Trade FTSE 100 Shares
Certainly, the most popular individual shares for spreadbetters belong to the FTSE 100. A good starting point for anyone wanting to use spread betting for profit is the list of FTSE 100 shares. The FTSE 100 is made up of the hundred biggest blue-chip companies in the UK market, and as such they represent about 80% in value of the stock market. This equates to about 9% of the global share market. Many of these companies are household names, so you have a starting point for getting to know enough about them to feel comfortable trading them.
Companies like Rio Tinto and Barclays are very liquid, highly traded, and volatile within a narrow range. For spread betters and traders who day trade the markets this means that there will always be a certain degree of movement and potential profits to be made by employing technical analysis. However, arguably, the skills necessary to trade such small movements may be unfamiliar to beginner investors so some think the FTSE 100 may not the best place to start trading..
Because they are the largest companies in the UK, blue chip stocks are also heavily involved in the world markets, which means that international happenings have an effect on their share prices, another factor to be noted in your research. They are less volatile than smaller companies, but this is a positive factor when you are learning to trade as you stand less chance of being caught out by large swings in prices.
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One sector of the FTSE 100 which has been particularly hard hit in the last year is banking. It’s no secret that the financial sector has suffered considerably as a result of the global credit problems, and it is likely that there are further losses to come. Banks have had to make enormous write-downs on their accounts, which has resulted in share prices plummeting, and there is evidence that we are not out of the woods yet. The banks that are leading the slide are household names, such as Lloyds, RBS, and Standard Chartered.
In contrast to this, the mining sector is strong, reflecting increasing prices for basic materials which in the long-term may become in short supply due to the rise in demand from emerging markets. This includes companies such as Xstrata, and Rio Tinto.
The oil sector is a particularly troublesome one at the moment, with the shares in BP looking especially unsafe. The massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has been repeatedly underestimated by the experts, and this continues to put pressure on the value of the company. Coupled with this is the move to raise the limits on compensation that can be awarded for victims of the spill, which leaves a very open ended commitment on the table.
There are several advantages to spread betting on the FTSE 100, compared to other ways of trading. For a start, spread betting is a leveraged product, meaning that your money can go further than if you traded in shares. It is also as easy to take a short position as a long one, meaning that you can profit from share prices falling as simply as from them rising. It’s true that contracts for difference have these same advantages, but where financial spread betting scores over CFDs is in the taxation. Betting is tax exempt, but tax is due on profits from trading contracts for difference.
For some traders and traditional buy and hold investors, of course, these benefits may not offset the time and skill needed to dedicate researching the markets. However, certain markets are easier than others to manage, with FTSE 250 shares being an ideal place to start.
Trading FTSE 100 Shares: Company Analysis and Examples
Spread Bet the BHP Billington Future
Spread Bet on International Airlines Group | British Airways
Spread Betting on HSBC Shares Rolling Daily
Spread Bet Next Rolling Daily Shares Example
Spread Betting on Tesco Example
Trade Lloyds Banking Group
Spread Bet Lloyds Banking Group Example
Spread Bet Rio Tinto Example
Spread Bet BP Shares Example
Spread Betting Royal Dutch Shell | Trade Royal Dutch Shell
Spread Bet the Royal Dutch Shell Rolling Daily
Spread Betting AstraZeneca | Trade AstraZeneca
Spread Betting Aviva | Trade Aviva
Spread Betting Barclays | Trading Barclays
Spread Bet GlaxoSmithKline
Spread Betting Royal Bank of Scotland Group | Trading RBS Shares
Spread Betting Unilever | Trading Unilever
Spread Trading Vodafone Group | Betting on Vodafone Group
Spreadbetting Xstrata | Trading Xstrata
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