FinancialSpreads.com - Financial Spread Betting And CFD Trading The Way It Should Be

We do not require you to deposit funds into your account until you wish to trade.

To calculate the minimum deposit required to open a trade, you will need to review the Minimum IMR information, which can be found on the Market Information ticket linked to each product. Please look at the Managing Account section of this document for more specific details on how to calculate your minimum deposit or refer to the online User Manual.

You can credit your account in a variety of ways which are detailed below. Please note that due to money laundering regulations enforced by the Financial Services Authority, we are unable to accept funds from any other source than the account holders own funds.

Deposit money by Debit/Credit card

You can deposit funds securely online or by telephone using a debit or credit card. There is a 2% charge for payments made by credit card. If you did not register a card when you opened your account, you can do so by clicking the Credit My Account button and then Add Card. Alternatively, you can call the Customer Support team on +44 (0)20 7456 7061.

We accept all major debit and credit cards. We do not accept American Express and some International visa Electron cards.

As a credit card customer you should be aware of changes to the way some credit card companies charge for online betting transactions. Gambling transactions, which have until now been treated in the same way as any other purchase, will be treated as cash advances by some credit card companies. Cash advances are usually subject to a higher rate of interest than standard transactions, so you should check the terms and conditions of your card carefully

Registering your card details

If you enter your card details for the first time but do not make a payment, a pre-authorisation service will temporarily take 0.01p from your bank account and only appear on your bank account for a short time before dropping off. This amount will never actually be removed from your bank.

After you have registered your card once, you will not need to re-register this card unless your card expires or it is inactive for over 12 months.

Deposit money via Bank Transfer

You can deposit funds directly into our bank account by making a bank transfer from a bank account in your name. Please ensure you use your full name and FinancialSpreads.com account number as a reference. Due to money laundering regulations, we cannot accept cash deposited into our bank account. Any funds credited in this way will not be added to your account and could result in significant delays on any refund. Please be aware that large deposits of cash into our accounts by any client may generate an enquiry to the relevant authorities.

Some international transfers will incur a fee charged by your bank or ours. Any charges will come out of the amount that you transfer and therefore we will only credit your spread betting account with the funds that we receive. We cannot be held accountable for any bank charges.

Our bank accounts are held at Barclays Bank, 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP. The details of our bank accounts are below:

To make a Deposit

All Currencies share the following details:

Account Name: London Capital Group T/as FinancialSpreads.com

Swift Code: BARCGB22

Sort Code: 20-77-67

Please check the grid below for the relevant account number and IBAN.

Deposit Funds via cheque

Please make your cheque payable to London Capital Group and send it to FinancialSpreads.com, 2nd floor, 6 Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4AB. We will not credit your account until your cheque has cleared. This usually takes 5 working days.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept banker’s drafts. If you are going to deposit funds using a building society cheque and it does not have your name on the cheque, we will need to see a receipt stamped by the building society to say that the money from that cheque came from an account in your name.

Cheques drawn on a bank outside of the UK can take up to 4-6 weeks to clear. Any commission charged by our bank, or yours, for processing an international cheque will come directly out of the funds from the cheque deposited and therefore only the funds credited to our bank account will be credited to your spread betting account.

To improve the security of the card payments you make into your spread betting account and following industry standards, we operate Verified by Visa & MasterCard® SecureCodeTM for some card types. These schemes, known collectively as 3D Secure, are designed to improve the way that your card payments are authenticated and to reduce the likelihood of card fraud.

If you have previously enrolled for these services with your bank and we require your card type to use 3D Secure, you will simply be prompted for your 3D Secure password when you next make a payment into your spread betting account.

If you have not yet enrolled in Verified by Visa or MasterCard® SecureCodeTM, you may be prompted by your bank to enrol before a payment can be made. This will be done quickly and securely on your bank's website before seamlessly bringing you back to the payment page to continue with your transaction.

Please be assured that when inputting your 3D Secure details you are communicating directly with your bank via a secure link. The information that you enter is not disclosed to London Capital Group. To complete your payment, you will be briefly redirected to a secure screen hosted by your card issuer.

