Financial Spread Betting News

Terms and Conditions:

1. Funds must be held on the deposit account.
2. Interest will only be paid if the deposit has been held for one complete calendar month.
3. Only payable on unencumbered funds as defined in the glossary in Spreadex's Customer Agreement.
4. Opening stakes only.
5. No rolling daily bets.
6. Shares under GBP2 do not qualify.
7. All bets in S&P are divided by 10 for the purposes of calculating the amount bet.
8. Spreadex reserves the right to withdraw this offer at any time and to exercies their sole discretion as to whether or not to allow a client to open a bet.
9. Spreadex reserves the right to withdraw this offer should it have reasonable belief that the offer is being abused in any way.
10. Spreadex is the sole arbiter of these rules and any other issues arising under this offer.

• All Stop and Limit Orders to be triggered by our bid/offer not the mid-price.
• Simplified Controlled Risk pricing and execution.
• Automatic adjustments to existing position and orders.

We are changing the way that we operate our limited risk service. This will affect both guaranteed and non-guaranteed Stop and Limit Orders on all of our financial spread betting markets. Most significantly, you will no longer have the option to view Controlled Risk prices as all bets will be based on the regular bid/offer price.

These changes are designed to simply betting with limited risk, and will make it easier for you to place orders.

Essentially, you will now only see one bid/offer price for each of our financial markets. That is, there will no longer be a distinct Controlled Risk price. If you choose to open a Controlled Risk bet, with a guaranteed Stop, a Controlled Risk premium will instead be added to your opening price.

And whether you use a guaranteed or a non-guaranteed Stop, the order will now only be triggered if the relevant closing price (that is, the bid price for a long position, the offer price for a long position) hits your stated level.

This means that you will no longer pay the full dealing spread when you open your Controlled Risk bet, and your bet will no longer close at the mid-price (or the market bid/offer price in the case of bets on shares).

So you pay the opening spread on opening, plus the Controlled Risk premium, and the closing spread on closing.

In practice…

Say you want to ‘buy’ our Daily Wall Street as a Controlled Risk bet, in order to put an absolute limit on any potential losses. Our quote is 13310 – 13314, and you decide to bet GBP5 per point at our offer price. The Controlled Risk premium of 3 points is added now, so that your opening price is 13317.

You only want to risk losing GBP300, so you need to restrict your position from going more than 60 points against you. You therefore place your guaranteed Stop at 13257. Your bet will then be automatically closed should our bid price (or ‘sell’ price) hit 13257.

Suppose the index falls later in the day and our price for Daily Wall Street drops to 13257 – 13261. Your bet will now be closed at 13257 for a loss of (13317 – 13257) x GBP5 per point = GBP300.

Important Note: In this example the mid-price of our quote has not actually dropped to your Stop level of 13257, and the market may indeed rally before it hits this level, but your bet is closed because the bid price has hit 13257. From July 2 you should please bear this in mind when setting your Stop levels.

Orders to Open

These changes will also affect any order you place to open a new position should the market hit your specified level (known as an ‘order to open’).

For instance, if you place a Limit Order to ‘buy’ our Spot EUR/USD should the price fall to 13554, this order will be triggered if our price reaches 13552 – 13554. That is, the order will be triggered if our offer price hits 13554, as it is no longer dependent on the mid-price of our quote.

You should note however that, as with all our Limit Orders to open new positions, we may not always be able to fill your order in the full size requested, dependent on conditions in the underlying market.

Your current bets and orders

We shall make automatic adjustments to your open bets and active orders at midnight on 1 July to accommodate these changes.

Active orders

Any active orders you have on 1 July, whether to open or to close, guaranteed or non-guaranteed, will be switched from the old method (based on the mid-price) to the new one (based on the relevant bid or offer price).

For instance, an order to ‘buy’ our Spot GBP/USD should the mid-price hit 19824.5 will be automatically converted into an order to ‘buy’ if the offer price hits 19826 (as a bid/offer of 19823 – 19826 equates to a mid-price of 19824.5).

This adjustment will be based on our normal ‘in-hours’ dealing spread, even if the market is trading ‘out-of-hours’ at the time of the switchover. We strongly advise you to check all of your adjusted order levels on July 2, so you can make any revisions as desired.

Open bets

Also, for any Controlled Risk bets you have open at midnight 1 July, a rebate will b e made to your account to cover the difference between the two methods of calculation.

For instance, say you open a Controlled Risk bet on September FTSE before the switchover date. The Controlled Risk price is 6483 and you ‘buy’ GBP10 per point at the opening price of 6492 (i.e. 6483 plus the full Controlled Risk spread of 9 points, which includes a dealing spread of 6 points).

