City Index

City Index is one of the UK's leading providers of spread betting and provides access to thousands of markets. It has been in the market for over 25 years, offers some of the lowest IMRs and has a minimum bet size from 50p per point on many of its major markets.

The platform is excellent, if a little advanced, but traders do have the option of a demo account to test-run the interface. On top of this, the training provided is very good, they offer 24 hour trading and the mobile platform is, arguably, the best available in the industry. Guaranteed stops are available at a small premium and their prices track the underlying markets meaning fewer re-quotes.

City Index provides access to over 10,000 markets including equity markets from the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. Offering some of the tightest spreads, lowest IMRs and minimum bets of 50p per point, they also offer daily and future options on Commodities and worldwide Indices.

They boast an impressive list of over fifty currency pairs, with daily rolling spreads for EUR/USD at just 1 point. Within their currency pairs they have all the major pairs as well as some minor and exotic pairs.

City Index allow traders to bet on US and UK crude oil with spreads starting at 6 points. Their Commodities also include sugar, pork bellies, soy beans and palladium. Traders also have the opportunity to trade options and specific sectors such as banks, real estate, pharmaceuticals and more.

• Indices
  
• Shares
  
• 50+ FX Pairs
  
• Commodities, Metals
  
• Bonds, STIRS
  
• Options
  
• Sectors
  
• ETFs

The City Index trading platform is one of the best and was recently awarded 'Best Online Spread Betting Service 2011' at the MoneyAM Online Finance Awards. It is entirely web based and very easy to navigate for anyone with previous trading experience as you can gain access to any one of their 12,000 or so markets from a simple drop down menu. Placing a bet is also a simple procedure, as is placing your stop and limit preferences. The platform provides streaming news, guaranteed stops and 24 hour trading. Although trailing stops are not available, OCO orders are featured to aid your risk management.

The City Index live charting package comes with a range of tools for technical analysis for the more experienced trader, enabling the user to display price and volume data in a variety of styles to suit your trading practices and to automatically overlay indicators and patterns in a single click. For those who wish to trade CFDs as well as spread bet, the City Index platform allows you to do so on the one platform. They also aim to minimise the amount of re-quotes you will receive by accurately tracking the underlying market.

Their mobile trading platform was awarded 'Best Mobile Trading Platform 2010' at the MoneyAM Online Finance Awards and has recently successfully defended it's title by winning the award again for 2011. It is available on Android, iPhone, Blackberry and through a mobile browser. Traders can view 12,000+ markets on the move, check prices, open and close positions, set stop and limit orders including if-done and OCO orders and much more.

The training provided by City Index is pretty in depth. They run free webinars and seminars, an 'Introduction to Spread Betting' interactive workshop and tutorials for using technical analysis and charting tools. They also provide an 'Introduction to Forex trading' webinar and a free four-week long course that enables beginners to gradually build their experience at their own pace. During these four weeks you have the ability to spread bet on a live account from 25p per point.

The learn to trade section on the website has a glossary of terms and several well explained examples of strategies for options trading and how to best utilise the risk management facilities available.

Before trying out a live account users have the option to open a free demo account . It is available for two weeks and gives to unlimited, risk free access to the trading platform features and starts you with a virtual balance of £2,500 to play with.

The minimum opening deposit for a fully functioning live account is £100 but City Index also offer a Limited Risk account in which you limit your risk on every position by placing a guaranteed stop, for which you pay a one off premium, that can be placed just 5% away on UK100 equities. Because of the guaranteed closing of your position you cannot lose more than the funds depositied in your account.