If you would like a refund from your FinancialSpreads.com account, please call us or email us advising us of the amount you wish to receive and confirming the last 4 digits of the card you would like us to refund.

Our company policy states that any funds deposited must go back to the original source. For example, if you deposited funds using a card we would transfer your funds back to this card. Whilst we will action refunds as quickly as possible and normally the same business day, once the funds leave your FinancialSpreads.com account the banking system usually takes up to 3 - 5 working days to return the funds back into your bank account. In some rare cases the banking system might take longer to process your refund, so if this is the case please contact Customer Support.

Please note that MasterCard do not accept refunds from gaming organisations. If you deposit funds using a MasterCard we will make refunds to a bank account in your name, or to the default bank account details registered on your spread betting account. It is possible that we may require proof of your Bank Account details to establish that the account is in your name. This should be in the form of an original bank statement dated within the last three months. The statement should include your name, account number and, for international clients, an IBAN or Swift Code. We may also need sight of the card in question via faxed or scanned documentation.

If you are an international customer and you have used a MasterCard to credit your account or made an international transfer, there is a charge of £20 or the equivalent currency amount for refunds under £1000.00. For UK customers we would refund your money via BACS and this will take three working days with no charge.

Please note that due to transaction costs, FinancialSpreads.com reserve the right to refuse any refund under £50.00 (or the equivalent currency amount) unless you are closing your account. Please bear this in mind when requesting a refund.

At FinancialSpreads.comwe want to help minimise the risks of trading. We have therefore designed an account where all your positions will have an associated Guaranteed Stop Order attached to them. This means that, should the market move against you, we will guarantee to close all your positions at a pre-specified exact point. In other words, for every trade you open with a Limited Risk Account you must specify a guaranteed stop to cover the maximum possible loss on that trade. This way you cannot lose more than you have initially invested.

Depending on your level of experience and financial situation you may be steered towards this account when you apply. Once you have gained some experience you are welcome to contact Customer Support to request to swap your account to a standard account. This means you will have the option of placing Guaranteed Stop Orders if you wish but these will not be mandatory. As mandatory Guaranteed Stop Orders are essentially a form of insurance against market gaps, they come at a small cost. This will be a premium that will be debited from your account when you place a trade. You should also note that by opting for a Limited Risk Account your Stop will need to be placed further away from your entry level than if you selected a standard account where Guaranteed Stop Orders are not mandatory. Please also be aware that you will not be able to amend orders or place any new orders with guaranteed stops outside of our market hours. Details of the premiums and minimum distances can be found by clicking on the "I" button on the trade ticket which will take you to the Market Information sheet.

FinancialSpreads.com provides a variety of products to trade on between the hours of 23:00 on Sunday until 21.15pm on Friday (UK time). You can make your spread trades online or by telephone.

For guidance on how to trade using the FinancialSpreads.com online trading platform, please use our online User Manual.

If you wish to trade by telephone, our dealing line is +44 (0)20 7456 7060. If you have any problems or questions, you can call our Customer Support team on +44 (0)20 7456 7061. Please refer to our Market Information Sheets for specific trading hours of individual products.

Once you’ve clicked the TRADE button you will be offered the option to buy or sell. Once you have made your trade, it will be processed immediately. You should receive confirmation within a couple of seconds, or you will receive a message informing you that the trade has been declined. If the trade is declined, the reason why will also be displayed.

Spread betting

We are open for trading from Sunday 23:00 until Friday 21:15, UK time. You can find details of the trading hours for individual products if you click on the “I” information button to the right of each product or you can find a full, detailed list of all contract specifications if you click here to see our Market Information Sheets: Market Information

We offer a full range of products including Indices, shares, commodities, currencies, bonds and interest rates. You can find full details of the products we offer if you click here to see our Market Information Sheets: Market Information

The FinancialSpreads.com normal trading hours are Sunday 23:00 to Friday 21:15, UK time. This means that our dealing desk is available around the clock. Customer Support hours are 08:00 to 19:00 UK time.

We quote many of our markets overnight, in particular the UK 100, Wall St, Nikkei and other indices, FX and some commodities. It is possible that you could have any orders filled during the time that we are quoting these markets.

For full details of the trading hours of our markets please see the Market Information Sheets: Market Information

When making a trade the system will look for three things.

