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 Post subject: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bets?
 Post Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:16 pm 
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I want to thank offthelip & Tony for the comments they left over on the blog. It's appreciated as always. I was going to reply to the comment but since I have a question I thought a new forum topic would be more appropriate.

With regards to Gekko Global markets offering fractional bets (e.g. Less than £1) do they do this accross thier whole range of instruments or is it only on indicies?

Also do any other spread betting firms offer fractional bets? If so which one would be the best to open an account with.

Thanks,

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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:04 pm 
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City Index also allow fractional bets, their minimum is 50p which sometimes is lower than the minimum bet on Gekko. Also IG index allow penny bets on some of the american sticks (sorry I mean American Stocks!!) e.g. Cisco, minimum 24p , but the price is 2400. One of the attractions of allowing fractions of a pound is that it allows you to control the risk exactly. For example, assume going long at a price of 300, there is support at 285 so you decide to place the stop at 280. You decide you can risk £30 on the trade. At £1 you are risking £20, at £2 a point you risking £40, too much. So at £1.50 a point you matched your risk with the bet size.
Another reason I like fractional bets is it allows one to exactly match the long and the short side of pairs trading. e.g A hypothetical example: Scottish and Southern at 1135 and Severn Trent at 1431 , I might do a pairs trade of long £1 a point on Severn Trent and short £1.26 on Scottish and Southern which gives me exactly the same exposure both sides. To get anywhere near balanced on £1 point platforms you have to to £5 a point on Severn Trent and £4 on SSE, which is a much higher risk.
I don't know why more platforms don't allow it.


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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 10:44 pm 
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thanks for the info offthelip.

I'm definately going to look into opening an account with gekko or city index. I do sometimes end up passing up on potential trades because they do not meet my risk requirements at the minimum £1 per point.(That's the trouble when you have a small amount of trading funds). With less than £1 per point it would enable me to take on these potential trades.

I guess the reason more trading platforms don't offer it is because of the lost profits on the spread. Still you would think if they make less from more trades it better than making more from less trades.

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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 5:55 pm 
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Hi Harry
I realised I didn't actually answer all of your question: Gekko do seem to offer bets at under £1 across all of their markets, often the minimum seems to be £0.87, sometimes e.g. on American stocks it is £0.10, otherwise it varies. They do seem to allow one to get into a bet with a smaller exposure than other SB companies. e.g. FTSE 100 £0.27 , and Wall street £0.14, EUR?ESD £0.17.


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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 7:44 am 
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Hi

not sure which is the best firm for fractional bets as I've only ever used IG Index; however I started a demo account with City Index a week ago and, to be brutally frank, I'm not really that impressed.

Maybe I'm not giving myself enough time, but I find the platform fairly awkward to navigate around and, to me anyway, it doesn't feel 'user friendly.' The thing I like about IG is that all the info you need is all on one line, more or less, but it seems like you have to jump around everywhere to find relevant info with City...

Like I say perhaps I've just got so used to IG that anythiing else feels uncomfortable; think I'll give it another week and then reappraise. As it stands now though I would only give it 6/10....

Big Al


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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:26 pm 
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I totally agree with you about the city Index platform, I think it is the worst one that I use. I also have an account with IG and I think theirs is the best platform and added information sources. However I do use City Index when I want to use fractional bets. They do cover a wider range of markets than Gekko who also allow fractional bets, and their spread is sometimes better than IG and Gekko.
"Off the lip"


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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:27 pm 
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offthelip, would you be able to tell me if City Index cover the AIM shares market?
Thanks.

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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:14 pm 
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Yes they do cover some, but not all, I did a very quick check, Youngs Brewery, yes, Vatakoula Mining Yes, Vialogy, No.. However I couldn't find a complete list of AIM shares on the platform, they order the shares purely alphabetical, so you get big companies and small companies all mixed up.
I know IG Index cover Vialogy, but I am not sure what other AIM share they cover.


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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 9:01 pm 
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Thanks for the reply, they probably have a minimum market cap so some AIM shares will be missing. I might check them out then cheers.

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 Post subject: Re: Which is the best spread betting firm for fractional bet
 Post Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 10:51 am 
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I think they do this across their whole range of instruments.



penny stocks


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