LONDON, March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Financial spread betting (http://www.cityindex.co.uk/spread-betting/) was invented in 1974 by stockbroker Stuart Wheeler, as a way of speculating on gold prices without the aggravation or expense of actually owning the gold. Wheeler introduced the concept to some of his friends, deciding a sell price and a buy price and then allowing them to spread bet on whether the index would rise or fall over the following week.
Although losses incurred could be greater than a trader's initial outlay, it was immediately evident that one of the advantages of financial spread betting was the fact that it would allow traders to profit from a falling market as well as a rising one.
Boosted by the economic boom, other spread betting providers started to appear in the 1980s, with City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk) among them. In the years that followed, spread betting would reach across every conceivable financial market, from equities to futures.
In the mid-1990s financial spread betting took a huge step forward, thanks mainly to the technology boom. Stock market activity became headline news, dotcom stocks went through the roof and spread bet providers launched faster online trading platforms with new tools such as automatic stop loss orders.
In 2009 City Index launched City Trading(TM), its first spread betting and CFD trading mobile app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Java. The app allows traders to check the latest prices and market movements instantly, open and close positions, read the latest investment news amongst many other features. All this means that spread bettors today can finally trade whatever, wherever, whenever they want.
To find out more about spread betting today, read City Index's spread betting guide:
http://www.cityindex.co.uk/spread-betting/
Spread betting and CFD trading are leveraged products which can result in losses greater than your initial deposit. Ensure you fully understand the risks.
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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, CFDs ( http://www.cityindex.co.uk/cfd-trading/) and, in the UK, spread betting.
We constantly look to widen the range of assets we offer, 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, and a high standard of customer service and support. For more information visit http://www.cityindex.co.uk/
SOURCE City Index
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