1) If you only have the minimum funds available then the stop loss will automatically be generated at 80% of the minimum IM (Initial Margin). You can find the minimum IM required for all of our products in the market information.

2) If you have more funds than the maximum IM required for that market - the system will set the stop loss at 80% of the maximum IM for that product, leaving you with extra funds as available margin.

E.g. for FTSE Rolling Daily, the maximum IM is 150 so if you were trading £1 a point and you had £200 on your account, the system would only use up £150 as margin and your stop loss would be set 120 points away. In this scenario, you would be left with £50 available margin to make other trades.

3) If you have more funds on your account than the minimum IM but less than the maximum IM required, the system will take all the funds on the account as margin and the stop loss will be set at 80% of these funds.

You can of course amend the automatic stop that is generated by clicking on "Order Book" and then on the "AMEND" button. Moving your stop loss in closer will free up your margin but the system will always charge you the min IM for that trade regardless of how close you place your stop loss to your entry level. If you move your stop loss further away you will need enough margin to cover the new stop level. This can be calculated by multiplying the amount of points your stop loss is away from your entry level by a further 25%. For example if you have your stop 100 points away from your entry level, you will need £125 to cover the margin required for that particular stop level.

If you have a Guaranteed Stop Order attached to an open position then the amount of margin taken will be the total capital you have at risk. For example, if you buy £1 per point of the UK 100 Rolling Daily and you have a Guaranteed Stop Order 50 points away, the system will use up only £50 of trading resources.

At FinancialSpreads you can guarantee your automatic Stop Loss by selecting it to be a Guaranteed Stop Order. With a Guaranteed Stop Order you can trade safe in the knowledge that, should a market gap through your stop level, you will not suffer any extra losses from slippage and you will be stopped out at the level you requested.

But there is a premium and minimum distance for selecting your automatic Stop Loss to be guaranteed. For example, the premium (which is a multiple of your stake) and minimum distance for the UK 100 Rolling Daily is 2 and 30 respectively, so if you bought £5 per point a 5900.0, your account would be debited £10 (2 x £5) and your guaranteed stop would have to be a minimum of 31 points away (the minimum distance is the number specified, plus the market’s spread).

It is also possible to specify that any stop loss linked to a New Order is a Guaranteed Stop Order. In this case the premium is not applied until the New Order is filled.

You can place or amend a Guaranteed Stop Order at any time when the underlying market is open and any amend to the level has to be at least the minimum distance (minimum, plus the market’s spread) from the current quote.

If you close a position that has a Guaranteed Stop Order attached, then the premium is not recredited to your account. To find out what the premiums and minimum distances are please see the Market Information.

Trailing Stops are a risk management tool that allow you to manage your risk without restricting your potential profit. They can help you to secure your gains as the market moves in your favour and give you added flexibility as they automatically track your profitable positions. This means you don't have to continuously think about monitoring your position and moving your stop manually.

A Trailing Stop can be added when placing a trade by ticking the "Trailing" box on the trade ticket. You can also amend an existing stop order to be set to trailing from Order Book by clicking on the AMEND button.

Once you have ticked the "Trailing" box you need to set the distance you want your Trailing Stop away. If the market then moves in your favour, the Trailing Stop will move in that direction at a set size of increments. For details of the minimum distances and set size of increments applicable to Trailing Stops please the order section of the trade ticket.

Please note that Trailing Stops are not guaranteed so you may still be subject to slippage in volatile market conditions, so it is not possible to have both a Trailing Stop and a guaranteed stop. There are no extra charges for selecting your stop order to be trailing.

Trailing stops are not available on all markets, please check on the order section of the trade ticket.

Example of a Trailing Stop
Here is an example of how one might use a Trailing Stop. Buy £10 per point of GBP/USD Rolling Daily at 1.6050. The level of the stop order is set at 1.6030 and the "Trailing" box is ticked. If the market moves in your favour (higher) then the Trailing Stop will move in that direction according to the set size of increments applicable to that market. If it is set to increments of 10 points (you can find this out from the Market Information Sheets), then if your GBP/USD Rolling Daily position moves higher by 10 points (to 1.6060), your Trailing Stop will jump up 10 points to 1.6040.

