Trade with the UK’s No.1 spread betting account¹

Why not start with our introduction to spread betting guide? Find out what spread betting is, how it works, and view our short video.

Spread betting on shares differs from the traditional investment approach of buying and owning shares. For one thing, you don't own the shares when spread betting; instead, you're taking a view on which direction the share price will move. Any profits you make when spread betting are tax-free, and there's no stamp duty to pay, unlike traditional investing.

Another key difference is that you can utilise leverage, which means you only need to put up a set percentage of the full value of the trade, with an initial deposit, known as margin. This increases your exposure, but also means that any profit or loss you make is magnified, relative to the share's price fluctuations. Find more about spread betting

All financial trading and investing involves an element of risk, no matter how robust your trading strategy. Financial markets can be unpredictable and volatile. This means that your trade could go against you, so it's important to manage your risk carefully. As part of a trading plan, you should only risk a small percentage of your overall capital with each trade.

Highly volatile markets can lead to market gapping, or slippage, where prices suddenly gap. However, you can guard against this by adding a guaranteed stop-loss order (GSLO) to your trade. There is a cost for using a GSLO, but it's refunded in full if it's not triggered while your position remains open.

It's also important to note that you can't lose more than your account value as a retail trader, because your account is covered by negative balance protection.

Spread betting and CFD trading are leveraged products that allow you to take a view on a huge number of financial markets. They can provide similar economic benefits to investing directly in the underlying markets, for example when you might purchase shares in a listed company, or physical gold.

There are many similarities between the two products, although CFDs are treated differently for taxation. View our spread betting versus CFD trading article to learn more about the similarities and differences between these two popular forms of derivatives trading.

There's no cost to open a live trading account with us. You can also view prices and use tools such as charts, Reuters news, or Morningstar quantitative research equity reports, free of charge. You'll need to deposit funds in your account to place a trade.

Yes, CMC Markets UK plc (registration number 173730) is fully authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Retail client money is held in segregated client bank accounts and money held on behalf of clients is distributed across a range of major banks, which are regularly assessed against our risk criteria.

Under the FCA's Client Money rules, we're required to segregate client money (unless you agree with us otherwise) from CMC's own funds. The funds held in segregated bank accounts do not belong to CMC, and will be held in a way that enables it to be identified as client money. Learn more about client money regulations

Our income primarily comes from our spreads, while other fees, such as overnight holding costs, also make a contribution to our overall revenue.