Hello,
What is the deference between this instruments:
Stocks
Shares
Indices
Forex
Options
Futures
Spread betting
That will be a great help for me to understand more.
Hi BBB,
Stocks and shares
These are essentially the same thing. You buy and sell a 'share' of a company and profit from a rise in its value (if you're long) or lose if it falls in value.
Forex
Forex, FX or Foreign Exchange plots the value of one currency relative to another and are traded in pairs. The major pairings include the USD$ as it's the world's most important currency.
Indices
Indices are benchmarks which enable traders and investors to gain a macro view of the market as a whole - or a sector within a market. Most indices are not tradeable instruments in their own right, although there are numerous ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) which mirror the movement of the index, along with various derivative products (see below).
Options & Futures
These aren't tradeable instruments but, rather, derivative products that enable traders to speculate on price movements of 'underlying' instruments such as shares.
Spread betting
Technically, SB isn't a true derivative product, although it's reasonable to think of it as such for all intents and purposes. Like options and futures, SB firms base their prices on an underlying instrument like shares, FX and indices like the Dow and S&P.
More information of the different tradeable products can be found here:
What Should I trade?
Tim.