Good spreadbetting experience? Post here!

[montmorencyt2w]

FWIW, I like Goose's (S&L) platform, but I wonder what he means by fair trades? In what way can a customer trade with a SB firm that means the SB firm comes off worse, in an unfair way? (This is a rhetorical question - I am not looking for ideas! ).

Not using SB for scalping .... well, at one time, I would not have considered myself a scalper, or even a daytrader. But just lately, I've found myself doing both ... it seems to be the best way to work these volatile markets. I'd much rather trade long-term really, or that's what I thought when I started (getting on for a year ago now I suppose). By today's standards, the markets then seemed relatively sedate, although I did not think so at the time....I can still remember the time I had my first stop taken out in nothing flat. Now that was a good lesson. Just lately though, I've been finding I've had to react to conditions lightening quickly to make the difference between a losing and winning trade (and I am not talking about a couple of points). If that's scalping, then I plead guilty as charged. I don't see that it's unfair though, on either side. Their guns are a lot bigger than mine.


Capital Spreads ... their spreads are good, but I find their platform clunky. Still haven't worked out how they calculate the deposit either; doesn't seem as rational/predictable as IG or S&L.

 

[Lord Flasheart]

Goose, pipstar has a point what do you mean as long as the trade was fair

 

[TheGoose]

Goose, pipstar has a point what do you mean as long as the trade was fair

I'll answer this in more detail next week if that is okay?

I'm a bit tied up at work at the moment (not even watching the competition i'm winning) but wanted to acknowlege as i've just had an e-mail.

Ian

 

[RedGreenBen]

I want to now hear from anyone who has had a POSITIVE experience with a spreadbetting company.

My experience of (good) SB companies is all good. I think it helps that I really don't care what happens 'behind the scenes' so long as I still get good fills, spreads, service etc.

There seems to be an obsession with the "who are you trading against / they are bookies" debate that has been done to death on T2W. Just concentrate on the trading experience and the spreadbetting world seems a whole lot sunnier place.

Ben

 

[Rupert206]

Im recently started using futuresbetting on a live account. So far its the best platform ive come across. Ive started winding down using my CMC account due to poor charting and poor fills especially when in a fast market.

Im not a scalper, but if a position starts running away from me really fast and its a largish position (say £30pp on the Dow) then CMC just will not allow you to close the full position without considerable delays.

So I have to reduce position down to £5pp and start closing, but even then if the markets still fast I have to wait for a requote. No good to me if it going against me and ive still got the remainder of the position to close out.

Another thing this does, is prevent you from closing out at all. The mind games kick in and you start thinking its ok, its started to go your way now, so you slack off from not closing out. But then it continues going against you and it gets further and further away, by the time the market has slowed down a bit and CMC let you close out, your loss could be double or tripple than what i should be.

Hence this is where Futuresbetting comes in. Amazingly quick platform. I dont use the DMA as my strategy can trade at the market price just fine. Pity that they havent got a charting package though.

Anyways your position is hedged directly via some super fast link into the actual futures market for the market that you are trading. For me its the Dow e-min which has a minimum size of $5pp.

Absolutely no issues at all in getting fills. Instant split second execution. If you are a scalper you will find no better tax free platform on the market. FB is a scalpers paradise. I can easily scalp with FB if i wanted to, its just too easy to do. But its not my trading style.

Closing positions is no different. Theres even a pull all positions button which will close all your positions instantly. I havent used this yet as Im still getting used to the platform. Looks alot more professional that the CMC platform. Takes some getting used to, but there not that many features so once you have customised it thats it. Save the layout and it opens the same one each time.

It based on a Citrix platform, which is super fast. If you require assistance the helpdesk guys I believe can view your screen, possibly even control it to show you how to do things.

I called at 8pm UK time, and there was still someone manning the phones. Very friendly customer service.

Just cant believe there no hype about FB cos this imo is the future of spreadbetting. The platform can look a bit daunting at first. And for some reason everything seems so much more alive than the CMC platform. The numbers move quicker and theres a lot more flashing. Om sure its the same but that got me a bit scarred at first.

But now I only need two things open, the P+L window and the order ticket window. That it. Im only trading 1 contract at the moment, but Ive heard there no issues in getting instant fill on 10+ contracts. So im looking forward to scaling up eventually.

10/10 from me for FB.

3/10 from me from CMC, especially since they played around with the charts, and now with slow fills in fast markets - If you trade fast markets FB's the way to go. But if you position/swing trade, CMC or any other SB company will suffice.

However for the ultimate day trading experience there is only one choice, and one choice only and thats FuturesBetting.

 

[simcom]

To add my 2p, I too have had an excellent experience with IG Index.

I have been trading (or 'betting' if that word makes some people feel better) with them for around the last nine months. Although I have only been doing EOD rather than intraday - and so spreads/fill times are not so much of an issue for me as they are for some - up until this point I have had no issues whatsoever.

Excellent charting and supplementary tools, fast responses from customer services or my account manager and usually instantaneous fills at fair prices.

I have used CMC for a few months but found it more difficult to get used to their platform. I suppose it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day.

 

[UKtradergirl]

Rupert- thanks for the brilliant review of futuresbetting. I've not heard anyone say anything negative about this particular company. It's just we don't often hear from satisfied customers- only the unhappy ones. If you hunt around t2w you will find quite a few comments from happy people though.

Simcom- i daytrade through IG and they have been great too!

 

[nineteen19]

i have been using Futuresbetting.com for over 2 years now, DMA,instant fills,no re-quotes and a great service, even between Global taking them down for a couple of months,even then they returned my funds every penny within 3 days of ceasing trading.
great to be back up and running and trading..