If GBP/USD Rolling Daily continues to rally without retracing, then for every 10 points it rises, your Trailing Stop will carry on stepping higher in increments of 10 points. If at some point GBP/USD Rolling Daily does turn lower, then your Trailing Stop will remain in place at the last level it has stepped to, acting as a normal stop order.

Your trade is valid until our market expiry time. Please see our Market Information Sheets for last dealing times and settlement details of individual markets.

If you decide to close your position before it expires, you can close it manually in one of two ways. The simplest way is to click on the “Open Positions” button to view your open trade. You will see a CLOSE button on the right hand side. If you click this button, you will only be given one option either a buy or a sell i.e. an equal and opposite trade.

Alternatively, you can close your position by finding the original product that you traded, entering and equal stake size and then making a trade in the opposite direction. For example if you make a £5 buy to open, you will need to make a £5 sell to close.

Your bet may also be closed if your automatic Stop-Level is hit or Limit Order is executed.

Any profits/losses incurred are realised upon the bet closure. Please refer to the online User Manual for guidance on how to manually close a bet.

Yes, you can partially close a position. Please refer to the online User Manual for further details.

Our innovative Rolling Daily contracts provide a cost-effective solution for short-medium term trading. These contracts do not expire at the end of the day but are automatically 'rolled over' to the next trading day.

Any corresponding orders are also rolled over automatically. An overnight financing rate is applied on a daily basis. If you hold an open position at 23:30 London time then any relevant overnight financing charges and dividend charges will be applied to this position. The actual charge can be applied at any time after 23:30.

The standard benefits of spread betting still apply, such as the ability to go long or short and tax free profits, as well as other benefits.

Advantages

• Tighter spreads
• Available on indices, equities and FX markets
• Cost-effective solution for short-medium term trading
• Potential payment due to overnight financing
• Automatic order rollover facility
• Familiarity of trading underlying market but with benefits of futures-style trading

Dividend adjustments

The morning after a share goes ex-div the price of the share will drop by approximately the amount of the dividend. Dividend adjustments are credited to long positions and debited from short positions held at the close of business on the day before the ex-dividend date.

If you are long, you will receive 80% of the dividend and if you are short, you will be debited 100% of the dividend.

Payment is credited/debited to your account on the ex-dividend date. Dividend adjustments apply to equity and index markets.

Overnight financing

Rolling Daily contracts incur a debit or credit for each day that they are held overnight.

Whilst it is normal for equity and index long positions to incur a debit and for short positions to receive a credit when overnight financing is applied, there are times when you may be debited for a short position, for example when interest rates are very low (NB overnight financing for FX positions is different).

For a position held on a Friday or prior to a FinancialSpreads.com non-business day, financing will be applied according to the number of days until the subsequent FinancialSpreads.com business day.

For example, for a position that is rolled from a Friday to a Monday, financing will be applied for 3 days. Any profits/losses are realised when the position is closed.

How is the financing calculated?

The overnight financing for a rolling position can be calculated using this formula:

Relevant Funding Rate (RFR):

Shares & Indices: The RFR is generally equivalent to the base rate of the underlying currency of the country of the market concerned. If you are long of a share/index contract, this equates to real market cash exposure and so interest may be charged on this cash value for each day that the position is held open overnight. If you are short of a share/index contract, an interest return may be paid on these equivalent cash funds.

E.g. the RFR for a short rolling daily contract on Google may be based on the US Fed Funds Rate minus 2.5%

Currencies: The RFR is calculated as the funding rate corresponding to the 2nd currency minus the funding rate corresponding to the 1st currency. E.g. the 1st currency of GBP/USD is sterling and the second is the US dollar. Therefore, if USD rates were 2.75% and GBP rates were 5.5% then the RFR for GBP/USD would be 2.75% - 5.5% or minus 2.25% (a negative differential)

For example, if the funding rates were as follows:

The rates used for the examples above are indicative and are not necessarily representative of correct rates. The RFR of the following currency pairs would therefore be calculated as:

Note: Remember to add 2.5% to the RFR for long positions and minus 2.5% for short positions

Unit risk:

The smallest movement on the relevant contract that equates to a profit/loss change that is the same as your stake. E.g. on GBP/USD a movement of 0.0001 in the price would mean a profit /loss shift on your trade of the full stake and so the unit risk would be 0.0001.

