Investment Basics

Financial spread betting is extremely popular in the United Kingdom and there is always a hot debate about the best spread broker. It is not our place to tell you which one is best, but to offer you a valid comparison of two of the top competitors in the field. One being IG Index and the other is City Index. Both are highly regarded and offer their clients security and the tools to succeed within this particular derivative.

IG Index has been involved in financial spread betting since over thirty-five years, City Index has been in this field for over twenty-five. Both have shown they are here to stay and investing your trust and money with them is a fairly safe bet that they will be around for many years. It is always risky to place all your money in a brokerage firm that is just starting. Both of these two brokerage firms offer investors the ability to open accounts for free and trade. Generally 24 hours after account application.

Some differences and similarities of important factors are listed below.

When it comes to the initial deposit margin spread City Index requires less at only 1%, where IG Index requires anywhere from 2% up to 50% and is dependent upon the actual contractual agreement.

City Index offers investors a fixed spread type from 1% and the spread starts at 1PIP. IG Index offers the investor either fixed or variable and the spread of 1- 2 PIPS.

Both offer overnight interest for long at +2.5% LIBOR or equivalent and short -2.5% LIBOR or equivalent.

A deal breaker for some might be the initial trade amount. City Index is over double that of IG Index; which is set at 20p per point and City Index is 50p per point.

Both companies offer clients important options such as 'Stops', 'Limit Orders', 'Guaranteed Stop Orders' (with fees) and 'Contingent Orders'. However, one disadvantage of using CityIndex is that it does not offer 'Trailing Stops' where IG Index does.

Both of these companies offer Financial Spread Betting, however both do not offer their clients Futures Trading or Share Dealing. IG Index offers Forex trading whereas City Index does not offer it at this time.

There are many other important factors you will wish to consider before deciding upon the spread betting broker that meets your specific needs. Each will offer their software platform as well as offer free live stream quotes. If you are looking for mobile alerts you will have to stick with IG Index, as of this writing CityIndex does not offer clients this functionality at this time.

Both firms offer numerous functionality and tools, it is important to read more reviews on IG Index as well as reviews and information on CityIndex.