Financial Spread Betting » financial spread betting

Worldspreads to drop Sport Betting Division

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:08:23 +0000

Dublin-listed financial spread-betting firm Worldspreads says it has decided to exit its small sports spread betting division after a difficult year for the unit.

The company says this will result in a once-off write down in the carrying value of the sports division of about €1.5m. Worldspreads says it is currently reviewing a number of options in relation to the division and will make an announcement ‘very soon’.

In a trading update this morning, the company said that its core financial spread betting business has continued to trade strongly during the second half of its financial year.

It said that excluding the results of its sports division, it expects to announce group profit before tax for the year to March 2009 in line with market expectations. However, it added that the depreciation in the value of sterling against the euro during the year has reduced its UK-based revenues, which make up about 40% of its overall revenues.

Worldspreads said it has continued its expansion plans with new partnerships signed in Poland, Russia, the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic during the last six months. It says these new ventures are expected to have a positive impact on its results in the next financial year.

In October, WorldSpreads reported a 137 percent rise in pre-tax profits to €3.1 million for the six-month period up to the end of September. It revealed that revenues were 69 percent higher at €8.43 million with operating costs up 50 percent year-on-year over the period to €4.49 million due to investment in marketing and IT development.

In addition, it reported that average daily bets increased 104 percent to 4,793 while the number of active financial clients rose by 45 percent to 2,525.

Thoughts: Seems fairly sensible for WorldSpreads to focus on its core financial spread betting offering.

Paddy sees trades in shares increase as ISEQ drops below 2,000 to pre Celtic Tiger levels

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:23:26 +0000

Paddy Power’s financial spread betting venture, Paddy Power Trader has been following the movement of its client base trading Irish shares for the past number of days. Despite considerable volatility in the international markets, paddypowertrader says that retail investors are piling into Irish equities.

‘We are watching more and more customers putting their money into Irish equities as the Irish index hits the headlines. With the market dropping to a significant low today to 1981.40 * down 3.3% on opening, we have seen short bets as the most popular with savvy spread bettors.’ said Davin McAnaney, Commercial Manager of Paddy Power Trader.

‘Retail investors have been taking heed of volatile international markets and delving into financial spread betting. Since January we have seen an upsurge in subscriptions to our paddypowertrader.com. We can see further expansion into Irish equities as market uncertainty continues. With the ISEQ back below 2,000 it’s like the Celtic Tiger never happened. The ISEQ index hit an all time high in May 2007 of 10,364* points so it’s been a long fall.’ he continued.

‘The last time that the ISEQ index was below 2,000, on July 3rd 1995*, the Celtic Tiger was still a cub. Now it looks like he is dead and buried. It seems he was wiped out by the bears. However our clients are still able to realise gains by making short bets on a bearish market,’ concluded McAnaney.

Financial Spread Betting allows you to bet on the performance of a share or index therefore it is possible to make a sell or short bet on the underlying instrument as well as to make a buy or long bet. Going short therefore permits traders to make money even in volatile or falling markets. Being short in Financial Spread Betting can be a winning strategy.

Paddy Power Trader launched in the summer of 2007 enabling clients to take advantage of the many benefits of financial spread betting, including being a tax-free alternative to trading shares and financial markets. The product continues to grow in popularity in the UK and Ireland, amongst not only financial industry professionals, but also amongst those with an interest in the stock market.

ISEQ Level at 10.30am on 24 February 2009 – 1981.40

ISEQ Level at close 3 July 1995 – 1998.82

ISEQ Level at close 22 May 2007 – 10,364

And here’s an update on the trader report (see PDF) from Paddy to help you understand how markets around the world are faring.

On the markets front there is no let up as indices continue to fall below key support levels. On Friday the Netherlands AEX fell to 198.22, its lowest since July 1995. It is now down 71.8% from its all time high of 703 of September 1995. Londons FTSE 100 was down to 3492 on Friday, its lowest since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003 and down 48.3% since its all time high of July 2007. Germanys DAX fell to 3638 on Friday, a loss of 55.4% from its all time high of 8151, also in July 2007. Swiss SMI fell to 4311 on Friday, its lowest level since April 2003 and down 54.8% from its all time high of 9548 in June 2007. The Dow has now fallen to its lowest level since April 1997 and it is now down 54% since its all time high of 14,198 of October 2007.

Thoughts: Paddy are a clever bunch and have made educating clients about spread betting a central function in their marketing efforts.

More Trading Reports from Paddy

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:12:05 +0000

Knowledge and education are two of the most crucial parts to being a successful spread bettor. Paddy has today launched a learning tool called a trader report (see PDF) in order to help traders be more informed on market movements. This, claim the PR people at Paddy is a revolutionary measure to help traders develop more skills and familiarise with the market.

The daily trader report will be a daily insight into movers and shakers in the main Irish and world markets. Compiled by analysts at Paddy Power team each morning, the reports are aimed at aiding traders and media on the markets. The trader reports will be available daily to visitors to the Paddy Power website. Just click on the link Trader Report.

