Help with broker or spread betting company

Hi all

Thanks in advance for reading my post.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good reliable spread betting companies with an extensive selection of US stocks.

I have trailed IG Index and have found that there are wild spikes in price not remotely reflecting the real market which is impossible to trade with. For example their US stock all session stocks have huge fluctuations. Take Goldman Sachs as an example. On the 15th June 2016 the chart shows a high of 15122 and a low of 7346 (7776 points) which is enough to take out any stop. The real market was a high of 14870 and a low of 14590 (only 280 points). This pattern is repeated time and time again. I have asked IG why and their explanation is that they offer all sessions and because of this prices will fluctuate wildly. In my opinion trading with IG is therefore gambling not trading.

If there are no good reliable spread betting companies, can anyone recommend a good UK broker with charting? Interactive brokers apparently chart for charting.

Thanks in advance.

Andy

Hi andyshaw01 - I remember seeing massive spikes like this very very occasionally on the old Capital Spreads platform. They always stipulated (maybe IG do too) that their chart prices don't necessarily reflect the bid-offer quotes you would see when placing a trade/order. On top of that, I was once stopped out by a spike on the Caps quotes AND charts which was an obvious data inputting error: before I had even realised this had happened, they had reinstated my position and emailed me to let me know. And by the next day the chart had been corrected. I can only hope IG would be as conscientious but until it happens its all supposition.

Your case seems really excessive but you have to accept in SB there is always a certain amount of drift away from the underlying market with SB firms - you're not trading the asset, you're trading their market based on that asset.

Hi mate

Thanks for your input. I can stomach some variations but I've noticed it with IG on a huge number of stocks. I wouldn't mind if they said it was an error but they seem to be suggesting that it is just part of the course on all sessions stocks which are the main stocks. As traders, if we are making decisions based on the underlying market, we surely have to expect some kind of correlation otherwise we are plain gambling. For example if we place our stop at a point of resistance and the underlying market respects that level, as things stand IG can just stop hunt. Seems pointless.

Maybe spread betting isn't the way to go irrespective of tax gains.

If not, any suggestions on a good broker?

You can't mix charts - if you're trading a resistance price on the underlying market chart, you can't type that price into your SB order box, it will always be wrong. But if you're seeing a resistance pattern on the underlying, I'd expect the SB chart would show the same pattern, just with the price skewed a little higher or lower. After all, the SB firms can't show anything much different to the underlying - if they did, they would be arbitraged to hell.