Ways to trade
Unlock opportunities through spread betting, CFD trading, US-listed options and futures trading, and investing with us, the world’s No.1 provider.1 Explore each to find out which suits your strategy, goals and risk tolerance.
Call 0800 195 3100 or email newaccounts.uk@ig.com to talk about opening an account.
Contact us 0800 195 3100
Get info fast via our instant help and support portal. Available for account queries, ProRealTime, product info and more.
Visit help and support for more information.
Get info fast via our instant help and support portal. Available for account queries, ProRealTime, product info and more.
Visit help and support for more information.
Call 0800 409 6789 or email helpdesk.uk@ig.com if you have any questions about trading or investing. We’re available from 9am to 5pm (UK time), Monday to Friday.
Contact us 0800 409 6789
Call 0800 195 3100 or email newaccounts.uk@ig.com to talk about opening an account.
Contact us 0800 195 3100
Get info fast via our instant help and support portal. Available for account queries, ProRealTime, product info and more.
Visit help and support for more information.
Get info fast via our instant help and support portal. Available for account queries, ProRealTime, product info and more.
Visit help and support for more information.
Call 0800 409 6789 or email helpdesk.uk@ig.com if you have any questions about trading or investing. We’re available from 9am to 5pm (UK time), Monday to Friday.
Contact us 0800 409 6789
Spread bets and CFDs
Spread bets and contracts for difference (CFDs) are over-the-counter (OTC) derivative products that give you access to thousands of underlying markets. These are typically traded in the short or medium term.
No need to own assets
Spread bets and CFDs are financial derivatives. When trading these products, you take a position on the underlying market’s price movement without owning any assets
Take your capital further
Act on opportunity for less compared to traditional investing. Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged,2 so you’ll pay only a deposit to open a position and get full exposure
Increase your opportunities
You’re not buying and holding assets – so, you can trade both falling and rising market prices. You’ll profit if a market moves as you predicted; if it doesn’t, you’ll incur a loss
Never go below zero
In line with UK regulation, you’ll get negative balance protection – at no cost to you – which means that you can’t lose more than the amount that’s in your account3
Spread bets and CFDs
Spread bets and contracts for difference (CFDs) are over-the-counter (OTC) derivative products that give you access to thousands of underlying markets. These are typically traded in the short or medium term.
No need to own assets
Spread bets and CFDs are financial derivatives. When trading these products, you take a position on the underlying market’s price movement without owning any assets
Take your capital further
Act on opportunity for less compared to traditional investing. Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged,2 so you’ll pay only a deposit to open a position and get full exposure
Increase your opportunities
You’re not buying and holding assets – so, you can trade both falling and rising market prices. You’ll profit if a market moves as you predicted; if it doesn’t, you’ll incur a loss
Never go below zero
In line with UK regulation, you’ll get negative balance protection – at no cost to you – which means that you can’t lose more than the amount that’s in your account3
US-listed options and futures trading
We offer pure-form US options and futures on a range of underlying markets through our partnership with our friends at tastytrade. You can access these products on an award-winning platform, straight from the My IG dashboard.4 Listed options and futures are usually traded over the medium term.
Choose a cash or margin account
Decide whether you want magnified exposure or not through the account type that you choose. You’ll trade without leverage in a cash account;2 you’ll trade using leverage in a margin account, with more access to options strategies*
Go long, short or non-directional
Go long or short and choose from different strategies for a non-directional market assumption. You can do this with options trading to potentially profit from price action that moves within a horizontal price range
Explore inspirational content
Explore entertaining and engaging content that’s suitable for all trading experience levels: watch and learn, live and on demand; access news, insights and more, courtesy of our friends at tastylive
* Futures are only available in a margin account.
Differences between OTC products and listed products
OTC products like spread bets and CFDs differ from listed products that are in their pure form, like exchange-based options and futures.
It’s important to note that you can also trade an options or futures contract as the underlying of a spread bet or CFD trade with us. This means that they’re underlying assets of OTC products in such instances and, therefore, function differently to our exchanged-based or listed options and futures products.
Here are some of the main differences between OTC products and listed products:
| OTC products | Exchange-traded (listed) products | |
| Trading venue | Over the counter: direct trade between two parties (usually through a broker like us) | On exchange (eg CME, ICE, Euronext): centralised marketplace for buyers and sellers |
| Agreement or contract | Bespoke (can be customised) | Standardised (non-negotiable) |
| Regulation | Subject to less stringent regulatory requirements | Regulated by government authorities, eg Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) |
| Counterparty risk** | Higher; default risk from both parties | Mitigated by an exchange’s clearinghouse |
| Liquidity | May be lower due to less participants in decentralised markets | Typically higher as there’s a higher number of market participants |
** When trading on our platform, counterparty risk is limited based on the terms and agreements that govern our relationship with you.
