Which quote?

Hi

I have been trading in the US for a few years and I recently started to have a go at spread betting, primarily for the tax advantages.

What I am struggling with at the moment is deciding on wehther to use the company's quote or the market quote. Their charts obviously show their quotes but I frankly I don't trust them. Using my US broker, I can see streaming live charts for all US stocks (which is what I trade), but I can't see Futures charts.

Should I be worried about which quote I should use when placing bets?

Thanks!

FYI - my typical (swing) trades last anything between 3 to 20 days i.e. I am not a day trader. And, I only trade indices, ETFs and US stocks.

What I am struggling with at the moment is deciding on wehther to use the company's quote or the market quote.

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Erm use the companies quotes for what exactly?

roguetrader said:

Erm use the companies quotes for what exactly?

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Say, Goldman Sachs (which I am long).

I keep reading about price manipulation etc by spread betting companies and that's why when I place my bets, I choose the "market price" option. The only problem is that I don't have access to Goldman Sachs March contract so I am using the cash market charts to make my trading decisions.

I was wondering if I could gain access to the Futures charts, I could then place spread bets (at market prices) after I have done my fundemental and technical analysis.

Well a couple of things spring to mind, if the spreadbetters are manipulating prices you can only place bets at the price they are quoting you, you can't come along with your own prices and say I want to be long from a point lower.
The "spreadbetting market" is a virtual market based on the real market, I'd imagine it might be somewhat confusing watching two sets of quotes like that, but the bottom line is that when you want in the spreadbetter will be offering you a quote and the only decision is to accept or not. If you are talking about being more comfortable making the decision to long or short off the real market prices, then I can understand, I think, one thing I do know is that you need to be comfortable and have confidence in the information upon which your decisions are made, since you distrust spreadbetters it would make sense to have market data as well.
Since you are already a successful trader doing better than £8k a year, it should be safe to experiment