the real strength of the teams. Many things can affect public perception, which moves the line away from what the real line should be. This gap between the Vegas line, the real line, and differences between other sports books betting lines and spreads is where value can be found.
A teaser is a bet that alters the spread in the gambler's favor by a predetermined margin – in American football the teaser margin is often six points. For example, if the line is 3.5 points and bettors want to place a teaser bet on the underdog, they take 9.5 points instead; a teaser bet on the favorite would mean that the gambler takes 2.5 points instead of having to give the 3.5. In return for the additional points, the payout if the gambler wins is less than even money , or the gambler must wager on more than one event and both events must win. In this way it is very similar to a parlay . At some establishments, the "reverse teaser" also exists, which alters the spread against the gambler, who gets paid at more than evens if the bet wins.
In the United Kingdom , sports spread betting became popular in the late 1980s by offering an alternative form of sports wagering to traditional fixed odds , or fixed-risk, betting. With fixed odds betting , a gambler places a fixed-risk stake on stated fractional or decimal odds on the outcome of a sporting event that would give a known return for that outcome occurring or a known loss if that outcome doesn't occur (the initial stake). With sports spread betting, gamblers are instead betting on whether a specified outcome in a sports event will end up being above or below a ‘spread’ offered by a sports spread betting firm, with profits or losses determined by how much above or below the spread the final outcome finishes at.
The spread on offer will refer to the betting firm's prediction on the range of a final outcome for a particular occurrence in a sports event, e.g., the total number of goals to be scored in a football (US: soccer) match, the number of runs to be scored by a team in a cricket match or the number of lengths between the winner and second-placed finisher in a horse race.
The gambler can elect to ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ on the spread depending on whether they think the final outcome will be higher than the top end of the spread on offer, or lower than the bottom end of the spread. The more right the gambler is then the more they will win, but the more wrong they are then the more they can lose.
The level of the gambler's profit or loss will be determined by the stake size selected for the bet, multiplied by the number of unit points above or below the gambler's bet level. This
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