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Tradindex - New Website Review


Corporate History

TradIndex is a financial spread betting company launched in April 2002 by one of Europe’s largest broker firms – Tradition. Tradition is the interdealer broking arm of Compagnie Financière Tradition and specialises in broker services for over-the-counter financial products.

Ownership

Compagnie Financière Tradition is a world leader in the brokerage of financial and commodity related products. Founded in 1959, the group today is one of the largest brokerage companies in the world, with 34 offices located in 21 countries. Globally, the group has over 3,000 institutional clients and employs over 2100 people, 600 of whom are based in London. Compagnie Financière Tradition shares have been listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange since 1973…

General Points

  1. TradIndex offers inexperienced investors a virtual platform where they can get to grips with the process of spread betting. Betters are given a virtual £20,000, which they can trade in real time.
  2. You do get a free book entitled 'The Beginner’s Guide to Financial Spread Betting' which is written independently of TradIndex and is a decent enough introduction to spread betting as a whole. You even get this free book if you just sign up for a virtual account. In that TradIndex is very innovative regarding customer connection. One gets a book, Christmas cards, USB sticks.
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  3. Platform is based on dotnet and asp (so no java or flash is required).
  4. Stop losses are mandatory in the sense that you have to have one but they are not guaranteed.
  5. Credit facilities are not available. This, says TradIndex, does away with a laborious sign-up process and the need for extensive credit checks.
  6. No rolling daily contracts but Tradindex are expecting to introduce this feature to the website in the near future.
  7. Research and Charting News headlines & charting from FT Marketwatch, plus economic events calendar.
  8. Mobile trading is available.

Good Points

  1. Easy to use.
  2. Beautifully simple interface.
  3. Reasonable spreads.
  4. Claims no dealer intervention on client trades.
  5. 'Player' account enables free practicing with virtual money.
  6. It works from a browser window without installing any extras. I can trade at work or even at a library though it's not always easy to monitor the prices there.
  7. Minimum bet size is a mere £1 unlike some others.
  8. Tradindex offers one of the most agile platforms on the markets. No waiting for download updates and stuff, no waiting for the layout/instruments to load – you simply log on and trade!

Bad Points

  1. Live prices don't work on a Mac.
  2. Can't place a 'buy' order above the current price or a 'sell' order below the current price, so momentum trading has to be done manually.
  3. Limited range of products.
  4. Limited charting capabilities.
  5. Trading hours are limited to normal trading hours UK or US.
  6. TradIndex imposes a 30 point minimum stop on the Dow - then again, that is calculated into the margin - I just wish they would leave the margin requirement where it is and increase the NTR rather than enforcing 30 point Dow stops - I usually want around 10 on news, and a max of 20 on normal day trades).

More cons than pros in the list I know but I just really like using it. Perhaps TradIndex can be thought of as a sort of no-frills version of a financial spread betting website. Even so a wide range of markets are covered. For instance, stock indices such as the FTSE 100 and the Nikkei are complemented with access to less common exchanges such as the Milan MIB and the Swiss market. TradIndex also allows traders to take positions on commodities such as Brent Crude, High Grade Copper, silver, gold and platinum. Moreover, the site provides access to currencies, bonds (10 year UK gilts and US long bonds) and single shares from the major UK, US and continental European markets.

Please note that here we are only giving an account of our experiences and readers comments/contributions, please do not take this as advice to open/close/avoid any firms - your experience might be different! Send us your comments by filling in the form below.

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