What Is Spread Betting? How It Works in the UK (2026)
Financial spread betting is a leveraged derivative that lets you bet on whether a market’s price rises or falls without owning the underlying asset, staked in £ per point. Profit or loss means the points the market moves multiplied by your stake per point, and the spread between the buy and sell price is the broker’s charge. The published EUR/USD spread of Pepperstone and Trade Nation is 0.5 points, read on 18 Sep 2026, the lowest of the five brokers that publish a comparable figure. Spread betting is regulated by the FCA and profits are tax free for most UK retail traders. Losses on a position exceed the initial deposit when the market moves far enough against you, and negative balance protection stops them exceeding the money in your account.
How it works. You choose a market and decide whether to go long (buy) or short (sell). You stake a fixed amount per point of movement.
Leverage and risk. The FCA limits retail leverage to 30:1 on major currency pairs, which means a 3.33% margin. Brokers close positions at 50% of the margin required.
Tax and regulation. For most UK retail traders, profits are tax free and carry no Capital Gains Tax or Stamp Duty.
What it costs. In our 18 Sep 2026 data, the nine-pair average was 1.79 points, drawn from the five brokers that publish a comparable figure.
What a point is. One point on EUR/USD is a move of 0.0001 in the quoted rate; one point on the FTSE 100 is 1 index point. A bet at £5 a point gains or loses £5 per point move.
Updated on 24 Sep 2026: the lowest published minimum stake is now attributed to CMC Markets and Spread Co only, because no OANDA UK page states a minimum stake. Our separate overnight funding page now forms part of the guide’s section on daily funded bets and quarterly bets, and its old address redirects there. That section explains what overnight funding is, how providers calculate it, IG’s published formula, the SONIA rate, weekend charges and how to avoid it. The overnight funding calculator and its GBP/USD example moved there, and the FAQ list gains a question on finding your provider’s rates. Our spread betting leverage page has joined this guide’s margin and leverage section; its old address, like the old margin and margin call addresses, redirects there. The section explains the FCA’s retail leverage caps, how leverage works, initial and maintenance margin, margin calls and the 50% margin rule. It adds a margin calculator and EUR/USD, gold and FTSE 100 examples. The FAQ gains two questions: does leverage make spread betting more profitable, and is it legal in the UK? No other figure on the page changed. The sentence under "How Do You Start Spread Betting?" named our Spread Betting For Beginners In The UK guide, now a section of our platforms comparison. The sentence says six steps to a first bet sit there. In the section on setting stop losses, the sentence on the stops our timed orders triggered now says "FCA-regulated spread betting brokers between 18 and 27 August 2026". No figure changed.
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One quote, two prices. The gap between them is the spread, and it is the cost of the bet. Each point the market moves is worth your stake per point.
How Does Spread Betting Work?
What that spread costs at each provider is published each month as the September 2026 spread read, with one row per broker and the date each figure was read.
Financial spread betting is classed by the FCA’s own rulebook as a restricted speculative investment, the same category as a leveraged CFD. Source: FCA Handbook Glossary, read .
What Is Stake Per Point?
Your stake is what one point of movement is worth to you. At £5 per point on the FTSE 100, every one-point move in the index adds or removes £5, so a 20-point move is £100 either way. The lowest minimum stake published by any of the 14 brokers we compare is £0.01 per point, offered by CMC Markets and Spread Co.
What Is A Point In Spread Betting?
A point in spread betting is the unit of price movement that your stake is multiplied by, and its size differs from one market to the next.
What a point is worth depends on the market; the margin your stake ties up depends on the market’s FCA class, as the table below shows.
Twelve markets, with what one point is on each, the FCA leverage cap and the minimum margin.
Market
One point is
FCA leverage cap
Minimum margin
GBP/USD
0.0001
30:1
3.33%
EUR/USD
0.0001
30:1
3.33%
EUR/GBP
0.0001
30:1
3.33%
USD/JPY
0.01
30:1
3.33%
AUD/USD
0.0001
20:1
5%
USD/CAD
0.0001
30:1
3.33%
AUD/JPY
0.01
20:1
5%
EUR/JPY
0.01
30:1
3.33%
USD/SGD
0.0001
20:1
5%
UK 100
1
20:1
5%
US 500
1
20:1
5%
Germany 40
1
20:1
5%
Point sizes are the site’s market definitions; the leverage caps are the FCA’s retail limits under PS19/18, as held in the calculator configuration.
