which is the best and 'tightest spreads' spread betting company to trade with?

[mb11]

I recently signed up to trade fair but found it wasnt as user friendly as i hoped,

i looked at ig index demo and it is much easier to work out the minimum margin deposit required as it gives you a money value minimum needed, not a % like tradefair

which sb company are you guys with and which do you feel is best for ease of use and having the tightest spreads?

i want one that offers guaranteed stops

ALSO which iare the worst sb brokers that are best avoided

thanks

 

[mattboffey]

i use finspreads, not had any issues (touch wood) yet

 

[markmc27]

I used Tradefair starting off ,only share margins are expressed as a % everything else is money amount at least it was for me .

 

[tomorton]

I also use Fins, very reliable, plus Capital Spreads - good service and more friendly platform. Good thread by Simon from Caps on this site.

 

[forefit]

I use gecko, mainly because I trade at 10p a point.

 

[PualoP]

I recently signed up to trade fair but found it wasnt as user friendly as i hoped,

i looked at ig index demo and it is much easier to work out the minimum margin deposit required as it gives you a money value minimum needed, not a % like tradefair

which sb company are you guys with and which do you feel is best for ease of use and having the tightest spreads?

i want one that offers guaranteed stops

thanks

Can I ask your age? If you can't work out a simple % I'm guessing you are 25 or younger? Stuff like this really makes me wonder what is going to happen to Britain in the future, the Chinese kids are going to absolutely **** all over us one day with future business brains like above.

 

[mb11]

thanks for the replies,

anyone else have a favourite sb company? and why

Also are there any SB Brokers that are best avoided?


Pualo, yes i am younger than 25 and educated to an undergraduate level,
the reason i wanted a sb company that provides the margin in actual currency is because i haven;t spread betted before so wanted the most user friendly software to prevent me making mistakes in my first few trades

 

[brewski1984]

This is what demo accounts are for.

 

[Lord Flasheart]

as a quick reply, for any newbie Id go with fxcm spread bet. You do need £2000 to open an account but after that youn can trade in micro lots.I think you can also have micro forex acount for $50. The spreads are ok and genuine. Tradefair give you a rakeback which is good and have tight spreads but also have guys moving the spread around so you will get stopped out a lot more

 

[Shakone]

IgIndex, I have never any problems with execution, and always seemed fair but the spreads are not the best if tight spreads matter to you. Occasionally wasn't filled when their charts indicated that I should have been, particularly on very good entries.

FXCM, similar situation, but spreads even worse when I tried them, and didn't find them as good as IGIndex.

Finspreads, very good looking spreads, but don't be fooled, if you win regularly, they will play games and refuse trades, requote you several times, platform freezes, trying to close a trade and platform freezing, so attempting to close again, and 5 minutes later realising that you not only closed but you now have an unwanted position in the opposite direction etc (haven't experienced thison any of the others).

Tradefair, actually found them reasonable, and very good spreads. Price did move around a little as Flashheart mentiong, and wasn't matching what I was seeing elsewhere, but generally it didn't move that far from the price.

Worldspreads, similar to finspreads in that spreads look great, but the reality is far worse.

CMC, spreads look good, but can't comment much here, as I haven't traded live with them.


I use a broker now rather than a spreadbet company. Depending on how you trade, you may want to consider it.

 

[Pi3141]

^ Thanks for the advice, could you also recommend any good brokers please?

 

[Mata Nui]

Give Smart Live Markets a go. You can open an account with £100. They are the only Spreadbet provider that uses MT4 (I think) and its well worth opening a demo at least, just to compare the flexibility of the MT4 platform to the rather inflexible platforms offered by the others. The spreads are OK but you can get requotes. I am not saying they are the best but its worth looking at just for the platform.

 

[mb11]

thanks for all the replies,

i recently opened with IG Index and prefer this more than TradeFair,

but today i tried to open a short with IG and it wouldnt let me, saying it was unavailable, i called thm up and they said to try again tomorrow

 

[Black Swan]

I reckon you'll be OK with any of the top five or six SB firms. However, it's also about how you trade with the company as to whether or not you'll make money with them and tightest spreads is the least of my concerns..one or two pip spread on the Euro is OK, it's the overall customer experience that matters..

 

[Pat494]

Give Smart Live Markets a go. You can open an account with £100. They are the only Spreadbet provider that uses MT4 (I think) and its well worth opening a demo at least, just to compare the flexibility of the MT4 platform to the rather inflexible platforms offered by the others. The spreads are OK but you can get requotes. I am not saying they are the best but its worth looking at just for the platform.

I downloaded the SLM demo on your recommendation because I like the spread bet way and the idea of a recognised platform, in this case MT4.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get it to work but will persevere a bit more.

 

[Pat494]

I downloaded the SLM demo on your recommendation because I like the spread bet way and the idea of a recognised platform, in this case MT4.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get it to work but will persevere a bit more.

I contacted SLM - they replied promptly but with the wrong advice. A lot of fiddling later and I found it loads and shows data from NZD/AUD but not the S&P 500 I was trying.

The OP should also take into account stake size, whether it freezes like Finspreads when the action starts, charts, EAs, etc.

A pity no SB company seems to use ninjatrader as it is probably the market leader - NB Fins etc if you want to progress