Newbies' head is swimming!

Hi

I'm looking to start spread betting on FTSE250 shares and am looking for a spread betting company to open an account with. My head is swimming after reading the various SB company reviews here. It seems people either love or hate a SB company. Can you offer any suggestions as to what I should look for or avoid in a SB company for my first account ?

Also, is it sensible to go for a 3rd party charting/data application e.g. ShareScope or are the facilities offered by any of the SB companies sufficient ?

Thanks
Dave

daveb1 said:

Hi

I'm looking to start spread betting on FTSE250 shares and am looking for a spread betting company to open an account with. My head is swimming after reading the various SB company reviews here. It seems people either love or hate a SB company. Can you offer any suggestions as to what I should look for or avoid in a SB company for my first account ?

Also, is it sensible to go for a 3rd party charting/data application e.g. ShareScope or are the facilities offered by any of the SB companies sufficient ?

Thanks
Dave

Click to expand...

Open a few - minimum deposits are pretty small. Then you'll get first hand experience of their various foibles and be able to make your own mind up. You'll find some are better in certain areas than others, and it's not until you start using them that you'll work out which is best for what (I don't s'bet much, but when I do I use IG because it suits my style of trading, and in particular I like their mobile platform which I can access at work). In any case, it's always useful to have at least two accounts - that way if you urgently want to exit a position and for some reason the platform is down, you can always lay it off in another account.

As for charting - whether you need 3rd party depends on what you want to do and how much sophistication you need: bear in mind that most the s'bet co's provide feeds of their own prices, which isn't necessarily the same as the market, and also means that data such as volume isn't always available.

daveb1 said:

Hi

I'm looking to start spread betting on FTSE250 shares and am looking for a spread betting company to open an account with. My head is swimming after reading the various SB company reviews here. It seems people either love or hate a SB company. Can you offer any suggestions as to what I should look for or avoid in a SB company for my first account ?

Also, is it sensible to go for a 3rd party charting/data application e.g. ShareScope or are the facilities offered by any of the SB companies sufficient ?

Thanks
Dave

Click to expand...

Hey Dave,

Try not to get too confused by the sales " blurb " from all the different companies. EASE OF USE should be the key thing...!!
You will see literally " 000s " of different instruments on the average instrument tree and the spreads are usually all very competitive - so that makes it an even harder decision sometimes.
For charts - IG Index/Markets - they are quite cool and come as part of the platform.
Even the retail banks are getting in on the act now - its like the Generation Game - i keep waiting for Larry Grayson to appear... !!

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try one or two platform demos to get a feel for them plus I'll keep a look out on T2W for various suggestions/do's/dont's. Great forum by the way!

Dave