Hargreaves partner with IG to offer spreads and CFDs

Hargreaves Lansdown has announced plans to start offering financial spread betting and contracts for difference trading to clients in partnership with IG Index; the leading UK spread betting site.

HL Markets will offer investors access to UK and international shares as well as other assets including currency pairs, indices, commodities, interest rates, government bonds and metals. Investors will be able to place trades and orders online or over the telephone.

Comments: So another wealth manager joining the spread betting bandwagon. Hargreaves and IG Group are attractive companies but it does not automatically follow that they should be in bed together as they cater to very much different clients and investment philosophies. The risk here is biggest for Hargreaves Lansdown as it might be setting itself a booby trap. How long will it be before Hargreaves clients that were avid investors in simple Peps and Isas decide to dabble in something they don’t understand and lose a fortune? And isn’t it curious that Hargreaves Lansdown don’t like structured products but they are willing to take a financial ‘cut’ in derivatives and let people have a go at CFDs and spread betting?

Tags: Hargreaves, IG Group, IG Index

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 10:46 am and is filed under Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.