To get started with spread betting, it helps to choose an app that has good analytical tools, indicators, and timeframes. This comparison looks at the brokers with the best spread betting apps.
Updated: 08/07/2021
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The Brokers With The Top Spread Betting Apps Are:
Spread betting, much like CFD trading, allows you to speculate and (hopefully) profit on the movements of underlying instruments such as forex, gold, silver, and shares. Spread betting however unlike CFD, has no stamp duty, or capital gains tax on profits so is increasingly popular in the UK.
Since spread betting and CFD trading use the same underlying financial instruments, savvy traders can use the same analysis and trading tools when researching opportunities. For this reason, most CFD or Forex trading platforms and by extension trading apps are suitable for spread betting. Due to new FCA regulations, cryptocurrencies are not allowed to be traded using spread betting.
This guide looks at the best trading apps you can use for spread betting and the best broker to use for these apps.
Due to Brexit spread betting is only available in the UK & Northern Ireland as it has been allowed by the UK’s regulatory body FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) to all residents. Other international regulatory bodies do not allow spread betting. All our recommendations are FCA regulated brokers.
Pepperstone is a no-dealing desk broker (NDD) with multiple top-tier liquidity providers giving the best quotes and markets to trade on. Clients can spread bet on forex markets, stock markets, index funds, commodities, and treasury markets. They also have an education center with new articles and webinars for new traders or experienced traders willing to learn more about trading markets.
Pepperstone clients have the option of using the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and cTrader. All these platforms have apps that are compatible with Android or IOS devices.
The main features of the MetaTrader 4 and 5 apps include:
Pepperstone also offers cTrader which is a popular alternative to the MetaTrader trading platforms. Made by Spotware, cTrader in some aspects is a better option than MetaTrader for beginners. This is because cTrader has a cleaner user interface which makes it more intuitive for beginner traders. Choose cTrader if you are looking for depth of the market (which is not available on MT4) and advanced indicators and timeframes.
Pepperstone’s spread betting account has similar spreads as their Pepperstone standard account as well as no commission costs. This means that you can trade the full range of markets with very competitive spreads as low as 0.70 pips for EUR/USD.
The table below displays the average spreads for major European forex pairs. Pepperstone is renowned for the tight spreads that it offers clients making it one of the best spread betting brokerage apps on the market.
Data taken from broker website. Accurate as at 01/08/2021
Pepperstone offers clients a wide range of products to give you the ability to bet on the right products in different market conditions. If you are looking to diversify your portfolio then Pepperstone’s range of spread betting instruments gives the opportunity to protect and hedge against unforeseen events. The full range that Pepperstone offers is listed below:
In conclusion, Pepperstone is one of the best spread betting apps available for traders to use with competitive spreads, no commission costs, and a wide range of markets to choose from. There is a scope of different trading applications that you can choose from including Pepperstone’s own cTrader app, or the two more popular MT4 & MT5 apps. All of which are available on IOS and Android devices.
View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>
Markets.com is a highly recommended spread betting brokerage app available to UK residents. They offer an expansive range of markets, but spread betting is only available on their Marketsx platform. Markets.com only offers one standard account type making it easy for you to compare their competitive spreads.
Markets.com has a flexible and easy-to-use trading platform called Marketsx which is available on Android and IOS devices. They offer a free demo account to traders that are unfamiliar with the platform or lack sufficient trading experience and want to try out the full range of features. Some of the features that are available are listed below:
Choosing Markets.com means competitive spreads for a large range of products and no commissions. Markets.com offers some unique products you won’t find with other brokers, for example, there are 13 blends. Blends are stocks grouped together by a sector or themes to form an index. Markets allow you to choose a diverse range of themes such as Buffet, Cannabis and Social Media.
Markets.com offers very competitive spreads compared to all of its competitors because they operate a market-making trading model with no commission. Markets.com doesn’t offer average spreads on their standard account like most of their competitors. In saying that below is a snapshot of some of their live spreads, and we can see that their rates are on-par or lower than their competitor’s lowest spreads, giving them an edge in having some of the lowest spreads for spread betting apps.
