So basically spread betting is a con?

[marlintrdg]

This is exactly the reason why I'm interested in trading the actual fx spot market through two way futures direct access all wrapped in a tax free wrapper, you will be trading the actual market true prices, not some dodgy spreadbet companies own interpretation of the market.

I thought twoway went away :?:

edit: I stand corrected, wrong group, twoway alive and well by the look of things: Twowaymarkets Ltd : CFDs, Futures, Spreads, Forex and Managed Accounts

 

[gle101]

I can see what you are saying...it is not nice to think that your stop getting hit may have been a manipulation.

This is probably the second biggest fear that people have about SB, with the first being "getting thrown off for being too profitable". I hope I have convinced one or two people that this reason is nonsense unless scalping.

But getting back to the price manipulation issue. It does happen, but not as much as people think. In a rolling daily bet, which is by far the most popular, the price tracks pretty well to underlying. I have spent many hours comparing realtime spot fx to SB prices and they track exactly. Only time they may differ is in a MAJOR spike in underlying, when they can delay and sometimes get ahead of the spike. In general though, the prices are really quite good.

They can be a bit worse for futures prices though, becuase people are less able to track the underlying.

BUT, they dont really manipulate prices much anymore because they cant really get away with it. They lose customers every time they do it, so its not worth it. They MAY move their quote by 1 or 2 pips to knock out a load of stops at a roun1d number, but really nothing serious. And no-one on this forum would put their stops at round numbers anyway. Would they?

Overall, the advantages outweigh the costs!!

Thanks, for sharing a balanced perspective on SB. I have been trying to get this across for two years, the fact that SB is definitely not as bad as many like to portrait them to be. Failure with SB is often tied up with insufficient experience, poor money management and a way too high risk profile, rather than poor service from the SB company in question. As you are saying, it is very important to monitor the underlying asset. Also, an exchange live feed is preferable, in order to assure yourself that the SB quote actually reflects the "movement of the underlying asset". Notice I said "reflect". By this, I mean that it follows the movement, it does not necessarily have to show the same figures as the underlying asset. Over the years, the SB industry has greatly improved the speed of their feed, so today there is no lagging of quotes to speak of. I have to say that I am quite impressed with how well they have been able to solve this technically rather difficult issue.

 

[maxima]

I will take your side if someone can provide FTSE Liffe Mar 08 Contract tick chart on 19/03 between 9:30 - 9:32 (and the picture will be the same)