The easiest/fastest way is probably to go to a site and run a demo account, whilst watching (for example) an index in realtime - Capital Spreads, (for example, being one I'm familiar with) will let you play with 10K or so of pretend cash so you can put imaginary bets on and see how you get on. Pick one of the index rolling daily bets to follow/play with (this will avoid the confusion of the longer term bets where the price of the bet can be some way off where the index is actually sitting... the rolling daily bet will be at the same price as the market itself is at the time).
'Bet' just a few pretend quid a time, and click the icons to call up info on things like the CGSL and IMR - £10k accounts aren't going to be bothered by these, but when you awap to real money bets you'll find you need to have more in your account if you trade more volatile shares etc whilst you can trade the Dow30 index if you've got far less to hand. Once you are comfortable with the mechanics of a simplish bet like this you can start looking around at the other markets, shares, commodities etc that you are able to trade - having achieved a basic familiarity with the idea by using the platform you'll find it's then much easier to figure out how everything else works.
There are a couple of Acrobat docs on the site, one explains the essentials of interest payments/charges, which kick in on bets that run overnight (this is why I suggest a rolling daily to start - you don't need to bother about interest etc and your charting package prices will match the prices you see on the SB company site). Another lists the different things you can bet on, what the IMR and CGSL are for each, and so forth.
It's all pretty simple once you go in and play for a while, the demo account allows you to do that safely - it's one of those things that looks complicated or frightening until you take the plunge and realise it's actually pretty straightforward. DO bear in mind that when using real money anything held overnight can involve nasty surprises kicking in - a profit warning after the close might drop a share horribly... one I remember a year or two ago did that, anyone holding long on the share (Adobe, I think it was?) would have lost almost £900 per point bet - stop losses can be set, but prices can jump well past them. Less of an issue if you avoid shares of course.
Dave
