Financial spread betting is becoming increasingly popular among investors looking for alternatives to the traditional markets.
The story of financial spread betting can be traced back to the bucket shops in New York at the beginning of the Twentieth century. After paying a small deposit customers would enter and find the latest stock prices of the major companies written on blackboards on the walls, they could then bet on the future price movement of the stocks.
It wasn’t until 1974, when entrepreneur Stuart Wheeler came up with the idea to give investors the opportunity to bet on movements in the price of gold that spread betting as we know it today was born.
Stuart Wheeler’s idea was to create an index that would give investors the opportunity to bet on the movement of gold, without having to actually buy or sell the physical commodity in the market. This new company was called Investors Gold Index – until the Bank of England objected to it trading under that name and it became IG Index.
One of the most respected, independent, financial spread betting websites, financial-spread-betting.com which has recently just relaunched. On it you will find a complete history of financial spread betting, a comparison of all today major players in financial spread betting and much, much more.
This is what they have to say about IG Index.
‘IG Index is Britain’s biggest spread betting provider with one of the best platforms around and instant or near-instant execution with very few re-quotes. It is the only company I know that offers spreads on tiny companies with a market capitalisation as low as £10 million (other providers may not quote market caps less than £50 million or £100 million)It is the only company I know that offers spreads on tiny companies with a market capitalisation as low as £10 million (other providers may not quote market caps less than £50 million or £100 million).’
‘(IG Index has the) Widest range of markets possible throughout the industry. Thousands of international shares (7000+ shares including AIM shares) plus stock indices, forex currencies, binaries, options and many others.’
If you’re interested in finding out more about financial spread betting it’s also well worth a visit to where it all started at www.igindex.co.uk.
