Spread Co

Spread Co offer some of the tightest spreads around and without doubt some of the lowest financing charges. This is quite possibly the biggest advantage of trading with Spread Co as it can make a huge difference to your returns. They don't charge to roll a short on non-FX positions overnight and, generally, have very competitive IMRs.

They offer 24 hour trading and guaranteed stops but do not provide a live chat facility or mobile trading platform. They do provide free live audio market commentary, news headlines and more from Talking Forex. Training and education are actually very good at Spread Co, despite the platform itself having high functionality and being designed for more knowledgeable traders.

Spread Co cover just about all the markets a trader could hope for and genuinely offer some of the lowest spreads with UK100, Wall Street and EUR/USD operating with 0.8 point spreads. They offer a diverse range of indices from UK100 and S&P500 to the Dutch 25 and Indian NIFTY 50 with spreads as low as 0.3 points. Spread Co offer an excellent range of shares from all over the world.

An impressive list of Forex pairs with a Commodity list including Copper, Soybean Oil and Rough Rice in addition to the other major products. Their spread on US Crude Oil is the lowest in the industry at 4 points.

• Indices
  
• Shares
  
• 35+ FX Pairs
  
• Commodities, Metals
  
• ETFs
  

The Spread Co trading platform, Saturn Trader, is available in web and desktop formats. It was built in-house by their trading platform experts. The platform is customisable but possibly not the most intuitive for beginners. You can set up your platform over 1, 2, 4 or more trading screens, set up watch lists, charts, trade tickets and more.

The increased functionality of the downloadble platform is aimed at the more advanced trader, with charts that provide all the technical tools and indicators necessary to make a more informed decision.

With the availability of a demo account and the less complex web based platform, beginners could in time find use for the desktop platform. Spread Co do not provide any form of mobile trading but they do offer 24 hour trading, guaranteed stops, OCO orders and if-done orders.

Spread Co provide fantastic training for using their platform. They provide online tutorials for newcomers to spread betting, highlighting key terms but also giving examples of when and how these terms will come into play. There is also a comprehensive guide to using their platform, specifically. There are 14 videos in the training series, from how to download their platform to how to make use of their charts – including how to place trades and orders.

Spread Co provide a free demo account, in which you can gain access to the Saturn Trader platform and a virtual cash balance of $25,000 for 14 days.  To open a live account, of which there are two, the minimum opening deposit is £100. As mentioned, for spread betting accounts there are two options for clients:

• Standard Account - Gives you the option to place stop orders on your trades – Guaranteed Stops come at a small premium. A standard account nets off your long and short trades in the same instrument, except for those trades with a Guaranteed Stop Order attached.
• Limited Risk Account - This automatically places a guaranteed stop on every trade you place. This enables complete control over your risk and exposure to market gaps. Long and short trades are not netted off and must be closed by you manually or by a limit or stop order.