From 2 July, under the new method, you will pay a closing spread on this bet at the regular bid price for September FTSE. As you have already paid the full dealing spread on opening, we will therefore credit a rebate of half the dealing spread you have paid upfront. This works out at GBP10 per point x 3 points = GBP30.

The bet can now be closed at the regular bid price at no extra cost to you. Your Stop Level will also have been adjusted from the mid-price to the bid price as described above.

Online Financial Bookmakers BetsForTraders have opened their global headquarters in Douglas, Isle of Man.

BetsForTraders offer fixed odds betting on stocks, stock indices and foreign exchange via a real-time web dealing interface to a predominantly European and Asian client base.

The company's senior management recently moved to the Island from New York City to pursue the private equity funded venture having decided that the Island was by far the leading offshore jurisdiction for e-business. With backgrounds in Hedge Fund Management and Computer Science the founders focused their jurisdiction selection on local laws, taxation and level of workforce education.

Joe Paterson, company spokesman said, "We found that the solid banking industry in the Isle of Man provided a fantastic recruitment ground for administrative, payments and help-desk staff. The local labour market is well trained in managing financial transactions and providing the first class customer support that we insist on offering.

The Isle of Man tax regime empowers us to hedge the risk that we accumulate in the course of business. If we located the Company in a jurisdiction where tax was payable on trading gains then our hedges would be rendered ineffective. We would have to hand over a large chunk of the money we earn in the markets to offset our client's gains to the tax man. By locating in the Isle of Man we are able to pass on the benefit of our low trading costs and an advantageous tax regime to our clients in the form of better odds. Our clients are intelligent people, many of whom make a lot of money in the markets, they demand good odds and we are pleased to be in a position to offer them. Fixed odds financial betting, otherwise known as binary betting, is the speculation method of choice for many punters, unlike spread betting there is no possibility of losing more than your stake on any single bet but the potential for profit is significant"

Tim Craine, the Government’s E-Business Director commented that "the arrival of BetsForTraders is a further boost for the e-business sector and is further evidence of the broadening of the e-business base. We find increasingly that companies such as BetsForTraders are selecting the Isle of Man as their preferred base of operations after carrying out due diligence on a range of possible locations."

Having settled in to running the business from the Island the Company now plan to expand their product offering with a new range of bets on commodity prices and international interest rates. No date has yet been set for the new product launch but Ryan Kneale, a Client Service Executive for the company said "We get so many requests for these and other more exotic markets on which punters wish to bet that it is only a matter of time – as liquidity providers in the financial betting space we are continuously innovating to meet demand. Our pipe-line of new products and services is continuously growing"

The talk over the weekend was all about takeovers, acquisitions mergers etc. There does not seem to be much discussion nowadays about companies that are just going along running their businesses to the best of their ability. Now it is more on the financial engineering possibilities over REITS, increasing debt levels or sale and lease back of property assets.

After the rally on Friday the evening session was a little bit of a dampener but this morning all this has been reversed with the Dax once more back above 8000 at new all time highs. The index is called 20 higher this morning at 8050-8052 and the FTSE has recovered the post 4.30 fall off and is called a few pips up at 6733-6734. With Sainsbury and ICI in the headlights and presumably the loser in the ABN raid also up for grabs we can look forward to the loss of a further three FTSE 100 stocks and with the rather specialist stakeholder activism creeping into the UK we can also expect to see a lot of cash flowing from companies into shareholders pockets as corporate giants are forced into borrowing more. Of course such things may be good for big, tax efficient foreign investment arms but for many private equity holders the thought of having to be forced to accept 'special cash' dividends (on which they must pay 40% tax) to the possible long term detriment of a company’s structural strength and thus the share price is probably less than thankful. Values are getting stretched for the current climate and we are likely to see some profit tacking on the open.

The big question today seems to be whether the Qatar based Delta Two (sound like a novel) is gearing up for a bid of Sainsbury or whether it is a strategy to get the company to sell off its property arm. If the later then the share price will probably go into something of a slump the day afer the cash is returned to investors. Margins in supermarkets are tight enough as it is without adding a 'leasing' element to the cost of business. The p/e on Sainsbury is eye watering enough at the moment as it is.

ICI, a name from the past I always seem to think. The company was one of the great British institutions when I was young but somehow all the strength (and the biggest cash pile in UK business) seems to have drained away. Aside from paint it is difficult for a layman to remember what else the company makes. The company was one of the ones to finally react to the American regulatory straightjacket and removed its listing from the NYSE a couple of weeks ago which may have been a bit of a trigger for the takeover approach. Since the turn of the year the shares have done well (up about 25%) but not spectacularly. This morning should see this change slightly. The board has done what all boards should do - initially reject the bid in the hope of attracting a better offer for their shareholders. Azko Nobel are likely to prove a difficult predator to shake off although a 600p offer does not appear to be attractive enough to warrant capitulation. Expect the stock to open much better than this morning as a rule of thumb is that the smallest premium these days is around 30% which should put a price closer to 700p as a target.