Going Long And Going Short
Going long means buying at the higher of the two quoted prices, and you do it when you expect the market to rise. Going short means selling at the lower price, and you do it when you expect the market to fall. A short position profits as the price drops and loses as it climbs, so your direction decides which way the arithmetic runs. Betting on a fall needs no extra permission and no borrowed stock, which is the practical difference from selling shares you do not own.
What Is The Spread In Spread Betting?
You start every position slightly behind. The market has to move by the spread before you break even. Across the five brokers that publish a comparable figure in our spread data, last updated on 18 Sep 2026 and re-read monthly, the average spread on EUR/USD is 0.7 points. A £1 per point bet on that pair therefore opens about 70p down, before the market moves at all.
The other nine brokers we compare publish something different, with three a minimum, two a target and four no EUR/USD figure at all. A minimum or a target is a different claim from the spread you would usually pay, so both are left out of that figure.
How Does Spread Betting Compare With CFDs, Shares, Futures And Options?
Spread betting is closest to a CFD, and it differs from share dealing, futures and options in ownership, tax and expiry.
Spread betting, CFDs, share dealing, futures and options compared on asset ownership, UK tax, position unit, leverage, expiry and where we cover each.
Product
Own The Asset?
UK Tax For Most Retail Traders
Position Unit
Leverage Or Margin
Expiry
Where We Cover It
Spread betting
No
No Capital Gains Tax or Stamp Duty for most UK retail traders
£ per point
Retail margin from 3.33% on a major currency pair to 20% on a share, under the FCA rules
Daily funded bets have none fixed, quarterly bets expire on a set date
This page’s section on daily funded and quarterly bets
CFDs
No
Gains under Capital Gains Tax, losses can be allowable, no Stamp Duty Reserve Tax
Units or contracts of the asset
The same FCA retail margin rules as spread bets
Rolling cash contracts have none, futures-based contracts expire
Margin and leverage are the deposit a broker holds against a spread bet and the ratio of its full exposure to that deposit. Profit and loss run on full exposure, and the FCA caps retail leverage by asset class.
Margin is the deposit your provider holds against the position while it is open, and leverage is the multiple that deposit controls. A £5 per point bet on the FTSE 100 at 10,851 carries a notional value of roughly £54,000. At the 20:1 cap that applies to major indices for retail clients, the provider asks for about £2,700 of that. Margin is not the most you can lose: it is the amount the position needs to stay open. Move far enough against the position and the provider asks for more margin, or closes it.
The same £5 per point bet as two bars. The long bar is the exposure, about £54,000; the short bar is the margin the provider holds at the 20:1 cap, about £2,700. A move against you is charged against the whole exposure, not the margin.
What Is Spread Betting Leverage?
The FCA limits retail leverage to 30:1 on major currency pairs (3.33% margin), 20:1 on major indices and gold (5% margin) and 5:1 on individual shares (20% margin).
The FCA sets the leverage available to retail clients by the asset class of the underlying market, so the ratio you can get depends on what you bet on.
For a retail client of an FCA-authorised broker these are not the broker’s choice: the FCA has capped them since 1 August 2019, and the caps still stand as of 25 August 2026. A broker may offer less leverage than the cap, never more.
Major currency pairs: 30:1
Non-major currency pairs, gold and major stock indices: 20:1
Commodities other than gold, and non-major stock indices: 10:1
Individual shares and other reference values: 5:1
How Spread Betting Leverage Works
The exposure of a spread bet is the stake per point multiplied by the market’s price in points. The broker holds margin, a percentage of that exposure. At 30:1, a 1% move against the position costs 30% of the margin.
How Much Exposure Does £1,000 Of Margin Control?
£1,000 of margin controls up to £30,000 of exposure on a major currency pair at 30:1, up to £20,000 on a major index or gold at 20:1, and up to £5,000 on an individual share at 5:1.
A client the broker classes as an elective professional sits outside these retail caps. The professional gives up retail protections, including negative balance protection and the margin close-out rule.
What Is Margin In Spread Betting?
In spread betting, margin is the money your account must hold to open and keep open a spread bet. It works as the broker’s security that you can meet losses on the bet while the position stays open.
