Spread Betting Costs

[devtrader]

So i sold IBM Sept contract because i plan on holding the position for a few weeks or months but the spread is 168 points ! Seems harsh having to make 168 pts just to break even. I looked at daily contracts but my understanding is after a month the costs of rollovers will start being more than the Sept contract ?

Are there any other brokers that offer fairer spreads or is there a most cost effective way to buy and sell shares that you want to hold for a few weeks or months ?

At the moment i'm trading with IG.

 

[tomorton]

I'd say the cheapest way to buy shares to hold over months is to buy the shares.

SB is the cheapest way of going short short-term - but expensive over your timescale. Other ways could be less expensive - CFDs or options - but I'm still doubtful they are economical.

Is this really your only approach possible?

 

[devtrader]

I'd say the cheapest way to buy shares to hold over months is to buy the shares.

SB is the cheapest way of going short short-term - but expensive over your timescale. Other ways could be less expensive - CFDs or options - but I'm still doubtful they are economical.

Is this really your only approach possible?

IG don't seem to do options for IBM looking into the costs of CFDs at the moment. Looked this morning and for some reason the spread jumped to 500 points !

No this isn't the only approach but it's part of a medium term to long term investing strategy i have where i want to go long and short individual shares but at this rate i'm going to need some damn good winners to make it work !

 

[tomorton]

Well, yes, that's the issue. Its fairly cheap to go long by buying shares and the daily/weekly cost of holding is insignificant. But although you could short the same share, if your overheads are twice or three times - or ten times - higher, where would you draw the line?

Maybe its possible to go long on a share that's negatively correlated with whatever might be technically a good shorting target?