Financial Betting Fixed Odds

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Fixed Odds Trading Meaning if you placed a fixed odds financial bet thinking that Lloyds will touch £5.30 in a couple of weeks, you would be quoted the odds on that happening and therefore the cost of that. The advantage of fixed odds financial betting is that you get all the profit of price movement without the need for vast sums of capital. For example Lloyds TSB is currently around £5. You would need a large amount of money to just buy 1000 shares (£5000). However, financial spread betting still has some advantages despite its riskiness. It is even regarded as a cheap and easy way to invest your money in. The things you need to learn are usually not that hard to understand, either. Financial fixed odds trading on the financial markets allows you to speculate on a wide variety of markets, with the knowledge of how much you could win or lose from the outset. It’s called ‘fixed.

Financial betting looks a lot like traditional trading with one key difference: you never actually take possession of the underlying instrument. In this way, financial betting can be classified as a type of derivative trading. Essentially, all you’re doing is placing a wager on whether or not a stock, bond, index or currency will rise or fall over a given time frame.

If you correctly predict the movement of the instrument, your bet is a winner and you get paid immediately. There are multiple formats of financial trading and we’ll get into those in a second. But first, let’s start with a look where you can bet on financials online today:

Best Financial Betting Sites

Betting Site
Rating

Why You May Like Financial Betting

Online financial betting is accessible to anyone as it requires no brokerage account or minimum bankroll. If you have a little cash to spare and an interest in the market, you’re welcome to try your hand with real money “trading.”

Furthermore, financial betting eliminates the expensive fees charged by traditional brokers. Financial betting sites do still take a commission, but the margins are smaller than brokerage commissions.

And finally, the simpler types of financial wagering limit the most you can lose to the size of your initial stake. Other forms such as outright spread betting do involve more risk, but there is no obligation to go there until you’re ready.

Types of Financial Betting Sites

Some forms of financial betting carry greater risks and returns than others. It is very important that you understand the differences so you can choose the format that works best for your risk tolerance. As is the case in all types of wagering, greater potential rewards are associated with greater levels of risk.

Fixed Odds Financial Betting

Fixed odds financial betting is the best starting point for beginners because it is easy to understand and the risk is limited. If you have any familiarity with sports betting, you will feel right at home with fixed odds financials.

Bookmakers set odds on an instrument reaching a predetermined price level within a certain amount of time (5 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour or 24 hours usually). The odds and all potential outcomes are known to you ahead of time. When you select a bet, the bookmaker shows you the potential payout. Therefore, you know how much you might lose (the value of your stake) and how much you stand to win (the payout).

Fixed

An example of a fixed-odds financial bet would be to bet on the performance of SENSEX (Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index) over the next five minutes.


All those numbers you see on the right side are a collection of possible outcomes that you can take and the betting odds associated with each. The more unlikely the outcome, the more the bet pays. In this example, you can see that a bet on SENSEX breaking 26893.2 within the next five minutes would pay 18-to-1 on your money.

Alternatively, you could place a wager that SENSEX will be above 26820.6 after five minutes. This bet is much lower risk because the market doesn’t have to move as far. The odds reflect this as the bet pays just 1/10 (i.e. you risk £100 for a chance to win £10).

Fixed odds finance wagers can be applied to any instrument in any direction specified by the book. Some sites allow you to bet on instruments moving up, down and staying about level over periods of time. The bookie sets the odds for all outcomes and makes a profit by paying out at slightly lower than the true odds (as estimated by the oddsmaker).

Binary Options Betting Sites

Binary options are the next step up in complexity, reward and risk. In a binary option, you are asked to choose whether an even will or will not happen. In most cases, you end up betting on whether or not an instrument will go up in price, and whether or not it will go down in price.

Prices ranges from 0-100 depending on how likely the binary site thinks the event is to happen. Two prices are given for each instrument; the “buy” price if you think it will increase in value and the “sell” price if you think it will decrease in value.