The initial margin is expressed as a percentage of the notional trade value, such as 20% for stocks or 3.33% for major forex pairs. So, if you want to open a position on EUR/USD, you must have 3.33% of the total trade size as the initial margin.
Initial margin vs. maintenance margin
When spread betting, you will come across two different margins, which are called initial and maintenance. The initial margin is the required amount to open a position, while the maintenance margin is the minimum required to continue holding it without facing a margin call.
Initial Margin
Minimum amount of funds to open a spread bet position to use the full amount of leverage offered
Typically higher than the maintenance margin
You can deposit more as a margin, which lowers your leverage
Maintenance Margin
The minimum amount of funds that must be maintained in the margin account to keep the spread bet open to avoid a margin call
If the value of your margin drops below the maintenance margin, the broker will issue a margin call for you to top up your funds or prepare to close the bet.
Margin Call Example
You open a bet of £1 per point on EUR/USD at 1.0950. The position is worth £10,950, which is 10,950 points times £1. The FCA cap for a major pair is 30:1, so the margin is £365.00, or £10,950 divided by 30. Your account holds exactly £365.00.
EUR/USD falls to 1.0850, a fall of 100 points that costs £100, at 100 points times £1. Equity is now £265.00, below the £365.00 the position needs, so the broker can ask you to add funds or close the bet. That request is the margin call. If equity falls below £182.50, half the margin, FCA rules require the broker to close the bet.
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The margin call example, step by step. It shows the £365.00 margin on the £10,950 position, the 100-point fall that costs £100, the £265.00 of equity that triggers the margin call, and the FCA close-out at £182.50.
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Enter a bet and an account balance to see the margin held at the FCA cap, and the level at which the 50% close-out rule would require the broker to act.
Margin and close-out level
Margin at the FCA cap, and where a 50% close-out would land
Direction
Level 1.3393, Mon 21 Sep 2026 5pm New York closeLevel: your own figureMajor pair: FCA cap 30:1, margin 3.33%
£5 per point on GBP/USD at 1.3393 is £66,965 of exposure and needs £2,232.17 margin. With £3,000 in the account, a fall of 377 points to 1.3016 takes equity to 50% of that margin, the point at which FCA rules require the broker to close the bet.
£ per point on needs £ margin, and the £ balance is below it: the bet cannot be opened at this size.
Enter the level from your platform's deal ticket; the ledger then computes the margin and the close-out level.
1.3016close-out (50% of margin)377 pointsthe balance absorbs first1.3393opening level
Exposure13,393 points × £5.00 per point£66,965.00
Margin heldExposure ÷ 30£2,232.17
Equity at which close-out triggers50% of margin held£1,116.09
Loss the balance can absorb first£3,000.00 − £1,116.09, at £5.00 per point = 377 points£1,883.91
Balance below the margin required: the bet cannot be opened at this size£ short
Margin uses the FCA COBS 22.5 retail cap for the market class, which every FCA-regulated broker must apply; a broker may hold more, never less. Close-out is the FCA's 50% margin rule; brokers may act sooner. The walk ignores the spread and overnight funding.
Leverage and margin set the deposit a spread bet needs on day one. A position held past the daily cut-off then pays overnight funding, and this page explains how overnight funding is charged.
Benefits and risks of leveraged spread betting
Advantages
It allows you to capitalise on smaller market movements by controlling larger positions with fewer funds and profiting as if you owned the full bet size.
Leverage enables you to trade multiple assets at once with fewer funds, helping spread the risk.
Disadvantages
If you hold a spread bet overnight, you are charged financing, which is charged on the full position size (not your margin). So, it isn’t ideal for long-term trading.
Managing Risk with Leveraged Spread Bets
Leverage makes markets like forex and gold seem volatile, so you must focus on risk management to help reduce your risk. Without it, leverage can magnify your losses quickly and wipe out your trading account.
Set Stop Losses
A regular stop closes at the next available price once its level trades, so the fill can be worse than the level set. Our timed orders triggered 14 EUR/USD stops and 28 FTSE 100 stops across 14 FCA-regulated spread betting brokers between 18 and 27 August 2026. Median slippage was 0.20 points on EUR/USD and 1.00 points on the FTSE 100; the largest slippage was 0.30 points and 2.50 points. The timed stop orders dataset holds every fill; these include no market gap, which a regular stop cannot protect against.