What’s best for me?
To find a trading product that might work best for you, there are potential benefits you could consider. Equally important, is considering the possible risks.
Here are some of the key benefits of our trading products:
Spread bets
Bet on the price direction of a financial market per point movement
- Key benefit: no capital gains tax (CGT) on profits from OTC options, single-name stocks, indices, commodities, bonds, interest rates, forex and ETF positions5
- No commission, just our spread
- No stamp duty5
CFDs
Trade on the difference between the opening and closing price of a market
- Key benefit: DMA on shares and forex6
- We charge a spread, except for share CFDs, where you’ll pay commission instead
- Offset losses against profits for your CGT liabilities5
- No stamp duty5
US-listed options and futures
Trade simple and complex strategies on a specialist platform
- Key benefit: go long, short, or non-directional7
- Low commissions; no commission to close options positions8
- Offset losses against profits for your CGT liabilities5
- No stamp duty5
What are the possible risks of spread betting and CFD trading?
Here are some of the main risks of spread betting and CFD trading:
The risks |
Why this happens |
Ways we help |
Losing more than you pay to open the trade |
Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged,2 so you only need to put up a fraction of your position’s value to open it but your profit or loss could be much more than your initial deposit |
You can set an automatic stop-loss order to define the level of potential loss you don’t want to exceed. To lock in profits (if the market moves in your favour), you can set a take-profit order beforehand |
Losing more than the funds that are available in your account |
Sometimes your positions may be closed out automatically, leaving you with a negative account balance |
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations safeguard you with negative balance protection, and we bring negative accounts back to zero at no cost to you3 |
Overnight funding charges |
You’ll be charged a small fee to cover the costs of keeping your position open overnight (past 10pm UK time) |
To avoid paying overnight funding charges, you could trade CFD futures with us, which carry no extra charge for keeping your position open longer than a day, although they do incur larger spreads |
Having your positions closed unexpectedly |
You need a certain amount of money in your account to keep your trades open. This is called maintenance margin, and if your account balance doesn’t cover our margin requirements, we may close your positions |
We ensure that your running balances are always visible in our platform or app, so you can immediately see to add more funds if they’re needed. We’ll also aim to notify you if you’re on margin call |
Sudden or larger-than-expected losses (or gains) |
Markets can be volatile, moving very quickly and unexpectedly in reaction to announcements, events or trader behaviour |
Stop-loss orders, including guaranteed stops, can help you avoid significant losses. You can also set alerts to get notifications when certain price points are reached |
No shareholder privileges |
With leveraged trading, you don’t own the asset (eg shares) outright.2 This means you won’t receive any shareholder privileges like dividends and voting rights in company decisions |
To get shareholder privileges, you can also buy shares with us – in addition to trading on stocks. Our share dealing platform offers over 13,000 shares, funds and investment trusts |
Having an order (an instruction you give us, to open or close a trade for you when the market hits a certain level) filled at a different level to the one you requested |
When a market moves a long way in an instant – or ‘gaps’ – any orders you’ve placed may be filled at a worse (or better) level than the one you requested. This is called slippage |
You can use guaranteed stops for watertight protection against slippage on orders to close. They're free to place, with a small premium payable only if your stop is triggered |
What are the possible risks of trading US-listed options and futures?
Here are the key risks of trading pure-form options and futures:
- Trading on margin: a margin account gives you access to leverage,2 which means that you can open positions by paying only a fraction of the full value of the contract.*** This can be a capital-efficient way to trade but comes with the risk of amplified losses that can exceed your initial outlay
- High risk strategies: when trading options, you can check what the maximum profit and loss potential is before you take your position. While possible losses are capped with some options strategies, others are subject to theoretically unlimited losses if the market moves against your position
- Currency risk: potential profits and losses will be in US dollars on our listed options and futures account as it’s denominated in USD. If you choose to deposit or withdraw funds in a different currency, an adverse move in exchange rate could reduce the real value of your funds
*** Pure-form options are non-marginable, even when trading them in a margin account.
What markets can I trade?
Forex trading
Trade forex with spread bets, CFDs and pure-form futures to get access to our wide range of major, minor and exotic currency pairs, through powerful platforms.
- UK’s No.1 FX provider9
- Competitive spreads
- More 24-hour markets than anywhere else
Other markets
Low spreads. 17,000+ markets, exclusive 24/7 opportunities.10
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Investing and stockbroking
Take a longer-term position with a more traditional way of investing.