For example, if you see a stock priced at 72-74, it means you can place a buy bet at 74 or a sell bet at 72. If you’re betting £1 per point, this would cost you either £74 or £72. You would place a buy bet at £74 if you think it will go up and you would place a sell bet at £72 if you think it will go down.

After the specified time period has expired, the binary option closes at either 0 or 100. If you bet that the price would go up, it would close at 100 and you would be paid 100 times your betting denomination. So in this example, you would receive a total of £100 for a net profit of £26 (£100-£74).

The return in binary options is variable, but you still know your total risk and potential reward up front before each bet.

Read more here:

Financial Spread Betting Sites

Online spread betting sits at the top of the risk vs. reward ladder. In financial spread betting, you bet not just on the direction an instrument will move but also on how much it will move. Your potential risk and reward are not known up front because total losses and total profits depend on how far that instrument moves in either direction.

Unlike fixed odds and binary financial bets, spread bets do not expire after a set of time.

You simply purchase the contract to buy or sell at some point in the future. Prices are determined only by how much you’re willing to risk. You select an amount of money to wager per point and then you win or lose that amount for every point the instrument moves in either direction.

For example, let’s say you think the S&P 500 will go up in value. You decide to bet £10 per point. If the S&P 500 moves from 1,881 to 1,891, it has gone up 10 points and your total return is £100 (£10 x 10 points upwards). However, let’s say the market moves against you and the S&P 500 falls by 10 points to 1,871. In this outcome, you would lose £100.

Financial spread betting sites take action on instruments in four major markets: stocks, indices, forex and commodities. Stocks, indices and commodities are all priced according to their current market value while currencies are priced relative to one another. In all cases, your betting site will provide updated buy and sell prices at all times.

The process of actually placing spread bets remains the same no matter which market you choose. The only differences would be in how you conduct research and come to conclusions about future price movements. Stick to what you know for the best results.

Even better, tax laws in some jurisdictions make financial betting cheaper than actually buying and selling shares on the stock market. In the UK, for example, winnings from spread betting are considered to be a result of gambling and are therefore tax-free.

The law may vary where you live, but favourable tax treatment in many countries is partially responsible for spread betting’s surging popularity in recent years.

Going Long vs. Going Short

In traditional trading, going long refers to buying an instrument in the belief that it will grow in value. If you think the Acme Company is well-managed with a bright future, you would go long on the stock and buy it today with the intention of selling it for a profit at some point in the future.

Going long in betting works in the same way, except you don’t actually buy Acme Company stock. You simply place a bet at the buy price.

Likewise, going short is the path taken when you think an instrument will decrease in value. Let’s say you do a little more research and decide you don’t like the looks of Acme Company after all. You suspect bad news is coming soon and decide to go short.

In regular trading, you would borrow X shares of Acme stock from someone today and immediately sell it on the market. You also agree to pay that person for those shares at then-current prices. Hopefully, the share price is lower in the future than what you sold it for today. You can do something similar in spread betting by placing a wager at the current sell price.

What Types of Instruments Can I Bet On?

Financial betting sites tend to focus on four instrument categories: stocks, indices, commodities and currencies. The basic principles of online financial betting apply to all instrument types, but the underlying assets are subject to different market forces. All instruments are equally valid for betting. It’s best to stick with what you know best.

Betting on Stocks

Stock market betting sites

Betting on shares is similar to buying and selling shares over the stock market. The key difference is that you don’t actually purchase shares in the stock and sell them later. Instead, you place wagers on how those shares will perform going forward. If your prediction is correct, you get paid.

Using a spread betting company, you can place bets on the share price of companies listed on different stock exchanges around the world. For an example, let’s assume you wanted to bet on the performance of share in Lloyds – a banking company listed on the London Stock Exchange. At the time of placing your spread bet, the share price is at £1.45 (145p) and your spread betting site offers the spread at 144 – 146.

You want to bet on the price going up, so you place a buy bet at £5 per point at 146. Over the next week, the share price does go up and the spread moves to 154-156. You close your position and get paid out on your bet based on the difference between the price you bought the bet (146) and the price you sold the bet (154). That’s 8 points, so at £5 a point your bet would return a win of £40.00.