‘Enhancing the usability of our website, platform and enhancing the educational tools available to traders and spread bettors is a key priority for paddypowertrader.com,’ Davin McAnaney, Commercial Manager of paddypowertrader.com.

‘We have been enabling retail investors and novice spread bettors to enter into the spread betting arena for the past 18 months. This is just another example of bringing creative and innovative products to users of our services,’ McAnaney continued.

‘The trader reports will help to inform clients and look likely to be a popular tool for both advanced and novice spread bettors everywhere,’ he concluded.

Thoughts: No doubt another marketing exercise by the team at Paddy Power but the report reveals some interesting data on how poorly the markets have performed over last year – the FTSE 100 having gone down 25.52%, the Dow 32.21%, NASDAQ even worse with a 36.35% decline and how the Pound has seriously weakened when compared to its old counterparts, the Dollar and Euro; £/USD experiencing a massive 25.30% shortfall over the year and a corresponding strenghtening of the EUR against the Pound (EUR/£ 21.06%).

Asian-facing Pan Index upgrades platform

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:34:42 +0000

Pan-Index.com a financial spread betting company based in Ireland and specialising mostly for the Asian Market (Hang Seng, Taiwan stocks…etc) upgrades its platform.

Press Annoucement follows…

Your first choice of financial spread trading! – Pan-Index, the ideal place to rapidly multiply your wealth.

We are the pioneer of ‘European Style’ Online Financial Trading. Through out the years, Pan-Index strives silently to create the remarkable brand prestige, our idea is not to pursue the largest scale, but is to provide the service of Excellency!

You can enjoy numbers of investment advantages in Pan-Index, which are:

various markets available, providing you with multi investing opportunities.

unlike the traditional way, you can make profit from all our markets no matter if it is ascending/descending.

One Click Execution: the easiest, the fastest, advance yet user friendly trading system.

free analysis diagram.

Cash in safe and easy; cash out fast and secure!

Warm and friendly multilingual hotline service.

PartyGaming launches financial spread-betting service

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:38:54 +0000

London-listed PartyGaming, the online gambling company, has launched an online trading platform for derivative-based transactions including financial spread-betting and contracts for difference in alliance with City Index Group.

Under the terms of the alliance, City Index will develop the platform to provide PartyGaming customers with access to global financial markets through which they can trade CFDs in the UK, Europe and Asia, with the additional option of financial spread betting for UK residents.

The PartyMarkets.com service will plug a gap in PartyGaming’s online gaming portfolio. It will sit alongside other brands including PartyPoker.com, EmpirePoker.com, PartyCasino.com, PartyBingo.com, PartyGammon.com, PartyBets.com and Gamebookers.com.

City Index aims to gain access to a large number of new and potentially lucrative punters, as a result of the deal. John O’Malia, PartyGaming’s group managing director, said: ‘Our agreement with City Index enables us to develop an exciting new group of products for our customers that will be exclusive in the online gaming market. Derivative trading on financial markets is already a multi-billion dollar market and we believe this will prove to be a popular addition for our customers.’

The Gibraltar-based PartyGaming Group was founded in 1997 by Ruth Parasol and her husband Russ DeLeon, who were ranked at 97 on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List. In June 2005, PartyGaming floated on the London Stock Exchange at a value of £4.64 billion ($8.46 billion).

City Index provides retail derivative trading through CFDs, foreign exchange, options and, in the UK, spread betting. The group trades primarily under the City Index, Finspreads and FX Solutions brands and also provides a fully outsourced white label solution to numerous partners.

Clive Cooke, chief executive of City Index, said: ‘We are delighted to be working with PartyGaming in opening up the financial markets to a wider audience, and are excited about developing what we expect will prove to be popular new products as part of the PartyMarkets offer over the coming months.’

London Capital Group buys FuturesBetting.com For GBP0.4M

admin — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:47:00 +0000

London Capital Group Holdings, which operates Capital Spreads, a spread betting company, announced Tuesday that it has acquired FuturesBetting.com, a Gibraltar based financial spread betting business.

The consideration consists of an initial GBP200,000 paid on completion plus a maximum of a further GBP200,000 dependant upon performance over a three year period.

The acquisition has been financed out of existing financial resources within the Group and will not require any external debt or equity capital.

Launched in 2005, FuturesBetting.com provides experienced traders with a professional trading platform that offers fast and reliable spread betting execution on major indices, currencies and commodities. The platform is particularly popular with individual professional traders as it offers unique DMA (Direct Market Access) functionality which is unavailable on other spread betting platforms.

LCG will operate FuturesBetting.com as a stand-alone platform with its own marketing and brand positioning. LCG expects FuturesBetting.com’s position to be strengthened by leveraging LCG’s customer base and bytargeting more sophisticated and experienced investors.