FX markets are showing some dollar and yen (sigh) weakness this morning with the Yen trading at all time lows yet again versus the Euro and multiyear lows against everything else. The political fall out from the strength in the Euro is likely to get worse as the 'garlic belt' suffers further erosion of competitiveness with employment in Italy Spain and France continuing to stagnate.

The pound is back above 1.98 again as cable rallies to 1.9830-1.9833 some 60 pips higher. There is some strong resistance at this level up to 1.9840 which may prove hard to break through but if achieved could open the market up for a move back towards the magic $2 level. Our clients are selling into the rally this morning (as they have with any break above 1.98) their success may break down to whether they can afford any short term adverse move.

Gold has successfully held on to the 644 level and is now accelerating back up having broken through the short term top at 656 this morning. With the dollar weakening against Europe and the UK and further strength in all metal markets on Friday the yellow metal has decided to attempt a move higher once more. The momentum is not what it was though and it may take quite some effort to break above 664 as there is a sizable volume resistance from the current 659 to that price. Early call is for 658.4 659.0. A failure once more to move back towards the 690 recent highs will worry bulls more so clients should be wary of a swift set back.

Cantor Index, has today announced that it is to launch a spot FX spread betting product, based upon the institutional spot market price and delivering some of the most competitive spreads in the industry. Quarterly foreign exchange trading, based on the price of listed currency futures, has traditionally been one of Cantor Index's most popular products and now clients will have the opportunity to trade spot prices for the first time at much tighter spreads. Seven major currency crosses are available to trade online, with all thirty-two quoted currencies available to trade over the telephone. In time, this service, which will be offered to Cantor Index's established private client base, will see all quoted pairs available to trade online.

Spot FX bets are quoted at a far tighter spread than the traditional quarterly futures based spread bet, making this FX product as competitive as some private client FX services, but with the added advantage of all profits not being subject to capital gains tax and of being much more suitable for short-term investing. All open positions automatically roll over to the next day (unless closed by the client), with trades closing at the end of the trading day, and reopening at a new rate which reflects the overnight net effect of interest rates for the two currencies quoted in the pair.

The seven major currency pairs offered online are:

Dominic Crosthwaite, Co-Managing Director of Cantor Index said today: "The launch of spot FX spread betting is a natural extension of our existing service, providing our clients with a very cost effective way to trade FX and further supporting our drive to provide our clients with the most competitive priced products, and the highest level of execution.

"We will be building on our extensive private client experience and institutional backing to ensure we build an unrivalled service in the FX space. In the short-term, this will include extending the range of online currency pairs with an additional 25 currency crosses."

Clients can open or close spot FX bets on the telephone or online from as little as GBP1 a point. They also have the option to request an autoclose at 20:00 on any trading day, rather than rolling the position.

The Dow and S&P faltered in late trade yesterday as bond yields increased once more giving investors cause for concern over value comparisons.

This morning sees the FTSE being called some 10 points lower at 6510-6511 pretty much at the lows of yesterday. On a confidence level it will be important for us to maintain the hold above 6500 and 6450 especially as we move into the 'dog days' of summer. A weak run in to the holiday period runs the risk of giving the market a bearish sentiment until dealers come back in numbers towards the end of August.

Yesterday’s price action seemed designed for our clients. Two surges and three dips gave both the bulls and bears some interest in the day trade potential. Clients were solidly long into the close of the exchange yesterday afternoon at 4.30 and the sharp rally in the Dax and Dow around 6 gave many the opportunity to take profits before the market slumped back down towards the close of US markets.

The Dax is called some 35 points lower at 7644-7646 but still above the late futures related close at 7630. As mentioned before the volatile price action in the Dax shows no signs of slowing down and investors seem to be losing confidence at the moment. Whilst price activity is great for day traders for longer term traders it is rather unnerving. Our longer term traders seem to be lightening their German equity holdings at the moment as, presumably, they are deciding to book profits and await a calmer environment.

Comments from Greenspan overnight concerning the credit situation in global markets, if correct, will lead to higher bond yields across the world. With equity markets still reasonably well valued an increase in attraction for cash and bonds will mean less money apportioned to shares.

In the FX markets the increasing US yields took its toll on the Yen as more and more Japanese security houses invest abroad for some kind of return. Those banks who have patriotically kept their funds in yen investments have seen truly appalling returns versus those who moved out. For some the recent moves may be an indication of the 'last gasp' trade in the usd/yen as the mythical 'final investor' finally buys into a move. This may be the case but the yield differentials are not going to disappear in a puff of smoke so even losing punters will have the cost of carry to cuddle up to for many years to come.