Betting on Indices

You can bet on how the world’s major indexes will move in a manner similar to betting on the movements of stocks. For those who don’t know, an index is basically a hypothetical portfolio of securities that represent a larger market or sector. For example, the Standard & Poor’s 500 is probably the best known index in the world. This one tracks the prices and movements of 500 of the largest companies listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ.

Betting on Currencies and Forex

The foreign exchange market (known as the forex market) is the most actively traded financial market in the world. Traders buy and sell currencies with the expectation that any given currency will rise or fall in price relative to some other currency. Currency pairs demonstrate that value of one currency when compared to another. For example, you might want to bet on the price of the USD as it compares to the EUR.

An example spread of the USD/GBP currency pair offered by a spread betting company might be 1.5822 – 1.5825. You might choose to bet on the value of the US dollar increasing against the pound, and as such you would place a buy bet at 1.5825.

If the value of the US dollar actually fell against the pound, then the spread might look something like 1.5788 – 1.5791. If you were concerned that the value might fall even further, then you may choose to close your bet at that point and sell at 1.5788.

In foreign currency spread betting, each .0001 is considered a point. The difference between the price you placed your bet at (1.5825) and the price you closed at (1.5788) is .0037 – 37 points. If you had placed your bet at £2 per point, then you would lose £74.

Betting on Commodities

Commodities are the most basic raw materials mined from the earth and grown in the ground that are ultimately used in manufacturing and commerce. What makes commodities different than other goods is that there is little difference in the product from one producer to another. For example, a sack of grain is basically the same no matter who puts it on the market. Financial betting in this area allows you to predict the future prices of the world’s primary commodities.

Gold is one of the more popular commodities among bettors that spread bet on commodities. An example of a spread offered on the price of gold might be $1735.1 – $1735.6. If you wanted to bet on the price of gold falling, then you would price a sell bet at $1735.1.

If the price of gold actually went up then the spread might become $1736.6 – $1737.1. If you chose to close your bet at that point, and bought at $1737.1 then there would be a $2 difference between the price made your bet at and the price you closed at. Each $.1 is one point, so you would have lost 20 points. At £2 per bet, you would lose £40.

Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple 'win or lose' outcome, such as fixed-odds (or money-line) betting or parimutuel betting.

Financial Fixed Odds Betting Sites

A spread is a range of outcomes and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. Spread betting has been a major growth market in the UK in recent years, with the number of gamblers heading towards one million.[1] Financial spread betting (see below) can carry a high level of risk if there is no 'stop'.[2] In the UK, spread betting is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority rather than the Gambling Commission.[3]

Purpose[edit]

The general purpose of spread betting is to create an active market for both sides of a binary wager, even if the outcome of an event may appear prima facie to be biased towards one side or the other. In a sporting event a strong team may be matched up against a historically weaker team; almost every game has a favorite and an underdog. If the wager is simply 'Will the favorite win?', more bets are likely to be made for the favorite, possibly to such an extent that there would be very few betters willing to take the underdog.

The point spread is essentially a handicap towards the underdog. The wager becomes 'Will the favorite win by more than the point spread?' The point spread can be moved to any level to create an equal number of participants on each side of the wager. This allows a bookmaker to act as a market maker by accepting wagers on both sides of the spread. The bookmaker charges a commission, or vigorish, and acts as the counterparty for each participant. As long as the total amount wagered on each side is roughly equal, the bookmaker is unconcerned with the actual outcome; profits instead come from the commissions.

Because the spread is intended to create an equal number of wagers on either side, the implied probability is 50% for both sides of the wager. To profit, the bookmaker must pay one side (or both sides) less than this notional amount. In practice, spreads may be perceived as slightly favoring one side, and bookmakers often revise their odds to manage their event risk.