Overnight financing examples for Spread Betting

1. Shares

UK Shares

BUY £8 per point of a Rolling Daily

A £8 long position which has a closing price of 550.10p would be equal to £5,501 (£4,400.8) market exposure (this equates your trade to the number of shares you would have to buy from your stockbroker to create the same market risk, a £8 trade = 800 UK shares).

(550.10 / 1) x 8 x 8% = £352.06

This is the annual cost of borrowing £4,400.8 at 8%.

Divide this by 365 to reach the daily charge:
£352.06 / 365 = £0.96

As you are long of a share, your account would be debited £0.96 for the overnight funding.

US Shares

[(32.29 / 0.01) x 8 x 5.25%] / 365 = £3.71
Your account would be debited £3.71 for the overnight financing.

2. Indices

UK Indices

SELL £5 of UK 100 Rolling Daily

[(5820 / 1) x 5 x 3%] / 365 = £2.39
Your account would be credited £2.39 as overnight financing.

US Indices

BUY £1 of Wall Street Rolling Daily

[(13005 / 1) x 1 x 5.25%] /365 = £1.87
You are debited £1.87 for holding this position overnight.

3. Currencies

BUY £12 of GBP/USD Rolling Daily

[(1.5250 / 0.0001) x 12 x -0.25%] / 365= -0.10
Your account would be credited £0.10 as overnight financing.

Normally, for a buy position you would be charged the overnight financing but because this calculation has returned a negative number, you will actually receive this amount.

SELL £6 of GBP/USD Rolling Daily

[(1.9250 / 0.0001) x 6 x -5.25%] / 365 = -16.61
Your account would be debited £16.61 as overnight financing.

Please note that as with the previous example of a long position, this has returned a negative number but in this case, as this is a sell position, instead of you receiving the money you will be paying it.

The rates used for the examples above are indicative and are not necessarily representative of correct rates.

FinancialSpreads.com also offers the facility to rollover futures contracts. If you chose to roll any quarterly or monthly contracts, you will need to contact us shortly before our expiry date to leave a rollover instruction. For equities, FinancialSpreads.com will close the existing trade spread free (at just the market price) and offer the subsequent quarter at half of the spread. For indices, commodities and Forex contracts, FinancialSpreads.com will close the trade at our mid point and offer the subsequent quarter at the corresponding level. Please note that on rollover of futures contracts, the existing trade is closed, realising any profits or losses incurred and a new position is subsequently opened.

The morning after a share goes ex-div the price of the share will drop by the amount of the dividend (approximately). If a quarterly contract discounts the dividend, it will have already been removed from the price quoted, so there will be no effect on the price quoted between the day before ex-div and the day after it.

FinancialSpreads.com do not discount the dividend for Rolling Daily or Quarterly contracts as part of the price. In respect of declared dividends, a cash adjustment will be made with reference to any dividend or distribution attributable to any relevant security on which a trade is based, and shall be made and calculated as follows:
a. where your Position would result in a credit to your account (for example a Buy position in an equity which goes ex-dividend) we shall adjust the account balance in your favour by the gross dividend adjusted with applicable haircut percentage of Gross dividend (Standard adjustment for UK shares is 80% of Gross dividend), and multiplied by the Transaction Size; or

b. where your Position would result in a debit to your account (for example a Sell position in an equity which goes ex-dividend) we shall adjust the account balance in our favour by the gross dividend adjusted by the applicable haircut percentage(Standard charge for UK shares is 100% of Gross dividend), and multiplied by the Transaction Size.

For example, if Lloyds bank goes ex-div with a declared dividend of 7.5p, a client who was long (buy) position of £10 a point would receive £10x7.5x80% or £60. A client who was short the same amount (i.e. £10 a point) in Lloyds would be debited with £75 (£10x7.5x100%)

UK shares usually trade ex-div on the Wednesday morning if paying a dividend, and ceteris paribus, the value of these shares will go down by the dividend amount. This has a direct affect on any of the indices the particular share may be a constituent of. Although most shares go ex-div on Tuesday evening there will be exceptions when companies may make payments (whether dividend, return of capital etc) on days other than this. In these cases the relevant amendment will be made on the day on or a day before the effective date.