The yen is now trading at a 5 year low versus the dollar (which is not exactly the strongest currency around either). Sterling and Euro have rallied against the currency as well but are not threatening the highs of last week. The dollar at 122.27-122.30 is pushing for the 122.40 resistance and above here 122.80. Support is the old high at 122.20 and then 121.70.

Sterling has settled at the old support level of 1.9730 as punters try to weigh the attraction of yield against fears for UK growth. The public deficit is becoming an increasing worry especially as rates get higher. An increasing amount of treasury revenue is having to go towards servicing debt. On a crude calculation if rates are at 6% and public debt is at 50% of GDP then the government will be spending 3% of the countries total revenue in interest repayments. Whilst the economy grows this is not a problem as the cumulative effect of increased tax revenue from the uptick in GDP more than compensates for the higher repayments. But if growth slows, and in reality it must do sometime (maybe not now but probably soon), government expenditure will swiftly run out of control. We have had some 14 years of growth which in normal times would mean a reduction in government debt (you pay off debt in good times and build it up in bad) but Gordon Browns profligacy will have built up a serious head ache for the future. Of course politicians rate success as whether they are still in power not whether they have done a responsible job!

Cable at 1.9730-1.9733 is off some 20 pips this morning with sellers out gunning buyers to some extent in overnight activity.

Gold slipped again as we failed to hold onto the 651-652 support. The strength in the dollar overnight will not be helping either and so we are opening 4 bucks lower at 645.4-646.0. The lows hit on Friday are within sight of the bears at 644 and we can anticipate further weakness if this goes and if bond yields remain high. Returns on Gold are particularly poor as the repo rate is always well behind interest rates and investors are always looking for price returns rather than yield. If this price appreciations looks to be under long term threat we could see some heavily negative price action.

Oil traded the exact same range as Monday but closed on the down side rather than Mondays up. Supply remains good but news remains dodgy so punters continue to try to balance the two. Currently the supply argument seems to be hold sway (just) so we can expect maybe a bit of softness until the inventory release this afternoon from the states at 15.30.

Ouch, one of our clients best ever days with (as mentioned yesterday) everyone and his dog selling the Dax at or around 8000 and the FTSE at or around 6680. My warning that too many people seemingly going in the same direction made not a blind bit of difference to the market which took fright from a series of bearish pointers. Both Tietmeyer and Bernanke made rate hawkish comments and Morgan Stanley weighed in with some technical jargon about their systems showing the highest bear indications since the 2000 tech collapse (forgive me for being a bit sceptical here but I seem to remember they said the same thing about six months ago).

With the Far East hanging in there this morning and a bit of a bounce from the lows in the Dow and S&P longs might be hoping for something rather better on the call this morning on the FTSE. Especially as it has not exactly sparkled in recent times. The early call is for 14 down (albeit 12 of this is dividend payment) but this is about 40 above the low of last nights quoted range.

Traders will be wary of pushing too far in either direction as the highs in all the majors look to be a 'bridge too far' just at the moment but on the other hand there is not actually much real bad news out there on the horizon.

'Our Gordons' little bit of soft soap for the unions will probably turn out to be just that. If private Equity funds have to pay more tax on profits then so will everyone else leading to a mass exodus from the City to more favorable climes and a significant drop in overall tax revenue. Of course there is a certain amount of cynicism here. Most of the companies bought by Private Equity are statically held companies and the Treasury then receives a whole load of taxation from these windfall realized profits of existing shareholders and then (in two years time) another slug of taxation, albeit at just 10% when the new buyers exit the game. But this obscures the fact that the Government has received two lots of taxation when they would have received none (or very little).

Punters are sniffing around the edges of sterling again as dealers probe to try to test the resistance to another attack on the $2 level. It has been over a month since we last had a pop at the magic number and dealers may feel that enough puff has been regained for another bash. This morning we are trading at 1.9953-1.9956 having reached 1.9970 yesterday morning before pausing. The initial resistance will be yesterdays high and then (of course) the 2.00 level itself. On the support side 1.9915 and 1.9890 will be target levels for any bears.

The dollar has been the weak major over the past day or so with all the other currencies pretty much matching each other. With Bernanke worrying about the housing market in the states there may be some further fall out from this region. The US consumer relies (as in the UK) on the value of his property as an indicator of his/her financial well being as well as using the capital value to borrow funds. Whilst the housing market has appeared soft the major effect has been seen in 'new' home sales and prices. Existing homes have been largely unaffected. If this perception starts to change it will not only be the Sub Prime lending arena which suffers. Deflation is a demon that is very difficult to destroy (just ask the Japanese) their 20 year spiral was triggered by booming house and stock market valuations and a weakened banking sector.

Gold (given all the excitement in the equity markets yesterday) is doing precisely nothing at the moment with buyers worrying about holding on for new highs and sellers wondering if the dollar weakness will push prices higher. At the current levels although most position holders are long we are seeing some liquidation of longs as caution starts to seep into traders minds.

