In a nutshell, Spread Betting is a tax–free, commission free alternative to trading shares and financial markets. This means that you don’t pay Capital Gains Tax or Stamp Duty, and you don’t pay a stock broker’s commission or account fees.

One of the major differences between trading the stock market and Spread Betting is that with Spread Betting, you don't actually own the share, you just bet on the performance of the share price.

Spread Betting is not limited to just shares, but also includes a wide variety of financial products such as

» Indices » Stocks » Bonds
» Currencies » Commodities » Interest Rates

If you think the financial product is going to go up, you buy a bet (in spread betting we call this going long). However, if you think it is going to go down, you sell the bet (we call this going short or shorting). How much you win or lose then depends on how much the price goes up or down.

www.paddypowertrader.com launched in the summer of 2007 to enable clients to take advantage of the aforementioned benefits of financial spread betting. The product continues to grow in popularity in the UK and Ireland, amongst not only financial industry professionals, but also amongst anyone with an interest in the stock market.

Continuing with Paddy Power’s core principles of being Fun, Fair and Friendly, paddypowertrader.com aims to provide a service for all kinds of customers, be they industry professionals, or retail investors. To this end, the site provides financial spread betting education and support to users via on-line tutorials, weekly market wraps and the opportunity to practice with virtual cash by opening a ‘Demo Account’. Customers can also access financial spread betting blogs, written by experienced traders who detail the ups and downs of their own trading experiences, allowing them to interact with other traders to help build their financial spread-betting skills.