Financial spread betting was once the financial tool of a select group of city traders. This financial phenomenon introduced to the city just 40 years ago by a man called Stuart Wheeler has made many on the right side of the spread huge sums over the years.

Mr Wheeler introduced this form of financial trading to a group of friends allowing them to speculate on the forthcoming weeks gold price. The gold boom of the late seventies caused sparks to fly as city traders got wind of potentially huge returns available through this new form of financial speculating.

The demand by city traders prompted Wheeler to open the first ever spread betting company known today as the IG Index but formally as the Investors Gold Index. Spread betting was born and for several years IG Index held a monopoly over spread betting been the sole supply of this service.

Commodities, currencies and indices were added to the range of instruments available by spread betting firms which lead to continual growth throughout the 80’s.

The 1990’s saw spread betting take off with the introduction of the internet. Spread prices could now be relayed to punters in real time, trades could be opened and closed much faster and more and more products became available through one platform. Private investors began to get wind of this lucrative form of investing seeing an increase in the number of people trading spreads this was also fuelled by the introduction of shares and just about every other financial instrument available. Find out more here...Trading Spreads

Sean Rushforth