Capital Spreads is the spread betting division of London Capital Group, a well established broking and proprietary trading company based in the City of London. London Capital Group is a privately owned organisation active in many world financial markets.
The Capital Spreads web trading platform gives a totally new perspective on Spread Betting and has been launched with the purpose of providing better value spread prices and speed of transaction.
You can spread bet on all the major indices, foreign exchange, commodities, bonds, interest rates and individual Shares. Our systems will allow you to enter stop loss orders, limit orders and our unique computer generated customer account management system (CAMS) will control the margin on your account so that (barring Force Majeure situations) any losses will be limited to the original deposit made when you open your position.
Our trading platform also offers a full real-time position valuation and margin availability service plus free real-time charting using our own market derived prices in all the products offered by the company.
We concentrate on the major stocks and indices that matter to you and combined with our low cost structure and ability to hedge with our own in house broking arm means that we are able to offer spreads inside those of our competitors.
If you are new to spread betting, why not try our simulated trading platform? This facility completely mimic's our live trading system and therefore allows you to become accustomed to the world of spread betting without risking your capital.
'We believe that our customer friendly attitude, our very competitive prices and our unique customer account management system puts Capital Spreads ahead of the competition. If you would like to find out more, please visit our website at www.capitalspreads.com or call us on 020 7600 0110.'
Capital Spreads |
As they state Capital Spreads is a division of London Capital Group and authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) [as with all spread betting companies offering their services to UK clients]. The company is also a member of the London Stock Exchange, LIFFE, Eurex, Deutsche Borse, Paris Bourse and Euronext.
Some of the co-founders were former members of the Cantor Index team. Don't miss trying their simulator trading platform which is actually the same as the real one - a real plus! Their major selling point is tighter spreads -- after all, that's the thing that spread betters most want. It's a small lean organisation, but seems to be growing rapidly and has now even partnered with some renowned names like eTrade and Betfair
With my last SB company the price on the screen was not the price you paid, then you were penalized a wider spread for having a deposit account (outrageous really, you pay money into their bank account and they charge you more for the privilege) also the total profit and loss which was displayed on screen was nowhere near the closing price.
Capital Spreads convinced me to use them last November, a virtual and real account was set up in minutes. Their trading platform is very simple to use and what you see is what you get, quick and reliable.
After using their simulated account for some time I have now done 15 trades for real. I am happy to say that every one of the trades was filled at the screen price, and the stops were activated at the correct level. The site is sooooo easy to use. Inputting to your portfolio is hassle free as is removing. But the best thing is when you want to exit a trade. Simply press close, the screen comes up with the 'opposite' trade button. No chance of mistakenly doing another trade. Wonderful! .
Their spreads though...the Dec Wall Street is quoted 10 wide, daily is quoted 6 wide...this compares favorably with all the SB companies. The FX...the forward FX i.e the quarterly prices are 10 wide (some of the other spread betting companies quote anywhere from 14 to 40!!) and their daily FX prices are 4 to 5 wide .
They do not make re-quotes, a deal is either done or not. (as in the real market) and they don't seem to be looking for the really big punters so their maximum size in the various markets should be enough to allow nearly all trades to just go straight through.
They do not activate Stop Losses when they are closed. If the market goes through your stop loss level and then back up again in out of hours trading Capital Spreads ignores the stop and lets your position running.
BUT (warning) they do apply slippage...As per their terms and conditions...so if the market closes just short of your stop level and then opens up the next day a long way through you will be stopped out at the level that the market opens up at the next day and not at your stop level.
With CMC Markets to exit a bet you must trade out on their spread no matter how long you hold the position. If you have a daily bet with CapitalSpreads in the FTSE it expires at the closing level of the FTSE that day with no additional spread added. This of course transfers the position to them to try to get out of in the market. (something that can be very costly to Capital Spreads).
Yes, automatic stop loss is a bit off putting ... but you can move the stop to wherever you like (as long as you have the margin on the account) so I suppose that they would claim they are protecting you from unforseen moves. Mind you they are also protecting themselves from having to call customers up for money!! Which probably makes them happier. The further away the stop is placed the more margin is used. The computer applies 20% extra margin to the stop level (this is the protection against gapping in the market) so that if you had a stop of 100 points on a £10 bet this would use £1200 of margin.
Evidently a new company finding their feet, but seem very interested in feedback from potential users - a very good point in my book and I can fully recommend them.
Please do not copy/paste this content without permission. If you want to use any of it on your website contact us via email at 
traderATfinancial-spread-betting.com (remove the AT and substitute by @).