In the case of Rolling Daily contracts on the indices, FinancialSpreads.com will make a dividend adjustment to clients' accounts the day on which or before the index constituents’ trade ex-dividend. We will credit clients who have long (buy) positions and debit clients with short (sell) positions. Haircuts (due to charges on gross amounts due to tax, clearing charges etc.) may be applied to cash adjustments.

This is a common question for spread betting companies as it does cause some confusion with clients.

All major indices quoted by FinancialSpreads.com have a Futures market related to them (i.e. the UK 100 has the LIFFE FTSE Futures market). This Future trades at a price which reflects the underlying market plus some adjustments. These adjustments are calculated from the theoretical value of dividends payable between today and the expiry of the Future AND the cost of carry for the index over the same period.

This Adjustment is called the 'Fair Value'. FinancialSpreads.com will adjust the Daily Cash price of each index by it's own Fair Value number each day. FinancialSpreads.com links the Rolling Daily quote to the relevant future concerned and offsets the quote by the current Fair Value. Therefore the Rolling Daily price is moved by the Futures price and not vice versa, this is because the underlying cash price is a lagging market indicator which does not react in a timely manner to market moving news.

For UK shares we price our bid using the underlying market bid and the offer from the underlying market offer. LCG’s spread is then added around the underlying market bid/offer to create ‘our quote’. On a day to day basis the difference between our bid and the underlying market bid will remain the same as will the difference between the offer prices. If the underlying market bid/ask spread widens/narrows then our quote will widen/narrow with it.

We derive the future individual share prices (quarterly markets) by taking the underlying market price and adding the cost of carry from the trade date until the expiry date and removing any dividends/capital repayments on those shares which go ex-div/make payments between the trade date and the expiry date.

We subscribe to a data feed which gives us the best bid and offer in the market from several major banks in any given currency pair. The best bid might be from one bank, and the best ask might be from another bank. We take the best of each (i.e. the highest bid and the lowest offer) and put our spread (which remains fixed) around this spread.

There is no single exchange on which all FX trades are transacted, and so there is never a single price at which you can say that a given currency pair is trading. Bank “A” might sell cable to Bank “B” at 1.7750, whilst at exactly the same time Bank “C” might sell cable to Bank “D” at 1.7755. Bank “A” may record its trades to a database to which Data Vendor “X” has access, whilst Bank “C” might record its trades on a separate database to which Data Vendor “Y” has access. For this reason, it is highly possible for 2 different data vendors to be showing 2 different prices at exactly the same time in the same currency pair.

No. If the market spread is 1, we add one to each side so that our spread is 3. And even if we did, the net result is irrelevant. Say, for example, we rounded up on a 3-tick spread. If you went long you'd pay that extra half a tick on the way in, but you'd gain it on the way out. Whether we rounded up or down, the spread is still 3 ticks! Plus, you are still exposed to the same currency price movements - if cable rallies 10 ticks, you will make 10 ticks whether the price you traded at was rounded up or down.

We have improved the way we price FX pairs to greater reflect the underlying interbank market by adding an extra integer to many of the quotes. The reason for doing this is to make our FX prices more accurate and thus give you a better and more accurate price to trade on.

How will this work?

On some trade tickets the very last number in the price may be a smaller digit. This smaller digit is not the actual tick size of the price, but simply an extra integer i.e. 1/10th of a point. Therefore, as a general rule, you will be trading on the last large figure of the price quoted, as you were before, but with the additional benefit of seeing an extra (smaller) digit for greater accuracy. If we take an FX market such as GBP/USD, for example. Rather than quoting this market to four decimal places as a price of 1.5850-1.5852, we have added a smaller integer to make the quote five decimal places. In the example below, if you bought £1 per point of GBP/USD Rolling Daily at 1.58505 and sold £1 to close at 1.58510, your profit would be 50p. The extra digit has been applied to FX markets only at this time.

