FTSE 100 spread betting is a bet of an amount per index point on whether the FTSE 100 will rise or fall, with no shares changing hands. Your stake is the amount you gain or lose for every one-point move in the index. Our live FTSE 100 orders were placed at all 14 FCA-regulated spread betting brokers between 18 and 27 August 2026.
What Is FTSE 100?
The FTSE 100 comprises the 100 most highly capitalised blue chip companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, as defined by FTSE Russell. Tesco, AstraZeneca and Vodafone are among its constituents.
How Does Spread Betting FTSE 100 Work?
One point is one index point. Your stake is what each of those points is worth: at £1 per point you make or lose £1 for every one-point move in the index, so a £5 per point bet makes or loses £5 a point. With the index around 10,850 (as of 24 August 2026), a £1 per point bet carries about £10,850 of exposure, which is why the margin requirement matters as much as the spread.
Price a UK 100 bet with the calculator: enter the level from your platform’s deal ticket, your stake per point and your provider’s spread.
Spread betting calculator
Cost, profit or loss, and margin on one bet
On one point is a move, so £ per point is £ per pip. is points.
UK 100 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 close Opening level: your own figure, from your platform's deal ticket Spread: published, 18 Sep 2026 Spread: your own figure
A buy at £2 per point that closes 80 points higher makes £ before the spread. -point spread costs £ on this bet, leaving £. The margin held to open it is £.
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; 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.
When Can You Spread Bet The FTSE 100?
The index itself is only calculated while the London Stock Exchange is open, 08:00 to 16:30 UK time. Most providers also quote an out-of-hours FTSE 100 market outside those times, but that price is the provider’s own estimate of where the index will open rather than the index itself, and the spread is usually wider. Trading it is possible; treating the two as the same market is not.
FTSE 100 Spread Bet Example
Example 1: Winning FTSE 100 Bet By Going Long
You read that the Bank of England intends to cut interest rates and predict that the FTSE 100 index will rise.
Expecting the index to rise during the session, you buy at 10,850 with a £5.00 stake per point. (Levels here follow the FTSE 100’s close of 10,854 on 24 August 2026.)
Five hours later the market has moved in your favour and the index is at 10,870. You close the position after the 20-point move: 10,870 − 10,850 = 20 points, and 20 points × £5 per point = £100 profit, before the spread and any overnight funding.
Example 2: Losing FTSE 100 Bet By Going Short
You believe the FTSE 100 will fall after a rate rise, so you sell at 10,850 with a £5 stake per point.
Instead the index rises. By the next session it is at 10,900, and you cut the loss there: the market has moved 50 points against a short position, 10,900 − 10,850 = 50 points, and 50 points × £5 per point = a £250 loss. A short bet loses when the index rises. The same 50-point move down to 10,800 would have produced a £250 gain instead.
How To Place A FTSE 100 Spread Bet In Four Steps
If you want to start spread betting on the FTSE 100, the steps below should get you up and running.
1. Choose Your Bet Type
Your first choice is between the two bet types. A daily funded bet, the rolling cash bet, usually has the tighter spread and is charged overnight funding for each night it stays open. A FTSE 100 futures bet has a wider spread and no separate overnight charge, because its financing costs are built into the initial price. The cost does not disappear; it moves into the price.
2. Check The Margin Required
Under the FCA’s rule COBS 22.5.11R, read on , a retail client must post margin of at least 5% of the exposure on a major stock market index. The FTSE 100 is such an index. That is 20:1 leverage, so £1 of margin controls £20 of exposure, of which £19 is the broker’s. At £1 a point with the index at 10,850, the exposure is £10,850 and the margin is £542.50. The broker shows the margin before the bet opens, and the bet cannot open without it.
3. Set Your Stake Per Point
You should use a spread betting calculator to know your costs, risk, and profit potential.
4. Set Your Stop
It’s essential to define your stop loss order when placing a spread bet, as this can limit your losses should the financial market turn against you, especially if you are away from your betting platform.
A normal stop can fill beyond its level when the market jumps, and our timed FTSE 100 stops showed that. A guaranteed stop closes the bet at its level whatever the gap, for a premium. IG’s premium on its FTSE 100 daily funded bet is 0.8 points, read on 22 September 2026.
Which FTSE 100 Spreads Do Brokers Publish?
Four of the brokers we rank publish a spread betting spread for the UK 100 on their own UK sites, read on 22 September 2026. Spread Co publishes 0.6 points fixed between 08:00 and 16:30, widening to 4.1 before that window and 1.1 after it. ThinkMarkets publishes a target spread of 0.9 points, which is what it aims for rather than a promise. StoneX Trading publishes 1 point fixed between 08:00 and 16:30, and a fixed spread is the spread you pay throughout its window. IG publishes a spread from 1 point, and a "from" figure is a floor, the tightest the spread gets.
Spread Co's fixed spreads apply to bets of up to £50 a point, and above that stake its spreads widen on a sliding scale.
76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. Your capital is at risk.
Pepperstone and Capital.com both show a live FTSE 100 price on their sites, but neither publishes a fixed, minimum or target UK 100 spread. We therefore carry no FTSE 100 spread figure for either. Their live quotes are the ones to check. See our ranking of UK spread betting platforms for how the brokers compare on costs beyond the spread.
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72.9% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
How Did Our Timed FTSE 100 Orders Fill In August 2026?
49 of our 98 timed FTSE 100 orders filled away from the level requested. We placed them, 7 per broker, on live funded accounts at 14 FCA-regulated spread betting brokers between 18 and 27 August 2026. For every order we recorded how far the fill landed from the requested level in points, with no direction attached. Of the triggered stops, 23 of 28 filled away from their level, and the largest gap on any order was 2.5 points, on a triggered stop. The median gap per broker ran from 0.0 to 1.0 points, and 6 of the 98 orders were requoted or rejected rather than filled straight away. With 7 orders per broker, the sample is small, so treat the per-broker figures with care. The per-order file and the method sit in our slippage dataset.
| Order type | FTSE 100 orders | Filled away from the requested level | Largest gap (points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market open | 28 | 19 of 28 | 1.5 |
| Market close | 14 | 7 of 14 | 1.0 |
| Triggered stop | 28 | 23 of 28 | 2.5 |
| Filled limit | 28 | 0 of 28 | 0.0 |
What Other Indices Can You Spread Bet?
UK spread betting brokers quote other stock indices besides the FTSE 100. Our indices page covers the other indices you can spread bet on.
FAQ
Is FTSE 100 Spread Betting Legal In The UK?
Yes, and the UK 100 is one of the markets FCA-authorised firms most commonly offer. We set out who authorises these firms and what that authorisation covers on our page on who authorises UK spread betting firms.
Is FTSE 100 Spread Betting Profitable?
No UK provider publishes a client profitability rate for the FTSE 100 or for any other market, so no honest answer here carries a figure. What firms are obliged to publish is the share of their retail accounts that lose money, which our page on what the firms actually publish collects across every broker we rank.
Reader Questions
How much leverage can I get when spread betting on the FTSE 100?
Leverage varies, but most brokers offer up to 20:1 for FTSE 100 spread betting.
Are stop-losses important when spread betting on the FTSE 100?
Yes, using a stop loss is a smart move when betting