Tightest bid/ask spread ?

So far, the tightest spreads I have seen is Finspreads which have offered a 2 point spread. I believe the other SB companies are now matching these quotes eg Deal4Free.com, IG Index, City Index etc. I guess they have to if they want to remain competitive – which is a great thing because I wasn’t too happy with the wide spreads a couple of years ago!
 
http://www.futuresbetting.com

Any comments on this company Looks like they are spread bet company but with superior spreads to any existing comany,Im tempted to open an account with them. just found out they are tax free. The guy phoned me today and I ask him whats the spread on the YM Dow. he said 2 ticks.

Well, this works out cheaper than IB because you don't pay no commission,You are only paying 1 tick to trade. plus tax free..they say they will maintain the tight spread relative to the underling market bid/offer irrespective of market conditions.

They also do not take any positions against you, every bet made is hedged in the underlying market. and they spreads are fixed around live market prices.Is this the way for spread betting.Looks like they will leave the the other S/B company's behind.

sun
 
Sun,

Have u checked on how much regulation they have ?? I have no idea on that- but just wondering how safe the money is going to be ?

Al
 
I will have to take a proper look at that- they are listed in that list- will probably contact someone from FSC.............


Al
 
futuresbetting.com

I spent a couple of hours on the phone with these guys last week.

It's a new venture - only got going in March this year. The software install was pretty hit 'n' miss, so that requires a bit of effort. Once installed, the software is excellent - very fast and well designed. They have a screen called the "Composite Scalp" which provides 1-click scalping with a ladder showing all the outstanding orders being worked on the exchange. It's very fast to get in/out and the spreads are very competitive - no commission, they just add 1 pip to the underlying.

The main problem at the moment is that they use a Cisco VPN connection which creates an IP tunnel to their network. This means that, unless you have a router, your internet connection stops working for any other application! So, at the moment, as soon as I connect, my e-mail and charting package freeze.

They are working on this though...
 
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c6, seems like it is early days with these guys- hopefully they will get everything in order soon

Al
 
If they hedge everything then I dont see how they can make any money? For example, the spread on YM's is one point at the market - If they want to hedge into the market then they will need to pay dealing costs just the same as anyone. Overall the dealing costs would surely amount to another ticks worth??? Where does their profit come from ?

Steve.
 
I agree, Steve, hence my previous comment...

Q. Does FuturesBetting.com take positions against its clients?
A. No, we do not take positions against our clients; all bets are hedged by us in the underlying market.

Surely, they don't hedge every position in the underlying market? They'd be fools not to offset all their client positions, wouldn't they? So why don't these companies spell out exactly how they make money?

If a company is offering very tight spreads, no commission, not manipulating the price, not offsetting client positions and placing every deal in the underlying market then the only way they can make money is by using client funds for their own investment purposes (these guys state that they don't pay interest on client account balances).
Click to expand...

Simon has been very frank about the way his company operates in the "Capital Spreads" thread - maybe these guys will opt to take the same stance.

However, if we get the fills and service we require to make money, does it matter how these guys are making their money?

It would be very easy to:

automatically over-hedging the positions of successful traders or
not execute the deals on the exchange for new/unproven traders (just leave them unhedged until they reached a certain risk threshold)​

I would guess that the tax regime in Gib would also be playing a significant part their business model otherwise they wouldn't be down there (all the guys I spoke with, were Brits).

Steve
 
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They are hedged 100% but its not 1 tick spread. it all depends on how much volume one does. let me give you an example if you were to trade the YM It would cost you $5 per point or 1 lot. to get 1 tick, really 2 ticks because you pay 1 tick on the bid and 1 tick on the ask. also you need to trade over 1001 lots a month. so in short it will cost you 2 ticks as long as you trade over 1001 lots a month.

If you trade under 1001 lots you would pay 2 ticks on either side of the bid and ask simple terms you are paying 4 ticks. capital spreads are already offering you this.

If they want business they should offer 1 tick either side of the bid and ask If you could manage to get 2 tick spread for trading 100 lots a month this would be great. as in real terms you would only pay 1 tick spread because you dont pay commission. they pay it. and they still get 1 tick profit for every trade you make because they are hedged 100%.

but I would not bother with a 4 ticks spread you can get this in the UK.

