SpreadCo Review

March 6, 2013

Introduction to SpreadCo

spreadcoSpread Co is a London based spread betting company that was founded in 2006 by former employees of CMO Markets.  Since then, the company has slowly risen in the ranks of the UK’s most used spread betting brokers and this was accomplished by keeping spread costs low and providing consistent updates for its Saturn Trading Platform.  Spread Co offers some interesting financing options for its trading clients but the list of tradable assets leaves something to be desired and this puts the company at a disadvantage when compared to its larger competitors.

Roughly 2,500 assets can be trading at Spread Co, and this includes all of the stocks listed on the FTSE 250.  Most of the main stock indices are included on this list and there is even a decent number of sector based products that can be traded.  This is somewhat surprising, as sector based products tend to take more time to construct and classify but for those traders looking to trade movements seen in an industry as a whole, the offering at Spread Co is not a bad choice.  In commodities, we can see some different product offerings as well, with rough rice, soybean oil and copper all regularly available at relatively low spread costs.  The strength of these spread costs can really be seen in US crude oil, which trades well below the industry average at spreads of only 4 points.

Spread Co’s Trading Platform

Limited Risk accountThe Spread Co trading platform can be used to trade one of the two available account types that are currently offered by the broker.  The first account type of the Standard account, which aims to limit spread costs but does not guarantee that orders are filled at your specified price levels.  Instead, orders are filled at the best available price after they are made active in the markets (and this can mean that assets can be bought or sold at less favorable prices).  For those looking to remove this negative, there is the , which guarantees all orders are executed at your chosen price.  To account for this additional protection, Spread Co charges slightly higher spreads.

Looking at the trading platform itself, Spread Co offers something a little different when compared to most of the industry competition.  They do offer the standardized proprietary web based platform (which they call the Saturn Trader) but this platform can either be used in a browser or downloaded directly onto your PC.  This is a significant difference because of the accepted efficiency issues that are sometimes associated with web based platforms.  Instead, traders are able to use both options, and the saved platform profiles can be accessed from any PC connected to the internet.

For spread betting traders with more advanced technical analysis strategies, the downloaded Saturn platform offers features that make the charts more customizable.  This does not mean that newer users should avoid the downloaded platform, however, because the interface is intuitive and very easy to learn.  Some of the additional features include individual watch lists, enhanced order screens, and a wider variety of price charts for your chosen asset.  This way, you can set your station in a way that is familiar to you and allows you to monitor only the assets you want to trade.

Benefits from Spread Co

         Spread Co offers a free demo account for 30 days, which gives traders £25,000 in virtual currency to use when practicing on the platform.  This will be helpful for new clients because both the web based platform and the downloaded platform can be compared and mastered before real money is put into live trades.  In addition to this, Spread Co offers instructional training programs and it is a good idea for new traders to use both of these offerings in conjunction with one another as part of the early learning process.

The educational materials include a large number of spread betting guides and a 14-part video series, which covers all of the important elements (everything from downloading and installing the platform to planning out an effective trading strategy.  For those with short term intraday strategies, the Quick Trade option will be viewed as particularly useful along with the daily technical analysis reports that are made available on the website.  Some sites will avoid giving trading signals in this way (because of a worry about liabilities), but these concerns are generally unfounded and it is nice to see a spread betting broker that is willing to add some enhanced daily research for its clients.

Spread Co Special Offers

         The special offers that are currently available at Spread Co are not particularly impressive.  The only offer now is the standard Refer a Friend program, which pays a small £50 credit for signing up new traders.  The new client must place 5 active non-equity trades, and once this requirement is met, Spread Co will automatically place the £50 credit into the trading account of the original user.  Occasionally, there will be other incentive offers that are made available, so new clients should read the latest info on their website before choosing a new broker.

Summary of Strengths at Spread Co

  • Wide range of educational materials (including an in-depth video series)
  • Trading station that is available for download, browser, and mobile applications
  • Limited incentive programs
  • Good selection of commodities assets

Summary of Weaknesses at Spread Co

  • Large minimum stake size (£1 per point)
  • Focus on experienced traders rather than newbies