One important assumption is that to be credited with a win, either team only needs to win by the minimum of the rules of the game, without regard to the margin of victory. This implies that teams in a winning position will not necessarily try to extend their margin—and more importantly, each team is only playing to win rather than to beat the point spread. This assumption does not necessarily hold in all situations. For example, at the end of a season, the total points scored by a team can affect future events such as playoff seeding and positioning for the amateur draft, and teams may 'run up' the score in such situations. In virtually all sports, players and other on-field contributors are forbidden from being involved in sports betting and thus have no incentive to consider the point spread during play; any attempt to manipulate the outcome of a game for gambling purposes would be considered match fixing, and the penalty is typically a lifetime banishment from the sport; such is the lack of tolerance for manipulating the result of a sporting event for such purposes.

Spreads in sports wagering (U.S.)[edit]

Spread betting was invented by Charles K. McNeil, a mathematics teacher from Connecticut who became a bookmaker in Chicago in the 1940s.[4] In North America, the gambler usually wagers that the difference between the scores of two teams will be less than or greater than the value specified by the bookmaker, with even money for either option. An example:

  • The bookmaker advertises a spread of 4 points in a certain game;
    • If the gamblers bet on the 'underdog', they are said to take the points and will win if the underdog's score plus the spread is greater than the favorite's score.
      • The eventual score is Underdog 8, Favorite 10: 8 + 4 > 10, so the gambler wins;
      • The eventual score is Underdog 8, Favorite 13: 8 + 4 < 13, so the gambler loses.
    • If the gamblers bet on the 'favorite', they give the points (sometimes called lay the points) and will win if the favorite's score minus the spread is greater than the underdog's score:
      • The eventual score is Underdog 5, Favorite 10: 104 > 5, so the gambler wins;
      • The eventual score is Underdog 8, Favorite 10: 104 < 8, so the gambler loses.
    • Ties aka 'Push'
      • The eventual score is Underdog 9, Favorite 13: 9 + 4 = 13, so the gambler ties 'pushes'. The reverse is also the same the gambler takes the favorite and it is 13 - 4 = 9

Spreads are frequently, though not always, specified in half-point fractions to eliminate the possibility of a tie, known as a push. In the event of a push, the game is considered no action, and no money is won or lost. However, this is not a desirable outcome for the sports book, as they are forced to refund every bet, and although both the book and its bettors will be even, if the cost of overhead is taken into account, the book has actually lost money by taking bets on the event. Sports books are generally permitted to state 'ties win' or 'ties lose' to avoid the necessity of refunding every bet.

Betting on sporting events has long been the most popular form of spread betting. Whilst most bets the casino offers to players have a built in house edge, betting on the spread offers an opportunity for the astute gambler. When a casino accepts a spread bet, it gives the player the odds of 10 to 11, or -110. That means that for every 11 dollars the player wagers, the player will win 10, slightly lower than an even money bet. If team A is playing team B, the casino is not concerned with who wins the game; they are only concerned with taking an equal amount of money of both sides. For example, if one player takes team A and the other takes team B and each wager $110 to win $100, it doesn't matter what team wins; the casino makes money. They take $100 of the $110 from the losing bet and pay the winner, keeping the extra $10 for themselves. This is the house edge. The goal of the casino is to set a line that encourages an equal amount of action on both sides, thereby guaranteeing a profit. This also explains how money can be made by the astute gambler. If casinos set lines to encourage an equal amount of money on both sides, it sets them based on the public perception of the team, not necessarily the real strength of the teams. Many things can affect public perception, which moves the line away from what the real line should be. This gap between the Vegas line, the real line, and differences between other sports books betting lines and spreads is where value can be found.

A teaser is a bet that alters the spread in the gambler's favor by a predetermined margin – in American football the teaser margin is often six points. For example, if the line is 3.5 points and bettors want to place a teaser bet on the underdog, they take 9.5 points instead; a teaser bet on the favorite would mean that the gambler takes 2.5 points instead of having to give the 3.5. In return for the additional points, the payout if the gambler wins is less than even money, or the gambler must wager on more than one event and both events must win. In this way it is very similar to a parlay. At some establishments, the 'reverse teaser' also exists, which alters the spread against the gambler, who gets paid at more than evens if the bet wins.