Markets.com has an advanced trading platform app called Marketsx, which has a wide range of products to spread bet on. The competitive spreads that markets.com offers make it one of the best with no commission costs on any of the trades.
View Markets.com Review >>Visit Markets.com >>
CMC has the best range of markets and low spreads on its cutting-edge next-generation platform. CMC Markets offer clients the choice of over 11,000 financial instruments to spread bet on with an educational center where professional or beginner traders can learn something.
CMC markets have a platform that has won the Investment Trends best mobile/tablet app award every year from 2013-2019 and has been specially built for spread betters. They have an industry-leading charting package that includes features like:
CMC offers the best range of markets with over 9500 instruments available. Their spreads start as low as 0.7 pips for major forex pairs like EUR/USD. There is no commission charged but traders can incur fees for premium order types, overnight held positions, and inactive accounts for longer than 12 months.
– The fees for having an inactive account are expensive at £10 per month, but when the account is activated again CMC will refund you up to 3 months (£30 max) back. There is also negative balance protection as inactive accounts can’t have negative balances.
– The overnight charges are either a positive or negative balance depending on the overnight swap rates if the position is held for longer than a day. This is not a massive charge to the position but is something to be noted.
– Premium order types include guaranteed stop losses (GSLO’s) which for a fee will guarantee that the order is closed by the client regardless of the pricing at the next open.
CMC has one of the best educational centers for clients to access to help them become the best-spread bet trader possible. Some of these are listed below:
View CMC Markets Review >>Visit CMC Markets >>
IG is the online brokerage that invented spread betting back in 1974 and now gives you access to over 17,000 financial markets. Clients will also have access to multiple spread betting platforms that are available on Apple’s IOS for iPhone & iPad as well as Android devices.
IG offers a multitude of different platforms that can be used to trade on, but only a few will have access to spread betting. Their own online trading platform and mobile app available for IOS (iPhone & iPad) and Android will allow it as well as the most popular trading platform MetaTrader 4 (MT4). Between these trading platforms they come with an array of features:
IG has the largest range of markets with over 17,000 different markets including shares, forex, and commodities. IG gives clients the option of hedging their share portfolio with spread betting on the asset that moves in the opposite direction to the shares. There are no commission costs when trading with IG as the costs are already built-in to the spreads.
IG offers out-of-hours trading on key indices, forex, and key US shares with ‘all session’ trading. Some of the markets that are tradable on IG are:
View IG Markets Review >>Visit IG Markets >>
City index has one of the best trading platform apps with access to over 8,000+ financial markets for retail investor accounts. They are FCA regulated and follow their rules to hold client funds in segregated accounts in the case of liquidation. The platforms available for spread betting are their web application and mobile application available for free download to IOS devices and Android.
Spread betting on City Index means that clients can trade on margin whereas if they had a share dealing account then they would have to put forward the full amount of value. City Index offers fixed spreads or variable spreads for the full range of markets. The average spreads for the world’s most popular traded forex pair EUR/USD is 0.8 pips with it going as low as 0.5 pips. Some of the minimum spreads for the markets are listed below:
City Index also has an overnight financing fee that they charge if the spread bet position is left for longer than a day, as this is the cost of borrowing or lending the underlying asset. The charge is 2.5% for both long and short positions. City Index also charges a small fee for guaranteed stop-loss orders upon triggering, this is to save a position if the market falls past a stop-loss out of activity hours. There is also an inactivity fee to the account if it is inactive for longer than 1 year of £12 per month.
City index has its own award-winning platform that is designed to suit any trader no matter what level of expertise. Their mobile applications have been specifically designed for Android and IOS users whether on a tablet or phone. Some of the main features that are included in the apps are:
Spreadex is an online brokerage that is mainly used for sports betting and financial spread betting for the last 20 years. A key advantage of this platform is that if the financial services spread betting gets a little uninteresting then it is easy to try out spread betting in the sports arena. Their online trading platform comes in application format for IOS and Android devices. Spreadex is regulated by the FCA and Gambling Commission for all of their spread bettings to UK residents.
