Virtual SP Account - What am I doing wrong?

Hi,

I've just set up a virtual Spread Betting account with City Index as I'm new to trading and I would like to learn about it before I attempt it for real.

Sorry, if I'm asking a silly question but what I've read is you can short/long shares that are listed on the FTSE. However, when I log into my account and go to the shares section and I type in the ticker for a particular company it says it can't find it. I've tried it for a number of other companies listed on the FTSE but it says the same.

I have tried with other SP accounts [Capital Spreads] and they say the same thing. I was therefore wondering if I'm doing anything wrong as I can see that I can SP on indices and on a small selection of shares on the FTSE but not on the ones I want to place.

Thanks in advance for your help.

robben20 said:

Sorry, if I'm asking a silly question but what I've read is you can short/long shares that are listed on the FTSE. However, when I log into my account and go to the shares section and I type in the ticker for a particular company it says it can't find it. I've tried it for a number of other companies listed on the FTSE but it says the same.

Click to expand...

Hi robben,
Welcome to T2W,
I don't have an account with any of the Co's that you mention, so I can't comment on them specifically. That said, if you're wanting to trade stocks outside the FTSE 350 - e.g. FTSE Small Cap or Fledgling shares - you may have a problem to do this online with some firm's, as their universe of stocks may be quite limited. Many SB Co's will give you a price on the phone to trade instruments that aren't listed on their web site, so this may be a way forward. I suggest you phone or e-mail your SB Co. to find out if you can trade the stocks you're interested in online and, if so, how to do it. If you can't, then trade via the phone, which won't affect you greatly unless you're day trading, which most peeps around here would advise against in the strongest possible terms unless and until you're very experienced and have a thoroughly proven strategy in place.

Which stocks are you wanting to trade that don't appear to be listed?
Tim.

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your help. What I’m really what do is SP on FTSE100-FTSE 350 shares. Being new I have no strategy I just want to learn as much as possible. Initially I just want to use my MAXI ISA to trade and then in about year use SP.

What I thought I would see when using my virtual SP account would be similar to what happens in my Self -Trade account i.e. you type in the ticker and it gives the price. I guess with SP you must phone to get the price.

Once again thanks for your help!