Buy and sell thousands of global stocks on low commissions, from just £5 on UK shares11
Choose a fully managed and diversified portfolio to suit your goals and risk profile
Put a tax-efficient wrapper around your share dealing or IG Smart Portfolio returns5
Save for retirement and get up to 45% tax relief on your contributions, with no tax on investment profits5
Share dealing
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IG Smart Portfolios
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ISAs
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SIPPs
Investing and stockbroking
Take a longer-term position with a more traditional way of investing.
Share dealing
Buy and sell thousands of global stocks on low commissions, from just £5 on UK shares11
IG Smart Portfolios
Choose a fully managed and diversified portfolio to suit your goals and risk profile
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ISAs
Put a tax-efficient wrapper around your share dealing or IG Smart Portfolio returns5
SIPPs
Save for retirement and get up to 45% tax relief on your contributions, with no tax on investment profits5
Bullish, bearish and neutral options strategies
You can employ a variety of bullish, bearish and neutral (non-directional or sideways) options strategies on our dedicated options and futures platform. Plus, you can do research to find strategies based on your experience level: beginner, intermediate or advanced.
Here are some of the options strategies you can use based on your market assumption:
Long premium strategies
- Long call
- Short put
- Bull call spread
- Bull put spread
- Bull ratio spread
Short premium strategies
- Long put
- Short call
- Bear call spread
- Bear put spread
- Bear ratio spread
Neutral strategies
- Short strangle
- Short straddle
- Calendar spread
- Iron condor
- Jade lizard
When you trade in a margin account, you’ll have more strategies available to you – eg selling naked call options, defined-risk options spreads, as well as buying or selling futures and futures options.
Options are non-marginable (ie, you can't borrow against them or borrow cash to buy options), so you'll have to pay the value of the entire trade upfront when trading any long options strategies. However, when trading any short premium strategies in a margin account, you generally only put up a portion of the contract's value, or the max loss potential.
When trading options in a cash account, you can trade long calls or long puts and pay the entire options trade upfront. Cash accounts may sell puts, but they must be fully cash-secured, and calls may only be sold against round lots (a quantity of 100) of stock.
Try these next
We're clear about our charges, so you always know what fees you’ll incur.
All retail client funds are held in segregated bank accounts, in line with FCA rules.
See how we've been changing the face of trading for 50 years.
1 Based on revenue (published financial statements, 2023).
2 Leveraged products such as spread bets and CFDs are complex financial instruments, with which an upfront deposit, called margin, is used to open a larger trade. Your margin will only be worth a certain percentage of your trade, but potential profits and losses will be calculated based on the total position size, not your margin. This makes leveraged trading inherently risky and should never be approached without a trading strategy and adequate risk management in place. You may also need to provide additional funds to keep a position open, with little or no notice.
3 Negative balance protection applies to trading-related debt only, and isn’t available to professional traders.
4 tastytrade was awarded the best options trading platform at the 2024 ADVFN International Finance Awards. It was ranked the best overall options trading platform of 2024 by Investopedia. The criteria, evaluation, and ranking were determined by Investopedia. tastytrade is the No.1 desktop options trading platform and the no.1 desktop futures trading platform as awarded at the 2024 StockBrokers.com annual awards. Our streamlined platform gives you access to the tastytrade options and futures products from My IG.
5 Tax laws are subject to change and depend on individual circumstances. Tax law may differ in a jurisdiction other than the UK.
6 To trade with forex DMA, you’ll need to qualify for an IG professional account.
7 You can use options strategies for a range-bound, neutral market assumption when you think prices will move sideways.
8 $1.00 commission to open per options contract, $0 commission to close per options contract. Applicable exchange, clearing, and regulatory fees still apply to all opening and closing equity options trades. Some additional applicable commissions are capped at $10 per leg on equity option trades. The following index products are excluded from the capped commissions offer: SPX, RUT, VIX, OEX, XEO, DJX, and XSP. Trade futures from $0.85 commission to open and $0.85 commission to close on micro futures. Learn more about our charges.
9 By number of primary relationships with FX traders (Investment Trends UK Leveraged Trading Report, May 2023).
10 24/7 excludes the hours from 10pm Friday to 8am Saturday (UK time), and 20 minutes just before the weekday market opens on Sunday night.
11 Place 10+ trades on UK shares in the previous month to qualify for a £5 commission rate. Please note published rates are valid up to £25,000 notional value. See our full list of share dealing charges and fees.
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