Spreadex clients have the option of betting higher or lower than the broker’s spreads, therefore giving the opportunity to win or lose more money. With Spreadex being a multipurpose platform their range of markets is unique as it varies from Horse racing to Gold. Some of the financial markets are listed below:
Spreadex despite being a multi-industry trading platform includes some professional trading tools into its mobile apps that can be downloaded for free on Google play store and Apple’s App Store. Some of the main features of the app are listed below:
Visit Spreadex >>
ETX Capital is an FCA-regulated UK-based brokerage that offers spread betting to its clients with over 6000 tradable markets. ETX customers have the option of choosing from a multitude of different platform apps that have spread betting enabled including ETX Trader pro, and ETX MT4.
ETX Capital uses its proprietary trading app called ETX TraderPro which comes with a variety of features including on-chart trading, customizable charts with over 80 technical indicators, flexible position sizing and order types, and annotations to easily analyze interactive charts. ETX TraderPro also includes secure login features with face and fingerprint recognition.
ETX Capital clients have the added benefit of using the world’s most popular MT4 trading app with spread betting enabled for its UK customers. One of the main benefits of using the MT4 platform is the use of expert advisors or trading robots to help execute trades. Trading strategies can be back-tested and once implemented will help you never miss an opportunity with your trading strategy. Other features of the MT4 mobile and tablet platform include:
ETX Capital offers a good range of markets for spread betting with the spreads being as low as 0.8 pips for EUR/USD pair on the MT4 application. The spreads do vary between the MT4 platform and the ETX TraderPro platform as on their MT4 app they offer tighter spreads that are as low as 0.6 pips for EUR/USD.
Visit ETX Capital >>
FXCM is an FCA-regulated broker that allows spread betting for UK clients. They allow spread betting on either their own Trading station mobile app platform, MetaTrader 4 app (MT4), or Ninja Trader (No app, just web platform). Unlike their CFD trading accounts, spread betting accounts pay no commission as all costs are counted into the spread. Combined with the tax benefit, this is a key reason why many UK residents decide to spread bet instead of trading CFD’s.
FXCM clients can access the markets on 2 different mobile trading applications available for both IOS and Android devices. Between the world’s most popular MT4 app and Trading Station app they provide a variety of different features as listed below:
FXCM has a wide range of markets available for spread betting including 10 different forex pairs, 7 indices including the S&P 500, 6 commodities, and over 15 stock shares.
Trading and spread betting can come with high risks of losing money or making a profit. If a broker has good risk management tools and features then this can help make you more money compared to losing it. FCMX has implemented such measures for its clients with the use of stop-losses, pending market orders, and take profit levels. Using the MT4 application, there is an expert advisor feature that can further help the trader make the right decisions.
View FXCM Review >>Visit FXCM >>
Pepperstone has the tightest average spreads, the best range of trading platforms, and educational facilities for any level trader. With the option of using either their easy-to-use proprietary cTrader app or the most popular MT4 & MT5 apps, it makes for a good selection of charting tools and indicators. Pepperstone is an FCA-regulated broker that operates with no dealing desk (NDD) and no commissions providing you with the lowest costs to start trading and make tax-free profits.
Note: This is not investment advice and there is an inherent risk warning when trading spread bets and CFDs.
Justin Grossbard has been investing for the past 20 years and writing for the past 10. He co-founded Compare Forex Brokers in 2014 after working with the foreign exchange trading industry for several years. He also founded a number of FinTech and digital startups including Innovate Online and SMS Comparison. Justin holds a Masters Degree and an Honours in Commerce from Monash University. He and his wife Paula live in Melbourne, Australia with his son and Siberian cat. In his spare time, he watches Australian Rules Football and invests on global markets.
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