Sports spread betting[edit]

In the United Kingdom, sports spread betting became popular in the late 1980s by offering an alternative form of sports wagering to traditional fixed odds, or fixed-risk, betting. With fixed odds betting, a gambler places a fixed-risk stake on stated fractional or decimal odds on the outcome of a sporting event that would give a known return for that outcome occurring or a known loss if that outcome doesn't occur (the initial stake). With sports spread betting, gamblers are instead betting on whether a specified outcome in a sports event will end up being above or below a ‘spread’ offered by a sports spread betting firm, with profits or losses determined by how much above or below the spread the final outcome finishes at.

The spread on offer will refer to the betting firm's prediction on the range of a final outcome for a particular occurrence in a sports event, e.g., the total number of goals to be scored in a football (US: soccer) match, the number of runs to be scored by a team in a cricket match or the number of lengths between the winner and second-placed finisher in a horse race.

The gambler can elect to ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ on the spread depending on whether they think the final outcome will be higher than the top end of the spread on offer, or lower than the bottom end of the spread. The more right the gambler is then the more they will win, but the more wrong they are then the more they can lose.

The level of the gambler's profit or loss will be determined by the stake size selected for the bet, multiplied by the number of unit points above or below the gambler's bet level. This reflects the fundamental difference between sports spread betting and fixed odds sports betting in that both the level of winnings and level of losses are not fixed and can end up being many multiples of the original stake size selected.

For example, in a cricket match a sports spread betting firm may list the spread of a team's predicted runs at 340 – 350. The gambler can elect to ‘buy’ at 350 if they think the team will score more than 350 runs in total, or sell at 340 if they think the team will score less than 340. If the gambler elects to buy at 350 and the team scores 400 runs in total, the gambler will have won 50 unit points multiplied by their initial stake. But if the team only scores 300 runs then the gambler will have lost 50 unit points multiplied by their initial stake.

It is important to note the difference between spreads in sports wagering in the U.S. and sports spread betting in the UK. In the U.S. betting on the spread is effectively still a fixed risk bet on a line offered by the bookmaker with a known return if the gambler correctly bets with either the underdog or the favourite on the line offered and a known loss if the gambler incorrectly bets on the line. In the UK betting above or below the spread does not have a known final profit or loss, with these figures determined by the number of unit points the level of the final outcome ends up being either above or below the spread, multiplied by the stake chosen by the gambler.

For UK spread betting firms, any final outcome that finishes in the middle of the spread will result in profits from both sides of the book as both buyers and sellers will have ended up making unit point losses. So in the example above, if the cricket team ended up scoring 345 runs both buyers at 350 and sellers at 340 would have ended up with losses of five unit points multiplied by their stake.

Bets on the total (over/under)[edit]

In addition to the spread bet, a very common 'side bet' on an event is the total (commonly called the over/under or O/U) bet. This is a bet on the total number of points scored by both teams. Suppose team A is playing team B and the total is set at 44.5 points. If the final score is team A 24, team B 17, the total is 41 and bettors who took the under will win. If the final score is team A 30, team B 31, the total is 61 and bettors who took the over will win. The total is popular because it allows gamblers to bet on their overall perception of the game (e.g., a high-scoring offensive show or a defensive battle) without needing to pick the actual winner.

In the UK, these bets are sometimes called spread bets, but rather than a simple win/loss, the bet pays more or less depending on how far from the spread the final result is.

Example: In a football match the bookmaker believes that 12 or 13 corners will occur, thus the spread is set at 12–13.

  • A gambler believes that there will be more than 13 corners, and 'buys' at £25 a point at 13.
    • If the number of corners is 16, the gambler wins (16–13) = 3 x £25.
    • If the number of corners is 10, the gambler loses (13–10) = 3 x £25.
  • A 'sell' transaction is similar except that it is made against the bottom value of the spread.
  • Often 'live pricing' changes the spread during the course of an event, increasing a profit or minimizing a loss.

