24 hour FTSE?

Hi,

New to all this, been visiting this site and watching the markets for some time and just got my IG Index account activated. I was wondering if somebody can please explain the following to me from their website:

"Many of our bets on indices are quoted 24 hours a day, including FTSE and Wall Street. So you can gain exposure even when the underlying market is closed."

Am I missing something here, how does this work, as far as I knew the FTSE 100 closed at 16:30 at 6362.44, but at 21:27 IG Index are quoting a spread of 6421.4 and 6427.4 for the 'FTSE 100 Daily'.

What's going to happen tomorrow when the LSE opens at 08:00 and the FTSE is at around the 6362 mark, arn't IG Index and the FTSE going to be out of sink?

I am sure there is a simple explanation, but couldn't figure it out for myself, like I said I'm new to all this, any help would be grealy appreciated.

This link might explain it to you. http://www.trade2win.com/boards/spread-betting-cfds/26379-finspreads-ftse-100-rolling.html

The FTSE will 'gap' at the open. That is to say that, given the strength which has occured in the US markets between the 4.30pm FTSE close today and the 8am FTSE open tomorrow morning, the 100 stocks which make up the FTSE index will be marked up in price. Spreadbetting firms which quote any index 'out of hours' will use their own mathematical models (based on the movements of markets which are still open) to establish what they feel is the level at which the FTSE would be trading if it was still open. The error in your question is the suggestion that 'FTSE will open around the 6362 mark'.... It won't open that low given the current level of the Dow Futures. When FTSE opens it will 'gap up' based on the fact that most FTSE stocks will, likewise, gap up in price.

Hope this helps,
Steve.

OK thanks that clears everything up. That has kind of put me off Spreadbetting, I suppose I must be a bit of a purist. Thanks again.

Hello Jim, interesting that you have been put off SB to trade the FTSE, how else would you trade it?

I wouldn't, I guess I'll go with equities. Thanks for the input.