Stocks
Trading stocks is one of the most common ways of investing, of course.
You gain an equity interest in a corporation when you buy equities-stock shares, and thus have the right to share in its profits. When you spread bets on stock shares, you literally bet on whether the stock price will increase or decrease.
You are not in a position to directly collect dividends that the company may issue or vote in AGMs because you do not actually own any shares. Your spread betting provider, however, can make an adjustment to your account to effectively replicate dividend payments, depending on when and how long you have a spread bet on a stock in place.
You can also spread bets on stocks exchanged on foreign exchanges through your spread betting provider.
Market Indices
You may prefer to spread bets on market indices such as the FTSE 100, S&P 500, or DJIA, which represent the aggregate performance of the equity markets, rather than spread bets on individual stocks. One of the benefits of spread betting is that you can put spread bets in your own country on overseas market indices just as easily as placing spread bets on stock indices.
There are sub-indices that represent the performance of different market sectors, such as technology, real estate, or healthcare, in addition to main market indices.
ETFS
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are similar to mutual funds since they represent a portfolio of related financial securities, such as stocks of some fields of companies or commodities such as precious metals. ETFs, however, offer an advantage over mutual funds since they are exchanged openly on exchanges.
That fact, combined with the fact that ETFs provide access to investments in a wide range of assets, has made them an increasingly common vehicle of investment. As with betting on a single stock or market index, you can easily position a spread bet on whether an ETF’s price will increase or decrease.
Commodities
Commodities are natural resources such as precious metals, oil, coal, agricultural products, and other products such as cotton. They’re traded on various exchanges just as stocks are.
The factors that affect commodity prices can vary significantly from those that affect stock prices. For example, commodity prices can be significantly affected by weather and natural disasters. When spread betting commodities, it’s important to be aware of how they are priced.
Forex
At the turn of the century, foreign exchange (forex) trade has become one of the most common trading markets. Forex markets one currency’s relative values against another. The price of the GBP/USD currency pair, for instance, reflects the Great British Pound’s value compared to the US Dollar.
Like every other spread bet, there are various currency pairs that you can put a spread bet on, betting on whether the currency pair’s price will rise or fall. If you purchase a spread, you bet that the value of the first currency listed in a currency pair increases compared to the value of the second currency listed in the pair.
Conversely, if you sell the spread short, you bet that the value of the first currency will fall relative to the second currency.
Bonds and interest rates
It’s also possible to place spread bets on bonds and interest rates.
You can place a spread bet on whether the price of a certain bond will go up or down. There are a multitude of different bonds issued in different countries that you can spread bet on.
It’s also possible to simply place a spread bet on whether a certain interest rate, such as the Prime Lending Rate in the UK or the US Prime Rate, will rise or fall.
Sports
Spread betting on sports, as conventional sports betting does, does not require taking risks. Rather, sports spread betting, like all other spread betting, is betting on a particular result in a sports event according to the spread offered.
Sports spread betting provides just as much variance as betting on financial spreads. You can not only place bets on all sorts of sporting activities, such as football, basketball, golf, boxing, etc., but there are also any number of spread bets available relative to a single sporting event.
Cryptocurrencies
Sports spread betting provides just as much variance as betting on financial spreads. You can not only place bets on all sorts of sporting activities, such as football, basketball, golf, boxing, etc., but there are also any number of spread bets available relative to a single sporting event.
Other spread bet
Additional spread bets
Spread betting markets continue to develop, providing new resources or events to position spread bets on at all times.
Betting on such topics as political polls, house prices and even the weather can be distributed. Spread betting suppliers are constantly working to expand their spread bet offerings to provide their customers with the widest possible variety of spread bets to choose from.