In North American sports betting many of these wagers would be classified as over-under (or, more commonly today, total) bets rather than spread bets. However, these are for one side or another of a total only, and do not increase the amount won or lost as the actual moves away from the bookmaker's prediction. Instead, over-under or total bets are handled much like point-spread bets on a team, with the usual 10/11 (4.55%) commission applied. Many Nevada sports books allow these bets in parlays, just like team point spread bets. This makes it possible to bet, for instance, team A and the over, and be paid if both

team A 'covers' the point spread (wins by that amount or more)

and

the total score is higher than the book's prediction.

(Such parlays usually pay off at odds of 13:5 with no commission charge, just as a standard two-team parlay would.)

Mathematics[edit]

The mathematical analysis of spreads and spread betting is a large and growing subject. For example, sports that have simple 1-point scoring systems (e.g.,baseball, hockey, and soccer) may be analysed using Poisson and Skellam statistics.

Financial spread betting[edit]

By far the largest part of the official market in the UK concerns financial instruments; the leading spread-betting companies make most of their revenues from financial markets, their sports operations being much less significant. Financial spread betting in the United Kingdom closely resembles the futures and options markets, the major differences being

  • the 'charge' occurs through a wider bid-offer spread;
  • spread betting has a different tax regime compared with securities and futures exchanges (see below);
  • spread betting is more flexible since it is not limited to exchange hours or definitions, can create new instruments relatively easily (e.g. individual stock futures), and may have guaranteed stop losses (see below); and
  • the trading is off-exchange, with the contract existing directly between the market-making company and the client, rather than exchange-cleared, and is thus subject to a lower level of regulation.

Financial spread betting is a way to speculate on financial markets in the same way as trading a number of derivatives. In particular, the financial derivative Contract for difference (CFD) mirrors the spread bet in many ways. In fact, a number of financial derivative trading companies offer both financial spread bets and CFDs in parallel using the same trading platform.

Unlike fixed-odds betting, the amount won or lost can be unlimited as there is no single stake to limit any loss. However, it is usually possible to negotiate limits with the bookmaker:

  • A stop loss or stop automatically closes the bet if the spread moves against the gambler by a specified amount.
  • A stop win, limit or take profit closes the bet when the spread moves in a gambler's favor by a specified amount.

Spread betting has moved outside the ambit of sport and financial markets (that is, those dealing solely with share, bonds and derivatives), to cover a wide range of markets, such as house prices.[5] By paying attention to the external factors, such as weather and time of day, those who are betting using a point spread can be better prepared when it comes to obtaining a favorable outcome. Additionally, by avoiding the favourite-longshot bias, where the expected returns on bets placed at shorter odds exceed that of bets placed at the longer odds, and not betting with one's favorite team, but rather with the team that has been shown to be better when playing in a specific weather condition and time of day, the possibility of arriving at a positive outcome is increased.

Tax treatment[edit]

Financial betting fixed odds calculator

In the UK and some other European countries the profit from spread betting is free from tax. The tax authorities of these countries designate financial spread betting as gambling and not investing, meaning it is free from capital gains tax and stamp duty, despite the fact that it is regulated as a financial product by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. Most traders are also not liable for income tax unless they rely solely on their profits from financial spread betting to support themselves. The popularity of financial spread betting in the UK and some other European countries, compared to trading other speculative financial instruments such as CFDs and futures is partly due to this tax advantage. However, this also means any losses cannot be offset against future earnings for tax calculations.

Financial Fixed Odds Betting

Conversely, in most other countries financial spread betting income is considered taxable. For example, the Australian Tax Office issued a decision in March 2010 saying 'Yes, the gains from financial spread betting are assessable income under section 6-5 or section 15-15 of the ITAA 1997'.[6] Similarly, any losses on the spread betting contracts are deductible. This has resulted in a much lower interest in financial spread betting in those countries.