A guaranteed stop closes the bet at exactly the level set, even if the market gaps past it, and the broker charges a premium for it. IG and StoneX Trading charge the premium only if the stop is triggered. CMC Markets charges the premium when the order is placed and refunds it if the stop is never triggered.
Monitor Your Positions
You should frequently check your open positions, especially during volatile market conditions, to ensure your margin levels aren’t falling. If a trade is going well, be ready to adjust your stop loss levels to help lock in profit while releasing some of the margins back to your spread betting account. I think it’s also important to be disciplined to close losing trades promptly before losses grow.
Examples of Spread Betting Leverage
Leverage Magnifying Profits
This worked example bets on the price of gold, which traded near $4,380 an ounce on 18 Sep 2026, according to Trading Economics. Assume your broker counts one point as $1 of the gold price. The size of a point on gold varies by broker, so check it in the market’s details before betting. The FCA cap for gold is 20:1, which is 5% margin. Source: FCA COBS 22.5.11R, read .
You bet £10 per point long on gold at 4,380 points:
Total trade value: 4,380 points x £10 per point = £43,800
Margin required: £43,800 x 5% = £2,190
Gold rises 50 points to 4,430, and the bet makes £500:
Price increase: 4,430 less 4,380 = 50 points
Profit: 50 points x £10 per point = £500
That is 22.83% of the margin, against 1.14% of the position’s full value. A fall of 50 points loses the same £500, which is the same 22.83% of the margin.
What is a Margin Call?
A margin call happens when your trading account no longer has enough funds to support an open leveraged position. In UK spread betting, this usually means losses on your trade have reduced your available margin below the broker’s required maintenance level, prompting the broker to ask for more funds or automatically close positions.
What Is The 50% Margin Rule?
The 50% margin rule is an FCA requirement that a broker closes a retail client’s open positions when net equity falls below 50% of the margin requirement. Retail clients are covered; a broker-classed elective professional sits outside it. Source: FCA Handbook COBS 22.5.13R, read .
Margin Call on a GBP Spread Betting Position
Let’s use a realistic UK spread betting example using GBP per point sizing.
Assume I open a long FTSE 100 spread betting position with the following details:
The market, stake, entry price, position value, margin requirement, initial margin and account balance of a long FTSE 100 position.
Trade Detail
Value
Market
FTSE 100
Stake Size
£10 per point
FTSE 100 Entry Price
8,300
Position Value
£83,000
Margin Requirement
5%
Initial Margin Needed
£4,150
Account Balance
£5,000
Step 1: Opening the Position
At £10 per point, every one-point movement in the FTSE 100 equals a £10 gain or loss.
The broker requires 5% margin:
£83,000 × 5% = £4,150
So I need £4,150 to open the position.
Because my account has £5,000, I have £850 of excess equity available.
Step 2: The Stock Market Moves Against Me
The FTSE 100 then falls from 8,300 to 8,240.
That is a 60-point loss.
At £10 per point:
60 × £10 = £600
My unrealised loss is £600.
My account equity is now:
£5,000 − £600 = £4,400
I still have enough equity to maintain the trade.
Step 3: The FCA Close-Out
The market continues falling to 8,000.
Total movement against me is now 300 points.
Loss calculation:
300 × £10 = £3,000
My remaining account equity becomes:
£5,000 − £3,000 = £2,000
The FCA close-out works at 50% of £4,150, which is £2,075. The rule requires the broker to close the position when equity falls below that level, and a margin call, where a broker sends one, is an earlier warning. Equity reaches £2,075 after a fall of 292.5 points, at 8,007.5. The broker must close the bet there, before the index reaches 8,000. Source: FCA COBS 22.5.13R, read .
What Happens After a Margin Call?
What happens next depends on the broker and market conditions.
Typically, the process looks like this:
Your available margin falls below the required level (or maintenance margin requirement)
The broker sends an alert via email, app or platform notification
You may need to deposit additional funds
If losses continue, positions may be closed automatically
A Worked Spread Betting Example
Both examples below use the same quote on the FTSE 100: a sell price of 10,849 and a buy price of 10,851, a spread of 2 points. Levels follow the index’s close of 10,854 on 24 August 2026. Nothing here is a prediction of what the FTSE will do, only of what the arithmetic does when it moves.
Example 1: A Long Bet That Wins
You expect the index to rise during the session, so you buy at 10,851 with a stake of £5 per point. The market rallies and you close the bet at the sell price of 10,899.