The FuturesBetting.com platform will go live shortly.

Worldspreads enjoys best ever trading period

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:56:07 +0000

Spread betting specialist WorldSpreads enjoyed a fivefold increase in profits to €1.3m for the six months to the end of September 2007, the company reported yesterday.

The figures, the first since it launched on the AIM market in August, show an impressive 80pc jump in turnover to €5m and a very significant increase in the number of clients on its books as well as the average number of bets made during the period.

WorldSpreads specialises in financial spread betting, with punters taking positions on share or currency price movements. It also offers clients a sports betting facility.

Chief executive Conor Foley said the business is currently enjoying exceptional growth both in the number of clients and the average number of bets per day. “The volatility in the financial markets has certainly provided much buying and selling opportunities and our clients have embraced these with enthusiasm,” said Mr Foley.

Growth

“We have experienced growth in all of our geographic segments and are particularly happy with the progress we have made in our local Irish market.

“Our international expansion is continuing and we have seen encouraging progress, particularly in Spain and Hungary,” Mr Foley said.

He added that the group will continue to follow its strategy of expansion into selected international markets by working with reputable and well established local partners with established client bases.

“However, sports spread betting, which now represents less than 10pc of the group’s activity, performed below expectations,” he said.

TD Waterhouse has introduced quarterly bets to its Financial Spread Betting service

admin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:35:10 +0000

Execution-only broker TD Waterhouse has introduced a facility to make quarterly bets within its Financial Spread Betting service. The quarterly bets cover indices, equities, currencies and commodities on both UK and international markets.

The move is a response to the increasing number of investors who are using spread betting to hedge against risk in their portfolios. Angus Rigby, chief executive at TD Waterhouse UK, observes that ‘Although the majority of our spread betting volume tends to be speculators taking long positions, the use of spread bets as a hedging tool is growing. In recent weeks, as markets have fallen, we have seen a surge of activity in short positions on UK, US and European indices.’

He adds, ‘We have added quarterly bets in response to demand from longer-term investors, who tend to hold positions for weeks or months and therefore find quarterly bets easier and more cost effective than daily rolling bets.’

Quarterly bets have a fixed expiry date and, as the name suggests, they remain valid for a specific quarter. Investors have the option of allowing them to be settled for cash at expiry or closing them at any time before the set expiry date. But unlike daily rolling bets, quarterly bets do not incur overnight financing charges, as the financing costs of holding the position are included in the spread.

Rigby concludes that ‘For investors holding positions for weeks or months, quarterly bets are easier and more cost effective to use than daily rolling bets. And to help investors control their risk, the TD Waterhouse Financial Spread Betting service offers a Limited Risk Account, which automatically places a guaranteed stop-loss on every bet. For investors wanting to take greater risks, the Standard Account offers a choice of order types including limits, stop-losses and guaranteed stop-losses.’

Cantor’s Former Spread-Betting Head Sues Firm for $30 Million

admin — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:50:37 +0000

Cantor Fitzgerald LP is being sued for as much as $30 million by the former head of its U.K. spread- betting business, in a dispute over Cantor’s plans for the lucrative division.

Lewis Findlay, who helped set up the Cantor Index unit six years ago, claims he was wrongfully dismissed by the company last January. He’s now pursuing two separate lawsuits to protect his stake in the business and says he’s entitled to a multimillion dollar payout for the money he would have made if it’s sold or listed on an exchange.

It’s the second time Cantor, which lost the majority of its U.S. staff in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been hit with a big-money employment lawsuit in Britain. Steven Horkulak, a former London-based broker, was awarded 795,000 pounds ($1.5 million) in 2004 over his claim that he was bullied into quitting by Cantor’s Lee Amaitis.

Findlay’s case, which had a preliminary hearing today at the High Court in London, centers on a so-called incentive agreement he signed in 2003, entitling him to share in the proceeds of a successful sale or share listing of Cantor Index.

‘We believe the claim is without merit and we will robustly defend our position,’ Cantor’s London office said in a statement.

Bonus Payment.

The company specializes in financial spread-betting, which allows traders to gamble on the movement of share or commodities prices, without the tax and disclosure obligations of share ownership. While Cantor last week announced plans for a $460 million initial share sale of its BGC Partners Ltd. brokerage unit in the U.S., it has retained ownership of Cantor Index.

Findlay claims that his stake in the company would be worth between $20 million and $30 million, given an estimated market valuation of between $200 million and $300 million. He’s also seeking his bonus payment for 2004 and compensation for alleged damage to his reputation and employment prospects, according to documents submitted to the High Court.

Cantor denies wrongdoing and today argued that the court should strike out most of Findlay’s claims relating to the incentive agreement, on the grounds that he knew the risks of leaving the company and that there was no breach of his contract.

Findlay’s second claim, filed at a U.K. employment tribunal in August, has been temporarily postponed pending the outcome of the High Court case.

A full trial on the claim is scheduled for July.