Financial spread bet example[edit]

Suppose Lloyds Bank is trading on the market at 410p bid, and 411p offer. A spread-betting company is also offering 410-411p. We use cash bets with no definite expiry, or 'rolling daily bets' as they are referred to by the spread betting companies.

If I think the share price is going to go up, I might bet £10 a point (i.e., £10 per penny the shares moves) at 411p. We use the offer price since I am 'buying' the share (betting on its increase). Note that my total loss (if Lloyds Bank went to 0p) could be up to £4110, so this is as risky as buying 1000 of the shares normally.

If a bet goes overnight, the bettor is charged a financing cost (or receives it, if the bettor is shorting the stock). This might be set at LIBOR + a certain percentage, usually around 2-3%.

Thus, in the example, if Lloyds Bank are trading at 411p, then for every day I keep the bet open I am charged [taking finance cost to be 7%] ((411p x 10) * 7% / 365 ) = £0.78821 (or 78.8p)

On top of this, the bettor needs an amount as collateral in the spread-betting account to cover potential losses. Usually this is either 5 or 10% of the total exposure you are taking on but can go up to 100% on illiquid stocks. In this case £4110 * 0.1 or 0.05 = £411.00 or £205.50

If at the end of the bet Lloyds Bank traded at 400-401p, I need to cover that £4110 – £400*10 (£4000) = £110 difference by putting extra deposit (or collateral) into the account.

The punter usually receives all dividends and other corporate adjustments in the financing charge each night. For example, suppose Lloyds Bank goes ex-dividend with dividend of 23.5p. The bettor receives that amount. The exact amount received varies depending on the rules and policies of the spread betting company, and the taxes that are normally charged in the home tax country of the shares.

Terminology and acronyms[edit]

Financial Betting Fixed Odds Explained

HoD
High of day (the highest price the market traded at for the day).
Intraday trader
A trader operating from within each day's trade times.
LoD
Low of day (the lowest price the market traded at for the day).
London Turn
The time when markets subtly change direction between 12:15 and 13:15 GMT with a regularity that is more than coincidental.
Market session
The time of day that is governed mostly by the regional stock markets. Times vary from broker to broker, but the following are typical: Asian session (22:30 to 08:45 GMT), European session (06:45 to 16:45 GMT), US session (13:00 to 21:30 GMT).
Spread
The difference between the ask and bid prices, which may vary between markets and between brokers substantially.

Dangers of financial spread betting[edit]

According to an article in The Times dated 10 April 2009, approximately 30,000 spread bet accounts were opened in the previous year, and that the largest study of gambling in the UK on behalf of the Gambling Commission found that serious problems developed in almost 15% of spread betters compared to 1% of other gambling.[7] A report from Cass Business School found that only 1 in 5 gamblers ends up a winner.[8] As noted in the report, this corresponds to the same ratio of successful gamblers in regular trading.[9] Evidence from spread betting firms themselves actually put this closer to being 1 in 10 traders as being profitable.[citation needed]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^The Sunday Times: 'World Cup to kick off boom in spread betting'
  2. ^'The perils of spread-betting'. The Times. Sep 20, 2007. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008.
  3. ^'Gambling Commission - Home'. www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk.
  4. ^Gambling Times: What are the Odds?Archived 2011-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^The Sunday Times: Spread betting
  6. ^'Income Tax – Assessable income derivation of income – spread betting'. Australian Government ATO. 3 March 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  7. ^Budworth, David. 'Spread-betting fails investors in trouble'. thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  8. ^Pfanner, Eric. 'Spread-bets on Cup venture into bizarre - Technology - International Herald Tribune'. The New York Times. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  9. ^Rayman, Richard. 'White Paper on Spread Betting'(PDF). Cass Business School. Retrieved 11 October 2013.

Further reading[edit]

  • Malcolm Pryor (2007). The Financial Spread Betting Handbook. Harriman House. ISBN978-1-897597-93-4.
  • John Piper (2007). Binary Betting. Harriman House. ISBN978-1-905641-23-9.
  • Financial Services Authority, March 2007 review, Spread Betting Review
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