A long FTSE 100 bet at £5 a point that wins, from opening level through to the £240 profit.
Opening level (you buy at the offer)
10,851
Closing level (you sell at the bid)
10,899
Points gained
10,899 − 10,851 = 48 points
Stake
£5 per point
Profit
48 × £5 = £240
The 2-point spread is already inside that £240, because you bought at the higher price and sold at the lower one. Overnight funding would be charged on top if you held the bet past the daily close.
Example 2: A Short Bet That Loses
Take the same quote and the opposite view. You expect the index to fall, so you sell at 10,849 with a stake of £5 per point. Instead it rallies to 10,899 / 10,901, and you close the bet by buying at 10,901.
A short FTSE 100 bet at £5 a point that loses, from opening level through to the loss.
Opening level (you sell at the bid)
10,849
Closing level (you buy at the offer)
10,901
Points lost
10,901 − 10,849 = 52 points
Stake
£5 per point
Loss
52 × £5 = £260
The market made the same 50-point move in both examples, from a 10,849 / 10,851 quote to 10,899 / 10,901. The long made £240 and the short lost £260, and the 4-point gap between those results is the 2-point spread, charged once on each bet. A stop-loss set to close the short at 10,899 would have capped the loss at 50 points, £250, provided the market did not gap straight through the level. In our timed FTSE 100 orders between 18 and 27 August 2026, 23 of the 28 triggered stops filled away from their stop level. The median gap was 1.0 points and the largest was 2.5 points. A stop tends to close near its level rather than exactly at it, as the order-by-order slippage data shows.
The two worked examples side by side. The long makes 48 points and the short loses 52 on the same 50-point move, because each bet pays the 2-point spread once.
The calculator below runs the same arithmetic on your own stake and levels, including the margin the position would need. The full version, with more markets, lives on our spread betting calculator page.
Spread betting calculator
Cost, profit or loss, and margin on one bet
Direction
On GBP/USD one point is a 0.0001 move, so £5 per point is £5 per pip.
1.3393 is 13,393 points.
is quoted in index points: one point is a 1.0 move of the level, and the bet is priced per index point.
Opening level from the Mon 21 Sep 2026 5pm New York closeOpening level: your own figure, from your platform's deal ticketSpread: Pepperstone published, 18 Sep 2026Spread: your own figure
A buy at £5 per point that closes 80 points highermakes£400.00 before the spread. Pepperstone's published0.9-point spread costs £4.50 on this bet, leaving £395.50. The margin held to open it is £2,232.17.
Enter the level from your platform's deal ticket and your provider's spread in points; the ledger then prices the bet.
Profit or loss on the move80 points × £5.00 per point£400.00
Cost of the spread0.9 point × £5.00 per point, paid on entry− £4.50
Net result£395.50
Margin to open13,393 points × £5.00 = £66,965 notional, at the FCA 30:1major-pair cap£2,232.17
HMRC's Capital Gains Manual (CG56105) states that no chargeable gains or allowable losses arise from spread betting. For most UK retail traders, profits are therefore free of Capital Gains Tax. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change. See how spread bets are taxed. Overnight funding is not included; see overnight funding in spread betting. Spreads are the brokers' own published figures, read on 18 Sep 2026, or your own figure where you type one; neither is a quote at the moment you deal. Margin uses the FCA COBS 22.5 retail leverage cap for the market class.
Daily Funded Bets And Quarterly Bets
Daily funded bets stay open until you close them, with a nominal expiry usually many years away, and overnight funding is charged nightly. Quarterly bets expire on a set date, and holding costs are built into their quoted price.
Daily funded bets are usually used for short-term positions and quarterly bets for longer-term ones. The choice between them is a cost decision over your holding period.
Daily funded bets and quarterly bets compared on expiry, spread and financing, as IG's UK guide describes them.
Attribute
Daily Funded Bet
Quarterly Bet
Expiry
None fixed, nominal expiry usually many years away
Expires on a set date
Spread
Often narrower than quarterly bet spreads
Often wider than daily funded bet spreads
Financing
Overnight funding for each night held
Cost to expiry built into the quoted price
The table follows how IG describes the two bet types in its UK guide. Source: IG, Bet types and costs, read .
What Is Overnight Funding?
