Hi Stevet (and others),
Can someone advise please - bare in mind I know very little about futures;
I use Spreadbetting (and unless someone has been giving me monet for the last 3 years, making money at it but that's another story....
. My average trade lasts between 1 and 3 months, and I find SB a decent vehicle - mainly becuase I have to fill in a tax return and don't want the bother.
I am ramping up my investment and hence am interested in minimising any transaction costs. Is it possible to explain (simply for me!) the adavantages of futures over SB. The commission on the "bet" is around 0.7%, plus any market spread (I'd have this if dealing directly) The other costs are the finance charge but as I'm fully hedged, the effect of this is neutral.
I can see that for short term trades where % profits would be lower, initial commission would wipe out any advantages of the tax free element. Am I wrong in thinking that the benefits of lower commisions diminish the longer your time horizon, on the supposition this means you're shooting for higher % returns per trade - in other words savings of >20% tax on any returns outweighs <1% commission.
How do the charges on futures compare?
All advice greatly appreciated.
UTB
PS - eek - just realised this isn't an appropriate thread for the question but it's here now so......