In the Oil markets we saw a widening of the Brent/Nymex spread as July Brent held steady and Nymex dropped 60 cents. Clients have been positioning for a narrowing of this spread and were caught out by yesterdays move. That said they seem to have taken this an indication to just build greater positions. We now have substantial sell bets in Brent and Buy bets in the Nymex. Whilst the spread (on a closing price basis) has not widen much more than the current 500 odd cent gap it has seen sharp spikes over the past few months with one memorable day hitting almost 800 cents difference. Quite impressive for a price difference which historically has been marginally in the other direction.

Spread betting firm IG Group said today that "substantial" investment in staff and IT would impact full-year margins despite strong trading and client growth.

IG, which allows its clients to bet on financial and foreign exchange markets as well as sporting events, said underlying margins for the year to May 31 would be "slightly below" the previous 12 months.

But the company said it had benefited from recent volatility in world markets to increase client numbers by around 1,200 a month in the UK.

It is expecting full-year revenues of around £120m (€176.8m), 35% ahead of the previous year.

IG said it had also seen a boost in spread betting customers after the launch of its TradeSense programme in January, which educates its customers on the increased risks of spread betting and allows them to play the markets with smaller amounts.

The company also highlighted international growth with client recruitment rates in its Australian business running at more than double a year ago.

New offices in Singapore and Germany are also showing good levels of client recruitment, and its sports business had made "good progress", the company added.

Analysts were upbeat on the firm despite the margin warning depressing IG's share price today.

Citigroup analyst Richard Taylor said the business was in "excellent health" with recruitment "well ahead" of previous years.

He said: "Client sign-ups in the UK are running at very strong record levels."

IG - which stands for Investors Gold - was first formed in 1974 to allow clients to bet on the price of the precious metal.

The company listed in 2000, was taken private in 2003 after a management buyout backed by private equity firm CVC, then rejoined the stock exchange in 2005.

Last year the firm posted underlying earnings of £52.6m (€77.53m) on revenues of £89.4m (€131.77m).

The launch of Spreadex’s online financial trading system puts hundreds of markets from all over the world at your fingertips.

For as long as the markets are open, you are only ever a couple of clicks away from seeing live prices on your PC – and you can react instantly.

As well as placing trades online, our system also means you can place and edit stops, limits and orders to open.

On our pricing pages, you will see buttons for Trade and Order placing, and on the financial position and financial order pages, buttons to enable editing of stops, limits and orders to open.

In parallel with the launch of online trading, we have also streamlined our NTR (notional trading requirement) rates on UK equities:

subject to client status and market restrictions.

Visit our website, www.spreadex.com , Monday to Friday, and you’ll find news from the financial world with links to the markets and quotes featured.

Has the worm turned?

The Chinese index is down heavily again this morning with the Dax off 20 and Wall Street off 15 but the early call on the FTSE is for almost unchanged at 6673-6674. Either there is some unwarranted optimism involved or maybe, perhaps, the UK index is about to recover some of it's lost ground. But don’t hold your breath!

With gold, copper, oil (in fact just about every hard commodity under the sun) putting on the Ritz on Friday evening Mining and Oil sectors are likely to be the gainers on the off but banking may also be looking cheap for longer term punters so buyers in equities are outgunning sellers by a considerable margin in early calls

The FTSE must look at the heavy resistance at 6680 before any progress can be made and whilst there is little actual bad news out there (apart from pharmaceuticals) there may not be enough good to push us higher this morning. The Dax is off 20 at 7967-7969 with profit taking the order of the day. The German index has put on over 20% so far this year which is stellar in anybody's language but any sellers on peaks have proved to be in the wrong in the past

There is no major corporate news out today and only the UK PMI Construction at 9.30 in the morning. The afternoon sees the rather more important Factory Orders from the US but even that is unlikely to give much impetuous in either direction

FX markets (yawn) continue to be stuck, in the main, in the recent trading ranges. Cable once again failed to move either lower or higher last week although it had a good look in both directions having a go at 1.9730 (support) and 1.9890 (resistance) before settling to unchanged and we open at pretty much the same level as last Monday. At 1.9838-1.9841 there is some volume resistance between 1.9840 and 1.9860 and volume support at 1.9810 to 1.9790.

The yen continues to drift away against the dollar gently moving towards the five year highs at 122.20 hit in January. We have some top hitters coming in this morning with clients selling at these levels but this is a dangerous game with no confirmation shift to the downside. The market (whilst not exactly roaring away) is most definitely still in a yen bear phase. Once the carry trade starts to unwind then we will get heavy shifts against the dollar but we need some indicator first.

Usd/yen at 122.03-122.05 off a few pips this morning, look for near term support at 121.70 then 121.20 and the obvious resistance at 122.20.

