The oldest and most established of all the spread betting companies, having been founded in 1974. Since then the company has expanded into IG Group, which incorporates both IG Index and also IG Markets, the latter of which is concentrates on offering trading in contracts for difference. IG Group is now a publicly listed company and quoted on the London Stock Exchange with the ticker IGG.L ( get the latest IG Index share price and news here) IG Index employs around 550 people with offices in London, the Far East, Australia and now in Europe.

IG Index provide you with a trading platform called PureDeal, which is both simple to use and very easy to configure, and where you can create your own watch lists of the markets, whether you trade forex, commodities, options or stocks. The spread betting software platform has a predictive feature which will take you direct to the particular market you are trading, and from there it’s a one click dealing operation. Something which is unique to this platform is a built in feature which will always ensure you get the best deal in the market, automatically checking all the latest prices when you place your bet, giving you the best deal when your trade is executed. The trading software also includes a Reuters live news feed, which is the best available in my view, a huge range of research tools and analysis, coupled with an excellent real time charting facility, from which you can trade with one click. In many ways this platform reminds me of the MT4 metatrader platform which is now increasingly popular for professional trading and as with many of the spread betting companies, a demo download is available, so give it a try. The platform is also mobile compatible to run on IPhone, Palm Pre and other handheld devices and the company has recently introduced an Iphone dealing service.

Two other points that I like about IG Index are that like many other spread betting companies, they offer a 24 hour dealing service which is open from Sunday evening UK time, until Friday evening UK time, allowing clients to trade around the world as markets open and close. From a dealing perspective another unique selling point for the company is that they offer what is called a ‘limited risk’ trading option, which in essence limits your risk to the downside on a trade, but still allows for unlimited profits to the upside – a great feature in my view. Finally, if you are keen on index trading, such as betting on the ftse 100, IG Index still continues to quote a price, even when the underlying markets are closed. Some interesting and unique features!

As you would expect, IG Index cover all the markets including forex, commodities, shares, US stocks, indices and options, and below are the current spreads for some of the most popular markets as follows, and of all the spread betting companies, the IG Index home page is by far the easiest to navigate and the simplest when you are looking for pricing information:

Main Indices

  • Daily FTSE 100  – the spread is 1 index point and the minimum bet size is £2
  • Daily FTSE future – the spread is 2 index point and the minimum bet size is £2
  • Daily Wall Street – the spread is 2 points and the the minimum bet size is £1
  • Daily Wall Street futures – the spread is 4 points and the minimum bet size is £1
  • Daily SPX 500 – the spread is 0.5 point and the minimum bet size is £10
  • Daily Germany 30 – the spread size 1 point and the minimum bet size is £2
  • Daily Japan 225 – the spread size is 8 points and the minimum bet size is £0.50

Major Currency Pairs

  • EUR vs USD – the minimum spread is 1 pip and the minimum bet size is £0.50p
  • GBP vs USD – the minimum spread is 2 pips and the minimum bet size is £0.50p
  • USD vs CAD – the minimum spread is 3 pips and the minimum bet size is £0.50p
  • USD vs JPY – the minimum spread is 1 pip and the minimum bet size is £0.50p
  • AUD vs USD – the minimum spread is 1 pip and the minimum bet size is £0.50p

Commodities

  • Daily Brent crude oil – the minimum spread is 4 and the minimum bet size is £1
  • Brent crude oil – the minimum spread is 6 and the minimum bet size is £1
  • Daily US light crude oil -the minimum spread is 4 and the minimum bet size is £1
  • US light crude – the minimum spread  is 6 and the minimum bet size is £1
  • Gold – the minimum spread is 0.6 and the minimum bet size is £1
  • Daily spot gold – the minimum spread is o.5 and the minimum bet size is £1
  • Silver – the minimum spread is 3 and the minimum bet size is £2
  • Daily silver – the minimum spread is 3 and the minimum bet size is £2

Stocks and Shares

  • Over 1500 UK shares available to trade
  • Shares in FTSE 100 would typically cost 0.1% of the trade value

The above is just a fraction of the markets and products available that IG Index offer you for spread betting.  As with any other spread betting company there are other costs and charges involved for rolling over contracts and for short selling, along with some forms of stop loss, such as those which are guranteed. However, standard and trailing stop losses are free of charge.

If you are thinking of opening a spread betting account with IG Index, then the deposit margin is between 10% and 75% with a minimum spread of 1, and a minimum bet size of £0.10. The account minimum is £0, and as outlined above they offer 24hr trading. The company does provide a demo account for you to trial the trading platform. As far as I know there are no special offers at the moment, but it is always worth checking before you open your account!