Spread betting - FTSE

Newbie question here: I have opened IG account recently and one thing I noticed is FTSE daily was open on IG before even the UK market was open. I thought FTSE opens 08:00 GMT and closes 16:30GMT?

The spread on IG before the market opens is about 6 but comes down to 2 when the market opens. So how does it work?

This affects how one plans to play on FTSE. For example: Lets say I'm thinking FTSE will start to drop 1% today but on IG it has already dropped. So when the market opens there isn't any guarantee it will continue to fall.

Can anyone clarify please?

thanks.

Ftse

IG FTSE trading is traded on the futures market. This means you can trade to the US close as the UK closes the US Indices are factored in to give a futures price. Even during the day IG trades futures which are very close to the underlying market but you don't trade the exact market price.

IG quotes the FTSE 24 hrs. During market hours it should mirror the futures, and outside these they make a price based on other futures movements (Hang Seng, ASX) and business. To answer the initial question, if you think the market is going to drop 1% and they're already quoting it down 1%, stay out. You're dealing on where it will go from here rather than where it will go relative to last night's close.

They, like any other spread betting broker, use FTSE futures and formulas to calculate off market prices.