As mentioned Gold shifted higher once more with buyers continuing to load up. The price rallied $10 on Friday but somehow it does not feel quite so powerful a move as in the past. The bull move ran out of steam at the crucial 672.0 to 673.0 level and is sitting under it this morning at 670.1-670.7. Our clients, as always, have been heavy longs and are feeling quite comfortable this morning.

After yesterday hiatus caused (it emerged) by the Chinese authorities tripling of Stamp Duty was swiftly knocked on the head and whilst Europe struggled all day to make up the initial fall the US took the seemingly untroubled investor outlook as a good sign and promptly roared away to record closes on the Dow and S&P.

For all the good news the FTSE is still being left rather in the slipstream as we struggle to hit the highs printed a couple of weeks ago. The opening call on the FTSE is 6637-6638 but our clients are frankly pretty unconcerned. Yesterday saw extensive buying on the morning dip and traders were happy to sit tight for the ride. This morning sees some profit taking but unless something dramatic happens we are unlikely to see much in the way of a dramatic return to yesterdays closing levels in early activity. The support level mentioned in yesterday’s message at 6530 held almost exactly (low of 6531) and chartists will be happy to see a consolidation of the trend higher.

The Dax is up a pretty solid 75 points this morning neat reflection of the opening level yesterday morning. Punters will be hoping that the market does not do what happened yesterday and spend the remainder of the day returning to neutral on the day! At 7840-7842 we are yet again at an all time high and the index has rallied 350 (almost 5%) points in just nine trading days adding to the 900 points already added this year. p/e levels on Dax stocks are not exactly stretched, trading well below US and UK equivalents.

Man Group have come with (not surprisingly) strong numbers as the broker has gained heavily from the high levels of activity in the markets over the past year. With volumes seemingly on an ever upward spiral and the emerging markets increasingly participating the company should have high hopes for the future. The stock is likely to come in around 10p up at around 590p still some way from the highs of Feb at 601p.

Scottish and Southern have announced profits in line with expectations but have indicated a much stronger divvy of almost 55p (3.5%). This is another FTSE 100 stock that is meandering around at year end levels. Revenue is better that expected but this is mainly due to price hikes. In reality it is difficult for a power company to get people to use more of its product (especially in today 'green' environment) and its growth overall is kind of dependent on population increase, rather a slow way of building business. So whilst the company will continue to be a cash cow 'growth' will remain muted.

FX markets are stuck pretty much in the same range as before Euro mid 1.34's Sterling mid1.97's and yen mid 121's and we are unlikely to see much activity in morning trade as dealers await a whole slew of data at 14.45 and 15.00 from the states. Support as mentioned yesterday remains at 1.9730 in sterling/usd and resistance at 1.9870 to 1.9900. A nice wide band into which the cross rates seems to have slotted in comfortably.

Dollar/yen has now been squatting above 121 for a while with the charts slowly turning over into what may be a resistance high at 121.85 or unnervingly a spring board to move higher. There is a nice tightening flag formation which today has support at 121.40 and resistance at 121.71 a break in either direction may trigger our next move. At 121.59-121.61 we are snuggly in the middle.

Gold traded the full range mentioned yesterday of 651 to 657 and close nearer the lows. This morning further gold buying is taking us up towards resistance at 657 with prices at 656.0-656.6. As ever clients continue to buy (yawn) but attention must be paid to the 651 support. As mentioned several times in past notes this is a crucial support.

Oil continues to weaken although this morning we are about 10 cents higher. With Iran and the US finally actually talking to each other there will be hope (if the politicians can avoid too many inflamatory sound bytes) that some forward agreement over the region may be finally about to be hammered out. With the US surprising on the robustness of its supply situation bulls are on the back foot. Current price of 67.87-67.92 for the July Brent contract.

London Capital Group, owner of the Capital Spreads financial spread betting operation, is rumoured to be in the running for the contract to supply a white-label site to Paddy Power. Paddy Power announced last week in a trading statement that it would be launching its Paddypowertrader.com product this summer. It is thought Paddy Power has also been in talks with at least two other spread betting providers.

With the Nikkei rallying 100 points last night and with no bad news over the weekend/bank holiday markets are expected to slightly improve on their closing levels of Friday at the open this morning. The technical reversal on the Dow on Wednesday has been successfully defeated after sellers were unable to follow through on the break lower. The fact that none of the other major markets followed the Wall Street higher high, lower low, lower close also helped out significantly.

Punters are very much two way at the moment with bears predominant in the Dax and S&P and Bulls in the FTSE and Dow. With no consensus view taking hold it is unlikely that markets will be forced one way or the other and we may see a drifting environment in trade today with any move one way being counteracted with a swift shift the other. If Capital Spreads clients can be thought of as being a microcosm of the real market pressure in both directions appears to be equal.