Am looking into opening an account with FuturesBetting. Would appreciate hearing how their platform is these days.

Thanks

 

[chilltrader]

I think FB have a minimum opening deposit of 5K or something... hence not many people joining..
Some might say its good because it keeps the noobs away, but it also keeps people who want to
"live test" the platform away!

1K deposit would have been ideal

 

[ffsear]

CAPITAL SPREADS!! I was mesing around with their platform, putting orders up and such. I had no funds in my account, but an order to Buy barclays at £15/p still got filled and I won just over £300!!

 

[UKtradergirl]

FB minimum deposit is £2.5k. But you probably need to put at least £3k in so you don't get called when you have a losing trade.

FFSear- capital spreads giving you £300 for nothing- fantastic!!

 

[montmorencyt2w]

CAPITAL SPREADS!! I was mesing around with their platform, putting orders up and such. I had no funds in my account, but an order to Buy barclays at £15/p still got filled and I won just over £300!!

Of course, had it gone differently, you might have been £300 (or £3000?) in debt to them, with a friend of Tony Soprano's knocking on your door if you failed to cough up :help:

 

[TomTom]

CAPITAL SPREADS!! I was mesing around with their platform, putting orders up and such. I had no funds in my account, but an order to Buy barclays at £15/p still got filled and I won just over £300!!

Nice one, request a cheque for that amount and see what responce you get ....

 

[riogordo]

I think FB have a minimum opening deposit of 5K or something... hence not many people joining..
Some might say its good because it keeps the noobs away, but it also keeps people who want to
"live test" the platform away!

1K deposit would have been ideal

The reason they have a min £2,500 (Was £5K) is that they have minimum bet size because you are betting in lots. So FTSE 1 lot = £10 p/p. And because they hedge all trades into the market they have to charge exchange margins. FTSE they are charging £3,500 to hold 1 lots overnight or £1,000 intra day.
Also they do not force you to place a stop, which is why they require a fair deposit.
The system is first class, but they do aim for clients at the top end of the spreadbetting ladder and not the beginner. I used to use Finspreads but after getting fed up with the requotes I moved to FB, took some getting used to but well worth the effort. At least now when I make losses, it is my own bad trading and not by getting ripped off by the SB's.

 

[bluetipex]

I've been using ETXCapital (formerly Tradindex) for about 5 years, and I've never rang them to complain. Their charts are crap, and spreads uncompetitive, but they're not targetting scalpers, but swing traders. They NEVER re-quote. I use limits to enter and exit, and I always get the exact price (or better). Not the best trading platform by any means, actually, it's quite cumbersome, but I'm used to it.

I've also had an account with cmc for the same length of time, and used to love their platform and charting package. I used to get instant fills. However, I no longer use their charts after their recent "upgrade", and just in the last week I've been constantly getting re-quoted. This has never happened to me before. This caused me some losing trades. This was the first time I've ever telephoned to complain. I've now changed to Limit orders to exit, and my account is increasing again. Even after my price is hit it can take several minutes for the ticket to go "green", but it always does. The thing I now dislike is it defaults to £2 a point for the limit price, and I have to remember to increase that to the £ I'm actually at. (I'm an "all in all out man"). Scaling out using their platform would be a complete nightmare.

I've decided I'm going to make a few more grand from cmc then close my account in the New Year. I'm thinking of trying Twowayspreads or Futuresbetting. I'll also stick with ETXCapital. I don't see any reason to use more than 2 SB companies at the same time.

December is traditionally a volatile month, so looking forward to some nice trading opportunities!

 

[Ataye]

No Complain

I have jumped between a few spreadbetting firms but must say I have no complains about the service I get from IGindex. I particularly think they are generous with the free pro-realtime access they provide. That sealed my disission to change to them. Their customer service isn't bad neither.

All good so far

Ataye

 

[glide]

I have jumped between a few spreadbetting firms but must say I have no complains about the service I get from IGindex. I particularly think they are generous with the free pro-realtime access they provide. That sealed my disission to change to them. Their customer service isn't bad neither.

All good so far

Ataye

I agree and I do use IGindex from time to time, however, their spread on the Dax (my main trading instrument) is 2 compared to tradefair's (and a few others) spread of 1. That is a massive 100% more expensive, and bearing in mind that the spread on the future usually maxes as 0.26 (I trade the future too on a normal DA broker), so there is plenty of profit (assuming they hedge.....).

 

[UKtradergirl]

Great comments from people- keep it up .

A note about spreads though. Be sure that when you trade with a company you are actually getting a cheaper trade. A smaller spread doesn't necessarily you pay less for that trade. You need to take into consideration slippage, potential for requotes, etc. (which i hasten to add is not a cause for complaint with a SB company unless these issues are severe- its just a normal part of trading).

Anyway, great to hear some nice comments-

 

[montmorencyt2w]

I have jumped between a few spreadbetting firms but must say I have no complains about the service I get from IGindex. I particularly think they are generous with the free pro-realtime access they provide. That sealed my disission to change to them. Their customer service isn't bad neither.

All good so far

Ataye

Sorry, what do you mean by the free pro-realtime access?

(This may be new since I last used them some time ago).

I agree that their spreads are a little bit steep.

 

[Ataye]

montmorencyt2w ,

IGindex offers the online charting application, Pro-realtime, for free. If you log on to Pure-deal, click on Tools and then click on Real time chart. Wait for a few moment for it to load and you would have the real time chart of various choices. You could also get it free from Pro-realime website (google it) but no interday data. you would have to pay for it. This previledge could cost you close to £100 with esignal (+ a few extras).

Starting to sound like I'm selling for IG. I'm not thought! Indeed their minimum stake on sum Euro indices are a bit expensive.

Good luck.

Ataye