ShortandLongs Review

ShortsandLongs a new spread betting provider? Nay... It is part of Spreadex and although the ShortsandLongs site was launched in September 2008, Spreadex has a long history going back to 1999. It seems Spreadex have at last woken up to the fact that they need to launch a specialised financial spread betting service to attract the masses. ShortsandLongs covers markets such as indices, UK shares, commodities, currencies and bonds with very competitive spreads (at least for indices and shares). The site is innovative in that it offers mandatory free guaranteed stops on every trade you place.

The main differences between Spreadex and ShortsandLongs in terms of offering is -:
  1. ShortsandLongs is a financial product only.
  2. ShortsandLongs does not offer credit.
  3. You can only lose what is in your account.
  4. Free guaranteed stops are available S&L.
  5. ShortsandLongs offers tighter spreads

I think those are the main differences. ShortsandLongs doesn't offer all the markets that Spreadex offers and you can't trade on futures, but the complete list of what is on offer on S&L is here. Lastly, ShortsandLongs is clearly regulated by the FSA. I'd go with them anytime over a foreign company or one with no regulation or protection of funds.

General Points (we will strive to keep this review up-to-date)

  1. ShortsandLongs only caters for investors with a UK address. All transactions on your ShortsandLongs account will be in sterling and there are no inactivity fees. In applying for an account with them I found I was spoiled for choice as to what appellation I should choose to be addressed with from the list supplied in the on-line application. These include:- 'Brigadier, Doctor, Duke, Sheik, Lord, Lady, The Honourable, General, Lord, Right Honourable, Mr, Mrs, Professor, The Reverend" ...oh, and Ms'. Unfortunately they have left out the options of 'Marquis, Prebendary' and, in my case, 'Peasant'. :-(
  2. No minimum deposit - this really depends on where you place your stop, so really the minimum would be £10 if you traded £1 of daily FTSE with a stop 10 points away. Minimum and maximum stake size depends on the market you are trading but the minimum is generally £1. Full details are available on the market information sheets, or by hovering over the 'i' information icon against a market, and any restrictions will be indicated on the trading ticket.
  3. Trades can be selected to be rolled over or not. Also, you can set the amount at risk by either monetary risk or ShortsandLongs sell level.
  4. FTSE Daily spread is 1 and future is 3. Dow Daily spread is 3 and future is 5. Minimum stakes on all markets is £1. FTSE is quoted from 8am - 9pm and the Dow cash is 7am - 9pm and the Dow futures is 7am - 9.15pm.
  5. After-hours trading is also offered with spreads widening on certain markets.
  6. As an additional note if you have multiple bets open on the same market you can choose to close specific positions by selecting 'my positions' from the trading floor menu of your account and then clicking the 'c' for close button to the right-hand side of the trade you want to close. This will close the trade at the price specified in the 'price to close' column resulting in a profit or loss as indicated in the 'Profit and Loss' column.
  7. Minimum stop distance multipliers have now been pushed back to 8.00pm basically the minimum stop distances used to widen at 4.30pm on most of out markets but we have changed that to 8pm. So, for example, the minimum stop distance on the UK 100, Daily is 20 points and now widens to 60 points at 8pm instead of 4.30pm (as in the past). Basically this offers greater value to ShortsandLongs clients and means they can put new trades on up until 8pm still using the tight minimum stop distance (and so not needing as much in their account to place trades etc).
  8. A statement detailing your transactions is produced weekly on a Sunday night, and will be accessible once logged into your account on the Monday morning. Confirmations with details of your activity on your account are also sent on a daily basis. Additionally, individual confirmations will be sent to you confirming every trading or trade editing action.
  9. Education: ShortsandLongs provides a Video Training Centre which includes a guide on how to place spreadbets and manage positions on the trading platform.

Good Points

  1. Execution is very fast.
  2. Nice looking flash based trading platform - very clean, neat and simple user interface, with absolute clarity regarding the current 'risk' on each open position.
  3. Rolling spread bets remain open without crystallising and a funding debit or credit is applied to your account.
  4. Competitive rolling shares charges: rolling charges for UK 100 shares are now 0.05% (down from 0.10%), UK 250 shares are now 0.1% and non UK 350 shares are 0.2%. (US shares are 0.1%).
  5. Stops are guaranteed. This means that you can never lose more than your balance - all open spread bets must have a set level at which they will be closed should the market move against you. This set level is guaranteed and is referred to as a 'risk' level or 'stop' or 'guaranteed stop'. However, you can only place a bet size where the downside is completely covered by your deposit in your account. For example, if you bought the FTSE @ 4300 for £10 and placed a stop @ 4280 then you would need £200 in your account.
  6. Guaranteed Stops can be moved after having been placed - if the market is open and you have sufficient funds available to cover the extra exposure i.e. The guaranteed stop level can even be moved lock in profits.
  7. Spreads are tight (on shares and key indices at least)!.
  8. There is no margin requirement for placing a trade so stops can be placed very tight with no buffer or haircut. The minimum distance away on the Dow is 20 points, this means you could place a quick £1 with a 20 point stop with £20 on the Dow! The minimum stop distance for the FTSE is even tighter at 10 points.
  9. Good Support. They have a direct contact email system from the site where you can email their traders directly with any queries or comments.
  10. ShortsandLongs have recently introduced a good charting package powered by IT-Finance (previously no charts were offered).

Bad Points

  1. Limited range of markets. For instance individual share futures are not available and stock selection is currently limited to FTSE 350 shares.
  2. Don't quote forex 24 hours, also their customer service desk is manned for only part of the day.
  3. Orders to open are currently not supported. i.e. only Market and Stop orders (stops now support Limit Orders).
  4. No discount for rolling futures positions. Seems it is more advantageous to use ShortsandLongs for rolling daily trades. However, the financing fees for rolling daily positions are higher than some other spread betting companies - I guess this is the charge for the 'free' guaranteed stop orders.
  5. I don't like that they close FTSE trades at 16.30 then open again about 15-20 minutes later, I basically just use it for my FTSE short term trades 1pt spread during market hrs with guaranteed stops!

Verdict: More experienced spread betters are likely to want more functionality but for beginners the simplicity of ShortsandLongs and guaranteed stops are great.

ShortandLongs' Market Information Sheets here (opens up as a new window as a PDF file, correct as of 28/10/10)

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