Broker to Trading

Spread Co is an FCA regulated, London based broker offering low (or zero) fixed spreads for spread betting and also provides CFD trading. Spread Co may be compared with other brokers.

Briefly, what does Spread Co do ?

Spread Co offers a spread betting account Standard for traders in the UK. This can offer low fixed spreads and does not have a fee to use. However Spread Co also offers spread betting accounts which have zero spreads on selected markets, with fair use restrictions and with or without a monthly fee, T&Cs apply. Spread Co also provides CFD trading for UK and traders from around the world (with some exceptions). For both CFD trading and spread betting, Spread Co offers a web trader and apps and 1500+ markets.

Spread Free Accounts

In addition to its Standard Spread Bet account (covered on this page), Spread Co offers two Spread Free accounts. The first, which is described as entry level, is the Spread Free account. It has no fee and offers zero spreads on a range of selected markets and Standard spreads on others. It has a Fair Use policy which allows £3 per point maximum trade bet size per trade, £10 per point maximum position size per market, up to 4 opening trades free per day and a charge of $1 per point per opening trade once the free trades are used.

There is also a Spread Free Bronze account. It charge a monthly fee of £10 per month. On a range of selected markets, the spread is fixed at zero. Other markets have the same low fixed spreads as on the Standard account. There is a Fair Use policy in effect, which limits the maximum bet to £5 per point, £20 per point maximum position size per market, 6 free opening trades per day and then a charge of £1 per point per opening trade. For news traders, it should be noted that Standard spreads apply for up to 2 minutes after data release for both Spread Free account types. Spread Co

Briefly, what is the difference between the Spread Free, Spread Free Bronze and Standard account ?

The Spread Free accounts offer spread betting trading with zero spreads on some markets, and Standard spreads on other, neither the Spread Free nor the Standard account charges a fee, the Spread Free Bronze account does, and has a less restrictive Fair Use policy.

Account opening

Spread Co can open accounts for residents of many countries in the world but cannot open accounts for residents of some countries including the United States. At account opening either Spread Betting or CFD trading is chosen.

Spread Co is offering to pay 2% per annum on any balance from $/€/£10,000 to $/€/£20,000 which is not being used as margin in a spread betting account, terms and conditions apply. There are no withdrawal limits but an unutilised balance of £10,000 must be maintained to keep earning interest.

Markets

Spread Co offers trading in 39 Currency Pairs, over 1400 Shares from around the world plus Indices, Commodities (Precious Metals and Energy) and over 100 ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) and ADRs (American Depository Receipts) in over 20 countries.

Spreads and leverage

• Spreads on Spread Co's spread betting platform are fixed and start from 0.8 for US30 and EUR/USD, 1 for GBP/USD and USD/JPY, 0.4 for Gold and 0.04 for US Crude Oil.
• Spreads for UK100 are fixed at 0.8 during UK market hours, rising to 1.8 from 4:30pm - 9pm. Spreads for US30 (which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average) are fixed at 0.8 during US market hours, rising to 2.8 out of hours.
• The tightest spread betting spreads are available up to £50 a point, after which they increase on a sliding scale.
• On the CFD platform spreads are also fixed, at 1.5 for EUR/USD, 1 for UK100, 0.4 for Gold and 0.04 for US Crude Oil.
• For both spread betting and CFDs, Spread Co adds 0.05% - 0.075% per side in addition to the underlying market for UK and US Equities. Spreads for ETFs are typically the market spread plus 0.075% per side.
• Spread Co says spreads remain fixed even when the market is moved by news events.

Leverage is up to .

Minimum trade size

The minimum trade size for Spread Betting is typically £1 per point for Currencies, Indices, Commodities and Shares. The minimum trade size for CFDs is 10,000 CFDs for Forex, 1 CFD for Indices, from 10 CFDs for Commodities and from 1 CFD for Equities.

Platform

• The trading platform (called Saturn) is web based and there is also a mobile and tablet app. Orders are placed by clicking a market chosen from the list available (Indices, Commodities, Spot Currencies, Equities, ADRs and ETFs). There is a 'Hot Markets' tab, which contains major Currency Pairs, key Indices and Commodities and a selection of well-known Equities.
• The ADR tab contains ADRs from around the world, including China. The ETF tab contains ETFs including Bonds, Commodities, Equity Indices and Emerging Markets. The Equities tab contains UK, German, US and other European Equities.
• The Spot Currencies tab contains Forex Pairs and the Commodities tab contains Commodity products covering Oil, Silver, Gold and Copper.
• There are ten types of charting available (Candlestick, OHLC, Line, Area, Bar, Spline, Steep Line, Spline Area, Steep Line Area and Range Bar) and time frames are from 1 minute to 1 day. It is also possible to overlay two time frames for a given market, using a primary chart and secondary chart on the same chart. There is a set of 22 indicators to be found on the chart.
• There is no news feed, but Spread Co provides what it terms a relationship manager irrespective of account size.

Placing an order

To place the order the trade size is chosen, a stop loss and a limit order can be placed at this time. There is a charge for a guaranteed stop loss. To hold a position overnight, financing fees apply, but there is 0% financing for short positions on Indices and Equities.

Minimum deposit and funding

There is no minimum deposit amount required to open an account. The minimum recommended deposit to start trading is £200 for the Spread Betting and £250 for CFD trading. Deposits can be made by Credit Cards, UK Debit Cards, Bank Transfer and Skrill. There is an additional 2% fee for funding by credit cards but debit card funding is free.

The minimum withdrawal amount is £10. Withdrawals to UK bank accounts are free (for UK 3 day payment) or £15 for same day UK payments. International bank account payments incur a £15 fee by Spread Co. There is a 1% withdrawal fee to Skrill and a 2% fee for transfers under £3,000. Other fees may apply.

Regulation

Spread Co is based in London UK, is 10 years old and is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), register number 446677.

Summary and grade

Spread Co provides a trading experience which seems focused on delivering low fixed spreads, including the new Zero Spread account. Spread Co does offer some additional features, such as a relationship manager and a depth and range of equities and other products.

Spread Co's range of markets available, account features, transparency, low fixed spreads and the innovative Zero Spread account, helps give Spread Co a Trader Friendly grade of A.