Overnight funding is the daily financing adjustment applied when you keep a spread betting position open overnight. Also known as an overnight financing charge or overnight financing fee, it reflects the cost of maintaining a leveraged trade after your provider’s daily cut-off time.
Unlike buying shares outright, spread betting allows you to gain exposure to a market by depositing only a fraction of its total value. Because the provider is effectively financing the remainder of the position, an interest adjustment is made for positions carried overnight.
How Does Overnight Funding Work?
Most providers calculate overnight funding once per trading day, usually after the market closes or at a specified rollover time.
The exact formula differs between firms, but generally takes into account the following factors:
The size of your position
Whether you’re buying or selling
The benchmark interest rate
The provider’s own financing adjustment
The number of days the position remains open
The overnight funding formula shown below is the one IG publishes. Its admin fee is 3.4% on indices, shares and commodities, and 1.5% on forex, with the benchmark set by the market’s own currency, such as SONIA for sterling:
Bet size x price × (3.4% admin fee +/- interest rate benchmark%) ÷ 365
The ‘+/-‘ refers to whether you are holding a long position or short position.
How is Overnight Funding Calculated?
Some providers reference the SONIA rate for overnight positions when trading in GBP or the Tom Next rate for certain forex positions when determining overnight funding adjustments.
The SONIA (Sterling Overnight Index Average) rate is basically the risk-free rate for sterling markets which is governed by The Bank of England (BoE) while the Tom Next rate is a forex transaction that moves trade settlement from the next business day to the day after.
As a guide, the Bank of England’s published SONIA fixing for 18 Sep 2026 was 3.7301%; the daily series is on the BoE’s website.
Worked Example: Overnight Funding Using a GBP/USD Spread Bet
Assume you hold a long spread betting position on GBP/USD at £10 per point overnight.
Take the fee from your provider's charges page; the worked example uses an illustrative 3% a year, not any one provider's rate.
SONIA 3.7301%, Bank of England, 18 Sep 2026Level from the Mon 21 Sep 2026 5pm New York close
A buy at £10 per point on GBP/USD at 1.3393 is £133,930 of exposure. SONIA at 3.7301% plus the 3.00% adjustment is an annual rate of 6.73%, which costs£24.69 a night; over 1 night(s) that is £24.69.
Enter your provider's annual fee from its charges page and the widget prices each night the bet is held. The worked example uses an illustrative 3% a year, not any one provider's rate.
Exposure13,393 points × £10.00 per point£133,930.00
Annual rate appliedSONIA 3.7301% + 3.00% adjustment; a long pays the sum6.73%
Cost per nightExposure × the annual rate ÷ 365£24.69
For 1 night(s)£24.69
Every provider's methodology differs: some price forex funding from tom-next swap points rather than a SONIA-based formula, and the admin fee is the provider's own published figure. A short position receives funding when the reference rate exceeds the fee. The figures ignore the spread and any guaranteed-stop premium; see the spread betting calculator for those.
Is Overnight Funding Always a Cost?
Depending on market conditions and the provider’s pricing model, some short positions or certain markets may generate a small overnight credit instead of a charge.
Providers use different names for the charge. CMC Markets calls it "holding costs", and StoneX Trading calls the fee "financing".
Which Markets Have Overnight Funding?
Overnight funding commonly applies to the following markets:
Forex spread bets
Stock indices
Individual shares
Commodities
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
Each market may have a slightly different rate calculation which is important to be aware of. For example, CMC Markets bases its overnight fees for both spread bets on indices and shares on the underlying interbank rate +/-0.0082% while for forex they use the Tom Next rate +/- 0.0027%.
Does Overnight Funding Apply over the Weekend?
Many providers apply multiple days of financing before weekends or public holidays because markets will remain closed while your exposure continues.
For example, a position held on Friday evening may incur three days of overnight funding to account for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Can You Avoid Overnight Funding?
The simplest way to avoid overnight funding is to close your position before the provider’s daily cut-off time.
How Do You Start Spread Betting?
Newer traders can start from the six numbered steps to a first bet in the beginners section of our spread betting platforms comparison.
What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages?