Early calls on the Dax are for 25 points higher at 7764-7766 with only the briefly lived spike higher last Wednesday after the 15.00 US data having ever seen a higher print. The FTSE is trying to get in on the act with markets up 10 points at 6580 -6581 in early calls but investors continue to be, overall, cautious on UK plc. With the continued underperformance of the top tier UK index we may find that pension and insurance funds are once more lagging on performance (on a global perspective).

Today sees little on the corporate front apart from the massive Vodafone numbers. The rather impenetrable data which once again sees massive write offs will give both bulls and bears data to chew over. The overall number of £5.43bln net loss is much worse than expectations but the operating profit is much as forecast. Total revenue is also slightly below expectations but with such a massive absolute number variations can be expected. Te cash generative nature of the business is well displayed by the final dividend which is 6.76p for the full year giving a yield of over 4%. Oddly enough Vodafone is one of the few stocks that our clients are heavily short of so our clients will be hoping that institutional investors veer to the negative on the open. Mr Sarin has been characteristically bullish (when is he not?) and is probably feeling much happier than this time last year when the stock seemed to be drifting.

On the FX front what can we say? Sterling is holding onto the gains won last week on the BOE minutes and seems, this morning, to be building on the move against the dollar as the Euro, simultaneously, seems to be slipping. Has the Euro finally run its race? With better numbers out of the BOJ the yen has had a better morning of it but is still not exactly making a bull move. With the dollar/yen still over 121, at 121.35-121.37, we will need to see a few good days before punters start to back the land of the rising sun.

Psychologically it is very difficult to hold onto positions which are losing two pips a day which is pretty much what a dealer is looking at when trading the dollar or pound yen cross. Long term over a year a long yen trader must make over 600 pips to counteract interest rate losses. That is a tall ask from a standing start.

Cable is winging about a bit in early trade reaching 1.9860 on early morning activity. But the 1.9830 level appears to have a magnetic attraction and we have swiftly drifted back to 1.9835-1.9838. The daily charts are showing the sterling cross holding below the short term down trend line with four separate attempts in the last five days to break higher. Punters are selling the pound obviously feeling that the effort will prove too much but stops are tight at just above 1.9865.

Gold had another boring day on Friday matching recent activity where tight bound trading is interspersed with shifts to a new range. Support is at $652 and resistance at $657. Clients remains overwhelmingly long of the yellow metal and will be hoping for pressure to the upside but with more interest in other markets activity in what is, effectively, a non performing asset seems to be slowing and we are in danger of making a slip move down to the long term support around $635. This morning we are opening flat at 654.8-655.6.

Oil continued its schizophrenic activity with another 1 dollar trading move this time to the down side yesterday. With nearly every market in the world closed July Brent managed to drop below $70 and closed at 69.65. This morning we are opening back up at the $70 mark and longs will be hoping for more political tension. With the US and Iran finally actually talking to each other we may find (outside of the 'sound bytes' for the general public) that the two countries probably have pretty much the same interests. A civil war in a neighbouring country would do no good to the Iranians as innumerable nations across the globe could advise. Oil is opening at 70.00-70.05 this morning with our clients looking on the pessimistic side and buying!

Fears over rate hikes kept the FTSE on the back foot for all of yesterday versus the other indices with, at one point, the Dax up 80 points against the UK index moving just 20.

That said the index did manage a small move higher thus clinging on to the 6600 level. We will probably find this under attack in early trade as the call is for a 20 point fall to 6594-6595 on the back of the late drop in the US indices.

The Dow dropped suddenly in mid morning activity in the States and dealers were hunting around for the reasons. Speculation is rising that there is some trouble brewing once more in the Chinese markets which (after Feb/Mar) is likely to affect others.

Support in the FTSE is at 6594 which is pretty much where we are opening this morning. Punters are long from last night as (I suspect) no one could believe the lack of movement in the UK over the past three days which has seen the FTSE/Dax spread widen by fully 200 points. Problems with this kind of thinking is that there is always a reason it is just that we may not be able to see it.

Mothercare numbers are actually not that great with UK revenue up just 0.8% with overall revenue up a miserly 3%. Our clients have been long of the stock but we are getting some pre-market enquires for bids. Early calls are for a small drop on the open.

Similarly Cable & Wireless seems to be attracting some selling in early activity. The bottom line numbers were slightly better than expected but the overall revenue slightly worse. From this we can deduce that C&W are getting rather more out of what business they transact. Profits more than doubling is always something that investors like to see and the stock, which put on a healthy 2% yesterday is likely to open at least unchanged.

