Enter a market, a stake per point and the opening and closing levels. The calculator returns your profit or loss, the spread cost at each of the 14 ranked brokers that publishes a spread for it (18 Sep 2026) and the margin required under the FCA’s retail limits. It needs no sign-up.
Spread betting calculator
Cost, profit or loss, and margin on one bet
On GBP/USD one point is a 0.0001 move, so £5 per point is £5 per pip. 1.3210 is 13,210 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 Thu 8 Oct 2026 5pm New York close Opening level: your own figure, from your platform's deal ticket Spread: Pepperstone published, 18 Sep 2026 Spread: your own figure
A buy at £5 per point that closes 80 points higher makes £400.00 before the spread. Pepperstone's published 0.9-point spread costs £4.50 on this bet, leaving £395.50. The margin held to open it is £2,201.67.
Enter the level from your platform's deal ticket and your provider's spread in points; the ledger then prices the bet.
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; use the overnight funding calculator. 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.
Level 1.3210, Thu 8 Oct 2026 5pm New York close Level: your own figure Major pair: FCA cap 30:1, margin 3.33%
£5 per point on GBP/USD at 1.3210 is £66,050 of exposure and needs £2,201.67 margin. With £3,000 in the account, a fall of 380 points to 1.2830 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.
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.
Published spreads read 18 Sep 2026, 5 FCA-regulated brokers Brokers’ average on GBP/USD: 1.2 points
At £5 per point, GBP/USD costs between £4.00 and £9.00 per bet in the spread across the 5 brokers with a published figure. Over 20 bets a month that is £80 to £180.
| Broker | Published spread | Per bet | 20 bets / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Nation | 0.8 pt | £4.00 | £80.00 |
| Pepperstone | 0.9 pt | £4.50 | £90.00 |
| Spread Co | 1.0 pt | £5.00 | £100.00 |
| IG | 1.4 pt | £7.00 | £140.00 |
| StoneX Trading | 1.8 pt | £9.00 | £180.00 |
| Spreads are each broker's own published figure for the pair, read on 18 Sep 2026. A published figure is not a quote at the moment you deal. | |||
Between 60.7% and 76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money across the 14 brokers we compare.
The other calculators on this site
How To Use Our Spread Bet Calculator
Follow these basic steps as you use the spread betting calculator above.
1. Choose Your Market
Pick one of the nine forex pairs from our monthly spread dataset, or one of the three indices. Forex opening levels preload from the dated 5pm New York close shown in the widget. Index levels do not preload: enter the level from your platform’s deal ticket.
Please note that this calculator only works for financial spread betting, not sports betting such as football, cricket or horse racing.
You can run the same spread betting calculator on the Spread Bet UK home page, under "Price a spread bet", with no sign-up.
The calculator assumes you already know what spread betting is, and the guide covers the background to the stake per point and the points moved.
2. Choose Your Stake Per Point
Enter your stake in pounds per point. When trading spread bets this sets the value of every point the market moves: at £5 per point, an 80-point move is worth £400 before the spread, and at £200 per point, a 100-point move is worth £20,000.
3. Pick A Broker Or Type Your Own Spread
The broker menu lists each ranked broker’s average, typical or fixed spread for the chosen forex pair and prices its cost in pounds on your bet. A minimum or target figure is left out, and the three indices carry no broker figure. Choose Custom spread to type your own provider’s figure instead. A published figure is not a quote at the moment you deal.
4. Set The Closing Level Or The Points Moved
Type a closing level or a move in points, and the calculator derives the other. A buy profits when the market closes higher than it opened; a sell profits when it closes lower.
5. See Your Margin Requirements
Margin is your exposure divided by the FCA retail leverage cap for the market class: 30:1 on major pairs, and 20:1 on non-major pairs and major indices. Exposure is the level in points multiplied by your stake. The Margin mode adds your account balance and shows the level at which the FCA’s 50% close-out rule would require the broker to close the bet.
6. Review Your Profit And Loss
The ledger prices the move, the cost of the spread and the margin separately; the net result is the move minus the spread. The Compare brokers mode runs the same stake across every published spread at once, per bet and per month. That monthly number is the spread cost at your chosen stake, not your risk. Your risk per trade is your stake multiplied by the distance in points to your stop, and this calculator does not set a stop. This tool assumes an exact fill, and the page on spread betting slippage explains why a fill can land away from the level you set.
How Is The Spread Bet Calculated?
Your online broker’s pricing is 1.1150 to sell EUR/USD, and 1.1152 to buy EUR/USD.
You believe the Euro will strengthen against the dollar, so you buy at 1.1152 with a bet size of £10 per point. The market moves in your favour. Then, when the sell price reaches 1.1172 and the buy price reaches 1.1174, you decide to close out your position.
- Opening price level: 1.1152
- Closing price level: 1.1172
As the market moved 20 points in your favour from 1.1152 to 1.1172, your result is £200 profit.
According to the following formula, your profit would be:
Points the market moved = (1.1172 - 1.1152) = 0.0020 = 20 points
Profit = 20 points x £10 = £200
How Does Your Margin Affect Your Calculator?
Use the following margin calculation when spread betting:
Margin = total exposure x margin factor.
As a practical example, if the margin offered by a broker was 5% (known as 20:1 leverage) for an exposure of £100,000, then you would need to put down £5,000 to open the trade. This is simply 5% of £100,000.
For more, see our guide’s margin in spread betting section, covering the FCA’s retail leverage caps and when a broker must close a bet.
Spread Betting Calculator FAQs
Is Spread Betting Profitable?
No UK spread betting provider publishes a profitability rate, a win rate or an average return, so no figure shows whether spread betting is profitable. FCA rules require every firm offering spread bets to retail clients to state in its risk warning the percentage of its retail client accounts that lost money. Spread bets come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage, and our statistics page collects the loss disclosures UK firms publish for every ranked broker.
Which Brokers Can I Use For Spread Betting?
The full comparison of the best spread betting platforms in the UK scores every account on trading cost, trading experience, trading platform, trust, range of markets and customer service.
Reader Questions
Can I use this calculator for stocks or crypto too?
no