| Tax treatment | Profits made are exempt from stamp duty and capital gains tax in the UK and Ireland*. | Since you don't own the underlying asset when trading CFDs, there is no stamp duty to pay. However, you will be subject to CGT. |
| Who can spread bet and trade CFDs? | Only available to customers who reside in the UK or Ireland. | Available to customers in many countries globally. |
| Short selling | You can go long as well as short so you can take a long position when market prices are rising or open a short position when prices are falling. | Ability to go long as well as short so you can take a long position when market prices are rising or open a short position when prices are falling. |
| Shares and ETFs | When spread betting on shares and ETFs, there’s an additional spread, which is built into the prices displayed on our platform. | When trading shares on our platform, a CFD commission will be charged to your account when you execute an order. This is in addition to the spread. |
| Holding costs | Holding costs may apply, and can be positive or negative, depending on the direction of your bet and the applicable holding rate. | Holding costs may apply, and can be positive or negative, depending on the direction of your trade and the applicable holding rate. |
| Currency risk | All your bets are placed in £ per point or € per point and don’t involve currency conversion. As such, there’s no currency risk with spread betting. | Your potential profits or losses are exposed to currency risk, and may be subject to currency conversion fees. Currency risk means your return could be negatively impacted by currency fluctuations. |
| Calculating profit and loss | To calculate your profit or loss, find the difference between the price at which you enter and the price at which you exit, then multiply this difference by your stake. | With CFDs, your profit or loss is determined by the difference between the price at which you enter and the price at which you exit, multiplied by the number of CFD units. |
| Margined trading** | Spread betting is a financial leveraged product, which means you only need to deposit a small percentage of the full value of the spread bet in order to open a position. | CFDs are a leveraged product, which means that you only need to deposit a small percentage of the full value of the trade in order to open a position. |
| Timeframe | Short-term: daily, weekly, and monthly trades. | Short-term: daily, weekly, and monthly trades. |
| Forward contracts | Yes | Yes |
| Range of markets | More than 12,000 instruments, including forex, stock indices, shares, ETFs, commodities, bonds, and share baskets. | More than 12,000 instruments, including forex, stock indices, shares, ETFs, commodities, bonds, and share baskets. |
| Dividends | As spread betting is a type of derivative trading, you’re not entitled to receive dividends – if you have an open position on a stock or an index subject to a dividend, it will be reflected as a price adjustment on our platform. | As CFD trading is a type of derivative trading, you’re not entitled to receive dividends – if you have an open position on a stock or an index subject to a dividend, it will be reflected as a price adjustment on our platform. |
| Available for hedging | Yes | Yes |
| Trading hours | Trade out of hours on forex and major stock indices with 24/5 access. | Trade out of hours on forex and major stock indices with 24/5 access. |
| Corporate account | No | Yes |
| Mobile trading | Yes – iPhone, iPad, Android. | Yes – iPhone, iPad, Android. |
| Available on MT4 | Yes | Yes – forex, index and commodity CFDs. |