Sun
 
Sun- I think initially i got the impression that these guys are like a normal direct access broker with just market spread- and then i was wondering where they get their monry earnt ............

But from what u say, seems like they are just like all the other SB's with the usual wider spreads.........



Al
 
al-motor said:
But from what u say, seems like they are just like all the other SB's with the usual wider spreads.........

Al
Click to expand...

Recieved the brochure last week, can't remember the numbers for other markets but for the Euro Stoxx (EUR 10 per 1 point move on the index) they effectively "charge" (via a spread) 4 EUR per side on the first 1000 contracts . . . ie for a round trip that's 0.8 of a point per contract . . . tax free . . . . prices based on the underlying market (which you see in real time) . . . effectively they are a broker but charging the clients via a tax-efficiant structure ie a spread bet . . .

Still looks like a good business model to me
 
The main problem at the moment is that they use a Cisco VPN connection which creates an IP tunnel to their network. This means that, unless you have a router, your internet connection stops working for any other application! So, at the moment, as soon as I connect, my e-mail and charting package freeze.

They are working on this though...
Click to expand...

They've fixed this now - works fine...

Dear Client,
Due to high demand FuturesBetting.com is now pleased to be offering the following new services.
Mini Accounts - You can now use FuturesBetting.com with just £5000 transferred into your trading account this is a 50% reduction on the normal account opening balance.
Internet Access – You can now use the internet whilst you are connected to the FuturesBetting.com VPN*. This new split profile will allow you to use your internet as you normally would for charts, Bloomberg etc whilst you are betting with FuturesBetting.com.
If you are interested in either of these offers please contact FuturesBetting.com Dealers on +(350) 47312 for information on opening a Mini account and contact FuturesBetting.com Support on +(350) 47313 for help on internet access on our VPN. Alternatively reply to this message and we will contact you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards from the FuturesBetting.com Team
* Internet access may require some system configuration changes during installation. Clients should be aware that excessive use of the internet whilst using FuturesBetting.com betting software may affect performance.
Click to expand...

Steve
 
c6ackp- or anyone else-

I spent a few minutes chatting to the guys at Futbett......... I was mainly wondering about the spreads.

I asked him about the SP 500 on the under 1000 pm............. he got me confused, but it seemed like their spread is 0.4.

I also asked about the Dow and seems like it is 4 pts.......... anyone who has the platform- can u verify these pls !??!

Like someone said, the Dow one does not seem any better than CS- SP500 is slightly better at 0.4 ( real mkt is 0.25)-


thanks
Al
 
FuturesBetting.com Spreads

Hi al-motor

I just received this spread info from FuturesBetting:

Dow:

The worst spread that will be made in the mini dow is actually five ticks.
This means 2 ticks above or below the bid/offer in the actual market.

S&P 500:

If the market price was trading 1198.75--1199.00
The Futuresbetting.com price would read. 1198.55--1199.2
Again this is the spread for the worst band as the total amount of bet's for
a calendar month of 0-1000.

There are no other charges to add.
Click to expand...

Looks like 5 pips for the Mini-YM and .65 for the S&P.

HTH
Steve
 
Steve,

Thanks very much for that- well seems like one can get 4 pts and 0.5 respectively through CS !??

So why are these guys saying about lower spreads ??
 
even if you trade over 1001 lots a month with a 1 tick spread. 1 tick either side of the bid and ask. this still equates to 3 points spread,example Dow real market bid 10450 offer 10451

FuturesBetting.com price bid 10449 offer10452. 3 ticks spread.

If you look very closely when they say 2 tick spread either side of the bid and offer, in real terms you are paying 5 ticks spread.

they need to offer 1 tick spread either side of the bid and offer under 1001 lots to get our business.
 
FuturesBetting.com

they need to offer 1 tick spread either side of the bid and offer under 1001 lots to get our business.
Click to expand...

They are now offering 3 pip spread on mini-YM with mini account (5k opening deposit required)...

Steve
 
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