How the Financial Trader Has Evolved - and Stayed the Same

LONDON, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

The spread betting industry is ever-growing, and while the average trader remains white, male, middle-aged and professional, not everything has stayed consistent.  

Joshua Raymond, Chief Market Strategist of spread betting provider City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk/), states: "Ten years ago, the standard spread bettor would be 45 years old, usually male and with a work background in the city. Today, they are slightly older at 48, still male and with a share dealing background but their backgrounds are much more diverse."

Mr. Raymond continues: "Today, for every banker opening a spread betting account, there are two engineers. For every engineer there is one chartered surveyor. For every chartered surveyor there is a taxi driver, and so on and so forth."

Investment Trends recently reported around 83,000 traders were active in the spread betting industry last year. Between 2001 and 2007 City Index saw an increase of 124 per cent, year-on-year, of new female traders. This increase declined by 71% from 2007 to early 2009 before rising again, a statistic Joshua Raymond attributes at least partly to the differing trading mentalities between men and women.

"[The rise in 2009] appears to indicate that despite the fact you can make money from bear markets by spread betting, by going short or selling prices, women appear to be more risk-averse then men, and this may be why we saw a fall in the amount of new women traders between 2007 and March 2009, a time when the FTSE 100 lost 48 per cent."

The suggestion women are more strategic in their planning than men is supported by Sandy Jadeja, City Index's Chief Technical Analyst, who has observed increasing numbers of women attending his spread betting and CFD trading seminars.

Mr. Jadeja comments: "Just over 12 years ago, the attendees at our spread betting seminars were 100 per cent male. Now that figure has dropped to about 70 per cent."

City Index runs a range of free seminars for trading beginners and market experts. Find out more and sign up at http://www.cityindex.co.uk/learn-to-trade/seminars.aspx

Spread betting and CFD trading are leveraged products which can result in losses greater than your initial deposit. Ensure you fully understand the risks.

About City Index:

Today more and more individual traders are discovering the benefits of derivatives, and many of them are discovering them through a City Index trading platform.

As a group, we transact in excess of 1.5 million trades every month for individuals in over 50 countries worldwide. We provide access to a wide range of instruments including margined foreign exchange, contracts for difference (CFDs) and, in the UK, financial spread betting.

We constantly look to improve the performance of our platforms and expand the range of services we provide. The result is that our customers benefit from innovative trading tools with transparent pricing, competitive spreads, award-winning mobile trading and a high standard of customer service and support. Visit http://www.cityindex.co.uk/ for more on spread betting and CFD trading.

SOURCE City Index

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