The benefit to you

Prior to us making this change, the buy price was rounded to the last tradable digit. Now, with the additional decimal place, you will see and be able to trade on a more accurate price.

Our spreads remain some of the tightest in the industry and what’s more, our spreads are tighter for longer. So, when we say we have a 1 point spread on EUR/USD we’ll quote a rate with a 1 point spread 24 hours a day.*

*LCG has the right to vary Overnight Financing interest rates, spreads or commission rates on any contract or vary the Size specifications without notice especially in, but not limited to, volatile market conditions and/or illiquidity of the Underlying Market. At LCG's discretion quoted spreads made via the telephone may differ from the spreads available on an OTP or a DTP.

Accounts are subject to status, but to apply for an account, please complete our online application form. This can be found as a link on the home page (Apply for an account). This should take no more than 10 minutes. You will be asked to select the type of currency you wish to trade in, so be sure that you select the currency you require. We then conduct an electronic check to confirm your identity and address.

If we are unable to electronically confirm your identity and address, we will require documentation in order to activate your account. If this is the case or if we require any additional information, we will send you an email with details of what we require.

FinancialSpreads.com offer deposit accounts, which means that you can begin trading once you have deposited funds into your account.

If you would like to hold an account in another currency (Sterling/US Dollar/Euro) or if you are interested in holding a corporate account, please contact our customer support team: support@FinancialSpreads.com or +44 (0)20 7456 7061.

Yes, you can nominate a family member or friend by completing a Power of Attorney form. Click here to download the Power of Attorney form.

If you have a friend that is interested in opening a Financial Spreads account we can offer you a cash reward for the introduction. We will credit your Financial Spreads account with £50 once you and your friend have both funded your accounts with £250 or more and made at least 2 non equity bets. Please contact us to claim your reward!

Please note the following about our Refer a Friend scheme:

You must have an existing personal/business relationship with the mentioned person and it is your understanding that your friend may be interested in receiving information about products provided by London Capital Group (LCG). Accounts are subject to status. Members must be at least 18 years old. Once a new LIVE spread betting account is open, £250 must be deposited and two non equity bets made before receiving £50 credit to the account. Please note, eligible bets for this offer exclude equity bets. The £50 cannot be withdrawn from the account for 3 months.
This offer is subject to fair use and abuse of this offer may result in credit being withheld. Financial Spreads reserves the right to withdraw this promotion at any time.

You are introducing friends to London Capital Group. Refer a friend referrals to London Capital Group are limited to a maximum of 5 per live account holder. This offer is not open to employees of Financial Spreads or employees of any other company engaged in direct competition with Financial Spreads.

You can see details of the trades that you have made and that have been settled if you click on the Trade History section of your account.

This information will be held on your account for 3 months. If you require further details of all the trades you have made, please contact Customer Support at support@FinancialSpreads.com

Details of any open positions can be found if you click on Open Positions. If you have more than one trade in the same product, please click the "I" button and this will give you a detailed breakdown of your position in this product.

The automatic stop-loss order that is linked to your open position can be found if you click on the Order Book button. This section also holds details of any new orders or limit orders.

If a problem occurs on your account, it is important for us to be able to contact you. Please ensure that your email address is always up to date and, if necessary, please check to ensure that your inbox has not exceeded its limit. We send all contract notes via email and it is your responsibility to provide us with the correct contact details. Your contract notes are proof of the trades that you have made and if you have any kind of query we will ask you for copies of your contract notes.

If you move house, please contact Customer Support by email or telephone to advise us of your new address. If we are unable to confirm your new address electronically we will require some documentation, details of which will be provided at the time.

If you wish to change your password, please call us and we will conduct a security check to confirm your identity and then generate an email with a temporary password. You can use this to log into your account and can then change your password to something more memorable. Your password will then be securely encrypted in our system.

If you have forgotten your username or password, please call us or if you are unable to do so, please email us. We will send you some information that will remind you of your username or password. We are unable to send passwords via email for security reasons.

Log into your account and click on Account Summary. You will see details of the most recent closing trades you have conducted and details of any profit/loss.

You will receive a contract note via email for each trade you make whether you trade online or by telephone.

You can view your statement of account online once you have logged into your account.

