Tradefair is a recent entry on to the spread betting market, but has substantial experience to back it up. It is a collaboration between Betfair, which is a betting exchange, and London Capital Group Ltd. which provides the financial experience, and is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). London Capital Group Ltd. also owns Capital Spreads and Prospreads.
The financial heritage is clear, but if you’re not familiar with Betfair you should know that it is the world’s leading Internet betting exchange. In the same way that Betfair has sought to revolutionize the world of online betting, many people think that Tradefair will be aggressive in the financial spread betting market.
The spreads are fairly competitive. The spread on the FTSE is one point and on the Dow is three points. You can open a real money account or a free demo account, and you do not have to fund your account straightaway, but only when you want to start spread betting. The sign up bonus at the moment is up to £100, to match your initial deposit, plus a “Little Black Book” guide to spread betting. Once you fund your account, you will receive volume 2 of the guide.
Tradefair gives 24-hour access for trading, and in common with other 24-hour providers, the spreads will increase out of market hours because the trades cannot be hedged. There are more than 2000 different financial securities which you can spread bet on, and stop losses are automatically placed when you open a trade. As explained on the website, the stop loss order is intelligently positioned depending on the funds in your account, but you can edit the level. It is important to note that this is not a guaranteed stop loss, but simply an order to close your position when a certain price is reached.
The trading platform is browser-based, and you do not have to download software to use it. This has the advantage that you can sign in and place your trades from any Internet connected computer. The platform is user-friendly and the included charting package is as good as most other brokers provide. There are a range of order options including One Cancels Other, and limit orders to place your trades automatically when you are not online and your price target is reached.
It seems that Tradefair may have a winning combination here, and time will tell whether they are able to displace some of the larger brokers at the top of the spread betting market. The trading interface gives you all the information that you need for routine spread betting without being complicated, and real-time information is fed constantly to the screen. We rank this spread betting provider as well worth a look, and suggest you take out a demo account to see if you want to fund a real money account with it.