The advantages and the disadvantages of spread betting, one pair per row.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Profits free of Capital Gains Tax for most UK retail traders
Losses can exceed the money you staked on the position
No Stamp Duty, which saves 0.5% against buying UK shares
Leverage magnifies a loss as fast as it magnifies a profit
Going short is as simple as going long
Overnight funding charged on every night you hold a daily funded bet
Stakes and profits stay in pounds on overseas markets
The spread is a cost on every bet, paid at the open
Usually no separate commission, with the cost in the spread
Losses cannot be offset against tax for most retail traders
How Do You Manage Spread Betting Risk?
Risk management on a spread bet comes down to two decisions, both taken before the position opens. How much is a point worth to you, and where does the bet close if you are wrong.
A stop-loss closes the position for you. It sits at the level you set and closes the bet at the best available price once the market reaches it, which caps the loss without you watching the screen. A guaranteed stop-loss order goes further and closes at exactly your level even when the market gaps past it, for a premium the provider charges on top. Our stop-loss order guide covers both order types and what each one costs.
Of the 14 brokers we compare, eight offer a guaranteed stop-loss order on their own UK sites, while Pepperstone, FXCM, ActivTrades, Vantage and FxPro do not.
Bear in mind that there is always a risk involved with spread betting, and only capital you can afford to lose belongs in the account.
What Can You Spread Bet On?
UK providers price spread bets on a range of markets spanning six main groups, and the same stake-per-point mechanics apply to all.
Forex
Indices
Shares
Commodities
Bonds
Options
Crypto is the notable exclusion: the FCA banned the sale of crypto derivatives, including spread bets, to retail clients from 6 January 2021. Our spread betting markets page lists what each group covers in detail.
Financial Spread Betting, Sports Spread Betting And The American “Point Spread”
Sports spread betting is regulated by the FCA, the same regulator as financial spread betting, and the Gambling Commission says so in its guidance. They share a name and the per-point pricing idea and differ in the markets involved, and only Spreadex among the 14 brokers we compare also takes sports spread bets. Spread Bet UK covers financial spread betting only and does not review sports spread betting firms.
The American “point spread” is different again: a handicap applied to a team at fixed odds, where the stake and the return are both known before the event, which is not spread betting in the British sense at all.
Risky enough that most people lose. Every firm that sells CFDs or spread bets to retail clients has to publish the share of its own retail clients who lose money, and across the brokers we rank that figure runs from 61% to 76.6% of retail investor accounts. That number counts accounts that ended in loss. It says nothing about how much was lost or how long anyone traded, so read it as a floor on the risk rather than a description of it. Leverage is what makes a loss arrive faster than the market does, because your balance moves by the full size of the market move and not by the size of your stake. The page’s worked short bet lost £260 when 52 points moved against a £5 per point stake. Negative balance protection caps the loss at the money in your account; it does not prevent one (see how spread betting is regulated).
Is Spread Betting A Good Idea?
Whether spread betting is a good idea depends on your circumstances. It can suit someone who understands leverage, sizes stakes they can afford to lose and accepts that most retail accounts lose money. Whether it is worth it is your call, given that loss disclosures run from 61% to 76.6% of retail investor accounts. The spread is a cost on every bet, averaging 1.79 points across nine currency pairs at five brokers, read 18 Sep 2026.
Is spread betting gambling?
Spread betting is treated like betting for tax and is regulated by the FCA as a financial product. For most retail traders, HMRC’s BIM22015 says profits are not taxable and losses get no relief, because they are not carrying on a trade. The comparison is set out in spread betting and gambling compared. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and can change, so you should seek professional tax advice if you’re unsure.
Can You Lose More Than Your Deposit?
A retail spread betting account cannot lose more than the money in it under the FCA’s rule. A single bet can still cost more than the margin you put up for it. In the page’s worked example, a £5 per point FTSE 100 bet carries about £2,700 of margin. A move of about 540 points against it uses that margin up, and each further point costs £5 from the rest of the account. Professional clients do not have this protection, and the detail is in what negative balance protection covers. Source: FCA Handbook COBS 22.5.17R, read .
How can I find my provider’s overnight funding rates?
You find your provider’s overnight funding rates on its own UK charges or product pages, or inside its trading platform. Of the 14 brokers we rank, 9 publish a headline overnight funding rate, read 22 Sep 2026. A further 2 publish only a formula or per-instrument figures, or show their rates only in the platform. Check the rate before you hold a position for a long time.
Does Leverage Make Spread Betting More Profitable?
