Spread betting gives leveraged long or short exposure to thousands of listed companies — with no stamp duty, because you never own the shares.
How it works
You stake per point (penny) of share-price movement. FCA retail margin for shares is 20% (5:1) — lower leverage than indices, because single stocks gap harder. Buy a share quoted at 250p for £10/pt and your exposure is £2,500 with £500 margin.
Dividends and corporate actions
Long positions are credited (and shorts debited) an adjustment when a stock goes ex-dividend, so you neither windfall nor suffer from the mechanical price drop. Splits and rights issues are adjusted similarly. You get no voting rights — you own nothing.
The single-stock risk
Companies gap on results, downgrades and surprises — straight past ordinary stop-losses. If you spread bet individual shares around earnings, guaranteed stops (wider spread or a premium) are the only true cap on the downside. Small-cap spreads are also far wider than the FTSE-100 names used in adverts.
The rule that outranks every guide: never bet more than you can afford to lose.
Risk management →