What Tools are Needed to Spread Bet Online?

General

What tools a spread bettor might require will very much depend on how much work and research they want to do on their trades. Also a spread bettor will need to set off the costs of acquiring any tools, be they software, books, memberships, against what they hope to make from spread betting.

The obvious prerequisite is a computer and pretty much anything produced in the last two or three years should be perfectly adequate. Most before that will also be ok but it would obviously depend on the specification and how much has been stored on it and whether it is still running relatively efficiently. What you don't want for trading is a slow machine which has a propensity to crash at key moments.

The trader also needs a decent internet connection which again can be relied upon. A useful tip is to always have your spread betting company's phone number available just in case everything fails and you are left running blind with positions open.

Software

Fortunately, there are no subscriptions to be paid to spread betting companies, they make their money from spreads, losing bets and interest on deposits. Just the act of opening an account will give a trader access to their charting tools and very often these are perfectly adequate for the beginner.

If you want additional information and data, one of the most cost effective packages comes from Sharescope. These provide live, delayed or end of day data depending on what level of information a trader requires. The most basic package starts at under £20 per month.

One weakness of Sharescope is that it doesn't allow back-testing of strategies - i.e. using historical data to see if your trading strategy works. For this something like MetaStock could be used. This comes at a $499 charge and data feeds can be paid for extra or imported from a package like Sharescope.

The level of data feed that a spread bettor requires will vary depending on the time period in which he trades. If trades are only being planned at the weekend, say, then end of day data will suffice. If a trader is working Intraday then real time or delayed data will be more appropriate. Delayed data normally comes to a user with a 15 or 20 minute delay from real -time.

There are plenty of othe packages out there and most of them are from the US and therefore geared to trading (buying/selling the actual financial instrument)rather than spread betting (Spread Betting is considered as internet gambling in the USA and forbidden. Added to to this ALL income in the USA is considered taxable)). These software packages are generally quite expensive and also facilitate automatic links to brokers but are probably not cost effective to the average spread bettor.

Other stuff

Once you have the hardware and software arranged it really is a case of learning, research, planning and experience.

Look to the resources section to find further educational material.

A spread bettor needs to understand a few basic indicators and patterns and put them into a strategy. Then the key obstacle to overcome is that of discipline and learning to work with the strategy and not with emotion.

Ultimately, keep it simple! There are dozens of systems and indicators available and it is very easy to get swamped with technical information. Using a few carefully selected tools that work for your style of spread betting is not a bad tactic.