Spread betting on shares 

When you spread bet on a stock, you’re making a bet on whether its price is going to head up or down. So no, you never actually take ownership of the underlying shares themselves. 

This can bring multiple advantages over traditional share dealing. For example, if you believe that a stock is going to fall in price, then you can open a short bet that will profit from any downward movement. Plus, you can access leverage to make your capital go further. 

However, both shorting and leverage will increase your overall risk, which means that risk management is imperative when spread betting on shares. 

Learn more about managing risk in spread betting. 

With a StoneX Trading account, you can spread bet on 1000s of shares in the UK, Europe, the US, Asia and beyond. That includes Apple, Amazon, Barclays, AstraZeneca, Volkswagen, Sony, Softbank and Tesla – among 8500+ other markets. 

To browse our full range of shares spread betting markets, log in to your StoneX Trading account and head over to the ‘Browse Markets’ tab, then select ‘Equities’ from the left-hand side. If you have an account with both CFD trading and spread betting enabled, then you can filter to only see spread betting markets using the ‘Product Types’ dropdown. 

Spread betting can work out to be less expensive than traditional share dealing, mostly because you can access leverage and don’t have to pay commission. This means that you can open a spread betting position for a fraction of the cost of buying shares outright. 

Many shares spread betting markets require only 20% margin. So, for example, you can trade £1000 worth of Tesco stock with just £200 in your account. To buy that stock outright with share dealing, you’d need £1000 plus commission. 

With either option, your profit or loss will be based on the full £1000. While leverage can help you do more with your capital, it will also increase your risk. 

Instead of paying commission, the cost to spread bet on shares is covered by the spread – the difference between a market’s buy and sell prices. 

Learn more about the costs of spread betting.