Capital Spreads Reviews

frankly, i wouldn't use them -- i used to compare their prices with others and capitals spreads quite often quoted prices that were much higher or much lower. Other than that, their graphics package allowed you to select very few indicators to plot with your charts such as -stochastics, moving averages, and a couple of others - literally you have a choice of about 5 lousy indicators for gods sake!! In addition, the owner has also openly condemned scalpers -- now is this not the prerogative of the trader to be a scalper or not to be a scalper??

Bunch of losers rejecting £1 a point trades. In fine competition with ETX. They are just a waste of space.

The recently updated platform is much better than the one it replaced and I like a lot of the features such as emails generated you when you trade or place/amend an order.

I am only a recreational user looking for 75+ pip movements so I probably don't get affected so much by slippage as traders or scalpers looking to make their living from spreadbetting.

A good platform for someone looking to dip their toe into financial spreadbetting

A lot of companies use cap spreads platform, with their own badge.

Generally I like the Cap Spreads platform.

I do like the fact that if you trade overnight your profits are shown based on your original entry price and are not closed and re-opened each day which makes it much more work to keep tabs on your positions

I have been with Capital for several years, and in general not bad, despite their rather lax response to any suggestions. Specifically I trade the DAX, which has a 2 point spread but a few days ago I opened with Worldspeads, and WOW, what a difference. INSTANT FILLS, and only a 1 point spread. Despite that their server went down twice this week, but its a breath of fresh air to have a spreadbetting service that feeds directly off the futures, doesn't skew the spread and gives a faster fill than a futures broker.

Firstly, in terms of the spreads offered, CS is very competitive on some markets, and roughly equivalent to competitors in most. Unfortunately, they seem to have a myriad of IT and Customer Service issues which make them a difficult company to deal with. They do not employ dealers overnight to look after their 24 hour markets, and their pricing engine has several weaknesses which leads to rogue prices occurring frequently. Clients can get stopped out on incorrect prices, and orders can be filled at incorrect levels. They are aware of the issue, and seem unwilling or unable to correct it. This leads to clients having their trades adjusted the following day if they have been incorrectly stopped out or have traded on an incorrect price. Their failure to correct this problem as of this date does not inspire confidence.

While their staff are polite and helpful in general, they are less amiable when dealing with account issues. Withdrawals are a problem, and are generally not processed in a timely manner or on the first request. They have recently had problems with their systems which led to incorrect debits from clients accounts. Unfortunately they appear to have a "act first, ask questions later" policy when it comes to account adjustments, and it is a matter for the client to call and argue for a solution. However, in my experience, they have always paid their liabilities (even if it has been overly complex to arrange a withdrawal).

I feel it important to mention their attitude to fills in this review. Other SB firms do take different approaches, and it is important to know how CS approach this. With TradIndex, you can place "market orders" and are filled at the next available price, regardless of whether the market has moved in your favour or against you. With CMC, in a fast moving market, if you attempt to buy or sell at a price you can be re-quoted, and can choose to accept the new price or not trade. This also applies whether a market has moved in your favour or against you. With Capital Spreads, if the market has moved outside the spread by the time a dealer gets your order (depending on the market and activity on your account you may get automatically filled or it may go to a dealer), your order is filled only if the price is within the original spread or has moved against you. You will not get filled if the market has moved in your favour.

This seems a little unfair, as in a fast moving market the price will be correct at the time you trade, and you cannot cancel the order while it is pending a fill, and sometimes this can be as long as forty seconds. Unnerving to say the least in a fast moving market. No other spreadbetting company does this to my knowledge. With TradIndex, you will get a fill on a market order at the next price, and with CMC you can cancel an order at any time before a dealer fills it. With Capital Spreads it is at their discretion whether to fill you at all, and this will depend on whether the market has moved in your favour or not.

In summary, Capital Spreads falls short of any reasonable client expectation that they would provide services with reasonable skill and care. Platform issues aside, their customer services leaves a lot to be desired, which is most unfortunate. When your own funds are at stake, and the markets being as challenging as they are, problems with a bucket shop make it impossible to trade effectively.

2/10 - for their good spreads and their initially helpful staff. I regret to advise that I have seen necessary to close my account, so I will be contacting them to arrange this shortly. If there are any further difficulties in closing my account, I will post them here.

I have used a couple of other brokers in the past and in comparison CS beats them hands down. customer service is excellent and narrow spreads tops that.

I find their charts very effective too, then again I only trade the DOW.

I've been with CS for some time now. Spreads are good, service is very good. Dont trade the news with them, they jam up! I use a seperate screen for all charting (MetaTrader). Very happy If they used MetaTrader I would be theirs for life!

I like the spread on S&P, I think it's the most narrow I've come across in Spread firms. Don't like the Java API though, customer service pretty good. I wouldn't rely on their charting though, as it's based on their quotes, which can vary from the futures quotations, so TA patterns would not be 100% reliable, best to use another platform/feed for charting IMHO. So far a satisfied client. P.S. I actually switched from a US brokerage firm to this firm.

I've been using this service for the last few years and have never had any cause for complaint. It's so easy to use and very efficient - although I do tend to use tools offered by other providers.