Best Spread Betting Firm/Platform 2016?

CHorn

Hi,

First I'm just starting here (minimal capital, with <€500)- spread betting, I have a regular brokerage investment account already- so please bear with me.

Searching, there's a lot of recommendations on these, but mostly dated. For 2016, anyone recommend anything for UK/US Indices, Equities/Options, Currencies?

I'm particularly interested in platform ease of use and features. Looking for:

1) Tight spreads. I don't want any outfit able to see my stops (I'd imagine they all can) running up and down outside the real market just to close me out.
2) Depth of market (to see orders deeper than just current bid/ask with volume) if possible, may not be without paying extra.
3) Ease of setting up a trade with BOTH stop and limit (i.e. if it goes against you it gets auto closed at a specific loss, if it runs for you, you can specify a price at which you'll auto close the profit).
4) Ease of modifying 3.
5) Good reports- to see P/L, filter by execution as opposed to orders etc... (not sure what is most useful yet).

IG gets good press (see here and this thread real useful generally (ty arrowloopboy++) and I've found the demo good.

Other demos tried:

1) ETX Capital. I've found difficult (setting, modifying stops, but could just be me).
2) CMC Markets seems good (but comments on spreads not so good).
3) FinSpreads offers a beginner account (10p per point) which might be useful and maybe way to go first after demo accounts.
4) IG as mentioned- good.

Any others I should try? Or any comments on these here? Thanks for any help- appreciated.

sunnyday1234

I have one comment.

Dont spread bet, if you are intent on giving away the 500 euro then give it to charity

CHorn

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

I have one comment. Dont spread bet, if you are intent on giving away the 500 euro then give it to charity.

Thanks for the thought here- if you'd care to name a charity, I'll donate (10% of any profits) to it.

sunnyday1234

CHorn wrote: »

Thanks for the thought here- if you'd care to name a charity, I'll donate (10% of any profits) to it.

Give it to ICS but there wont be any.Seriously spread betting with 500 euro, you will last a few days

moneymad

ICMARKETS are good.

CHorn

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

Give it to ICS but there wont be any.Seriously spread betting with 500 euro, you will last a few days.

ICS- now LoL is this the Investors Compensation Scheme or ICSForex?

I appreciate 500 may not go far, but I'm more looking for an adjunct to a 'regular' brokerage account which allows leveraged shorting (most 'regular' brokers don't allow individual investors to short the market) on specific bets.

Recently- maybe still- might be useful to short China if only to hedge long Western positions, but there are few ways to do it. Aside from YANG which only gives you 3x leverage (@ some premium too) and a broker won't let you short the other side (YINN).

The best I could find 'regularly' were puts on E-House (China) Holdings Limited (ADR) and even there the liquidity is not good (after scouring options for a reasonable deal on every Chinese ADR). Or CFDs/Spread Betting on links between China and other markets on the short side, none of which I can get/find via a regular brokerage outfit.

CHorn

moneymad wrote: »

ICMARKETS are good.

Thanks, but this (like ICSForex) appears (solely?) focused on FX, and I'm looking more for that AND indices/equities/commodities.