Leverage changes the size of an outcome, not its direction, so it magnifies a loss by exactly as much as a gain. Each firm publishes the share of its retail investor accounts that lose money, and across the 14 ranked brokers that share runs between 61% and 76.6%. Those figures cover each firm’s retail accounts as a whole, spread bets and CFDs together, and the page on the disclosures UK firms are obliged to make collects them.
Is Leveraged Spread Betting Legal In The UK?
Yes, leveraged spread betting is legal in the UK, and the FCA caps the leverage a firm may offer a retail client by asset class. All 14 brokers we rank show the status Authorised on the FCA register, read 19 Sep 2026.
Justin Grossbard co-founded Spread-Bet.co.uk with Noam Korbl in 2024, and co-founded the broker comparison network CompareForexBrokers with him in 2014. He has written for Kiplinger, Entrepreneur, Finance Magnates and MoneyShow since 2022, with articles on forex and trading at MoneyShow, Finance Magnates and Kiplinger.
Change history: 8 earlier dated notes
Updated on 23 Sep 2026: Broker facts were re-read on each broker’s own UK site, and our list of providers that do not offer a guaranteed stop-loss order on their UK sites was corrected to add ActivTrades alongside Pepperstone, FXCM, FxPro and Vantage.
Updated on 22 Sep 2026: The calculator’s opening level was refreshed to the Mon 21 Sep 2026 New York close, so the worked example’s margin figures were recomputed. The tax note now rests on HMRC’s Capital Gains Manual (CG56105) and no longer mentions stamp duty.
Updated on 21 Sep 2026: the opening definition now says "financial spread betting", so the page cannot be read in the sports sense. A new section on daily funded and quarterly bets, with a table, folds in the FAQ on how long a bet stays open. The FCA’s category for spread bets, restricted speculative investment, is now stated with its source, and a new table sets spread betting beside CFDs, share dealing, futures and options. The FAQ on losing more than your deposit was rewritten with the FCA rule cited. A sentence on loss size was added to the risk FAQ, and a new FAQ asks whether spread betting is a good idea. Three subheadings now ask the questions they answer. Earlier the same day, the page was corrected to state that the FCA, not the Gambling Commission, regulates sports spread betting. The lowest EUR/USD figure now covers only brokers publishing a comparable figure. The gambling FAQ says profits are untaxed for most retail traders, with the tax qualifier. The pros and cons table says commission is usually absent, nightly funding applies to daily funded bets and losses of most retail traders get no tax relief. Repeated sentences, unsourced market descriptions, two duplicate FAQs and the At A Glance summary were cut. The lowest minimum stake, the EUR/USD count, stop-loss results from timed orders and the guaranteed stop count were added. No other figure changed.
Updated on 6 Sep 2026: Item five of the opening answer used to say one point on EUR/USD is 0.0001 of the price. A point is a move of 0.0001 in the quoted rate, not a fraction of the price, and the sentence now says so. No figure changed.
Updated on 5 Sep 2026: The opening answer now runs to six items, adding what a point is and the line between financial and sports spread betting. A table showing what one point is and the FCA leverage cap for twelve markets sits under the stake-per-point section, and the unverified share point was removed from the prose. No figure changed.
Updated on 3 Sep 2026: the page moved onto the site’s guide layout, with the how-it-works diagram beside the answer and two diagrams added, the margin held against a £5 per point FTSE 100 bet and the long and short worked examples side by side. No figure changed. Earlier, on 2 Sep 2026: the two links after the legal and gambling FAQ answers now sit inside the last sentence of each answer rather than on a line of their own, and the closing link to the platform ranking names it as the monthly ranking of all {brokers.length} FCA-regulated providers. Rebuilt on 2 Sep 2026 as the site’s concept page. The title and the heading now ask the question the page answers. The opening is a one-paragraph definition followed by a four-part summary of how it works, leverage and risk, tax and regulation, and cost, with every spread figure rendered from our {v1HarvestDate} data. The how-to-start, legal-and-tax and risk-management sections were cut to a sentence and a link, a link, and a definition, because the beginners guide, the tax guide and the stop-loss guide own those answers. Four FAQ entries replaced three.
rebuilt on 25 Aug 2026 as the site’s single spread betting guide, absorbing the separate advantages, risks and examples pages; updated on 26 Aug 2026 with the section separating financial spread betting from sports spread betting and from the American “point spread”.}