The minutes from the Bank of England put a rocket up sterling's backside with strong indications that the next move could be 1/2%. This would put the base rate at 6% which in today’s global markets would make the currency very attractive indeed. Pulling on the other side is the undoubted worries over economic fundamentals within the UK economy as the spectre of stagflation rears its head. If GDP had been recorded using RPI instead of CPI the UK would have almost been standing still over the past few years.

Cable broke through resistance at 1.9770 in a swift move higher breaking the general down trend of the last month or so but there is strong resistance bang on the current level at 1.9880 all the way to 1.9895 and then minor stuff up to 1.9970.

Aside from the pound there was not actually much to go on in yesterday’s sessions with the Euro still in the mid 1.34's and yen holding levels above 121.00. This afternoon sees the New Home sales and the Durable Goods numbers out of the states which could be a catalyst for further moves. Dollar bulls will be hoping for more info confirming a firm up in growth espied in recent data.

Gold (yawn) is stuck in the low $660's with continual probes lower and higher. Gold longs are hoping that the recent dollar strength will not continue as this is eroding foreign holdings of the metal. Further greenback strength may push the yellow metal through major support levels at $655 which could trigger some serious long liquidation. Our clients remain heavy buyers with every dip attracting more into the market.

With the markets all on the up and up our clients are once more split into two camps. The equity traders are sitting pretty holding long positions in most stocks whilst the indices punters have been continually trying to call a top in the market and selling into this latest bull move.

The FTSE finally managed to make it into clear air on Friday as traders bought on a range of reasonably good news from across the pond and domestically. The continued hunt by private equity for the next victim is not doing prices any harm either. The fact must also be acknowledged that if Billions are paid for public companies to take them private all this money then sits around waiting for a new home. Most pension/insurance funds will then reinvest it which (overall) means more money hunting for fewer shares. In the end this pushes prices for all other asset classes.

Since the lows hit in the Feb/March drop the FTSE has now rallied over 10% and the Dax 20% and this whilst interest rates are going higher! One wonders what would happen if the central banks announced a halt to hiking. With the money supply continuing to accelerate at some 12 to 14% a year and no apparent brake being applied inflation is unlikely to fall dramatically after the already discounted drops expected towards winter (our Gordon is not the only politician printing money).

The Dax finally broke above 7530 the resistance level talked about ad-nauseam over the past few days. The immediate move took us significantly up to 7560 and then continued its move throughout the day. Today we are called higher but there appears to be a bit of unreality about the current situation as we are now some 20 points above the closing levels on Friday. Clients continue to offload positions this morning (and frankly who can blame them as a profit at these levels must look very tempting).

The FTSE is called at 6662-6663 and the Dax at 7625-7627 but as mentioned there are only sellers out there in early trade.

The Dow and S&P both powered to new highs and are higher again this morning at 13570-13574 and 1524.0-1524.4 respectively. The Dow can afford an almost 400 point fall and still be above the trend line channel and over a 100 points before challenging the overall upward trend line.

In the FX markets dealing is as quiet as it is punchy in the indices. The dollar having put a bit of steel in seems to have run out of steam temporarily with Cable at 1.9727-1.9730 and yen at 121.26-121.28. These are near significant levels which if breach could indicate the next big play. Sterling has a strong closing support at around 1.9710 to 1.9720 which (whilst we traded below here on Friday we failed to close under) could either form a base for a move back up to the 1.99-2.00 region or trigger a sell off down to 1.96 and 1.92. Punters seem to be getting long anticipating a move back up but there is a huge swathe of stops at around the 1.9690 region.

The Yen once again fails to hold steady and we are back near the 240 level vs the pound and (yawn) once again at the all time lows vs the Euro. The Euro has now gained some 35% against the Yen since 2003 and shows no sign of slowing down. Whilst the cost of carry is nice it would only amount to some 9% over that period. It appears that the Yen really does have no friends. The only thing we can be sure of is that when the turnaround does finally arrive it will probably be very bloody.

Gold is sitting comfortably in the low 660's this morning but Bulls will be hoping that some stronger buying comes in soon as the longer we remain at one level the greater the chances of longs liquidating positions. At 660.5-661.1 there is not much action this morning but both sides can hold on anticipating a move to help them. Bulls will be looking for a close above 664 and Bears for 656.5.

City bookmakers took a massive hit today as full trading in shares of investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown saw the price race ahead of expectations.

The flotation price was set at 160p when preliminary 'grey market' trading began earlier this week. But the shares were clearly underpriced and the stock raced away.

Citigroup, which handled the float, was not alone in getting it wrong. City spread-betting firms also offered lowly prices.

Before the flotation, IG Index was offering a range of 157p-160p while Cantor Index was taking bets on 167p to 170p. Those bets were on the closing price of the shares at the end of the first day of unconditional dealing - tonight.

The shares today opened at 215p, leaving the bookies facing huge payouts to punters who gambled they would rise.

Past Spread Betting News