Most modern PCs will run our interface successfully, but in order to achieve the best performance we recommend that you have at least 1.8Ghz Pentium IV(or equivalent) processor with 512MB of RAM. Other programs installed and running could affect the performance of the website.

We support PC platforms Windows 2000, XP and Vista. We also support Apple Mac platforms.

The FinancialSpreads.com trading platform is available via HTML (the Internet) and therefore you do not need to download any additional software onto your computer. As a general rule, we design our systems to work with most browsers on any system with any ISP (Internet Service Provider) broadband connection.

You may need to upgrade some of the existing software on your machine, and the information below will guide you through this process. If you have any questions, please call our Customer Support team us on +44 (0)20 7456 7061 and we will be pleased to help.

The site requires Flash 9 or later. If you are unsure that you have Flash, or wish to check you have the latest version, you can download the latest version here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/test_version.htm

If you wish to see our charts on the trading platform, you will need Adobe Flash. You can download the latest version of here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

You can access the FinancialSpreads.com website using the latest versions of main browser, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

However, if you attempt to access our site using an AOL browser, it is possible that you may experience problems logging into our site. We would recommend that you use one of the following browser connections, which are available free of charge.

Click below to download the latest versions of these browsers for free:

Internet Explorer
Firefox
Safari

You will get the best results from our site if you set your screen resolution to a minimum of 1024 x 768 pixels. If you require assistance in doing this, please call our support team on +44 (0)20 7456 7061, and they will be happy to help.

Our site is fully compatible with the Apple Mac. However, if you do experience problems with our website, we recommend upgrading to the latest version of Internet Explorer for Mac. Please be aware that, although Microsoft may continue to provide security and performance updates to the Internet Explorer for Mac, no major new releases are planned.

If you find that Internet Explorer for Mac does not work properly, please try using Apple's new Safari Browser: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Our interface uses Session Cookies, and these must be enabled before you can log in. "Cookies" are small amounts of data that a website can send to your web browser and store on your computer. Cookies do not contain personal information about you (unless you knowingly provide it). We use cookies to enhance navigation and the functionality of our website to securely verify your identity.

Please follow the instructions below to allow your browser to accept Session Cookies. If you have any questions, please call us on +44 (0)20 7456 7061.

Depending on which browser you use, follow one of the appropriate set of instructions below:

Internet Explorer 7
Select ‘Internet Options’ from the ‘Tools’ menu and then select the ‘Privacy’ tab. Finally, choose ‘Accept’/‘Prompt’ for ‘First-party Cookies’ and tick the ‘Always allow session cookies’ box.

Internet Explorer 8
Select ‘Internet Options’ from the ‘Tools’ menu and then select the ‘Privacy’ tab. Finally, move the slider to the ‘Medium’/‘Low’/‘Accept All Cookies’ level.

Firefox
Select ‘Options’ from the ‘Tools’ menu and then select ‘Privacy’. Finally, expand the ‘Cookies’ heading and tick the box for 'Allow Cookies'.

Safari
Select the Tools button on the top-right hand corner of the browser, then select ‘Preferences’. Finally, select the ‘Security’ button, and then from the ‘Accept cookies’ section, choose ‘Always’/‘Only from sites I visit’.

Note: To find out which version of Internet Explorer you are using, click ‘Help’ and then ‘About Internet Explorer’ on your browser menu.

Although we have taken care to design the site to be compatible with the most popular firewall vendors, it is quite possible that specific firewall settings or configuration could limit your experience of the FinancialSpreads.com website. If you are using a firewall and are not sure whether it is the cause of your problem, please email us with details of the type of firewall that you have. As a simple test, you could shut down your firewall for a few seconds while you reload the FinancialSpreads.com site.

If you are still experiencing trouble, it is most likely that your firewall is not the root cause. If the problem is no longer evident, your firewall is most likely blocking/changing certain content. In this case, it would be a good idea to contact your firewall vendor for support.

The FinancialSpreads.com website is protected by a Thawte verified certificate. This means that any information that you provide is protected by a secure certificate provider, thus ensuring the security of the site. More information regarding Thawte can be viewed here.

For information on our complaints procedure, please Click here