Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
BT is a FTSE 100 telecommunications company with listings on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. Explore the details of buying, selling and trading BT stock, and learn more about the company.
You can buy or sell BT shares from as little as £3 commission with a share dealing account.1 Alternatively, you can trade any BT share price movements with CFDs or spread bets.
When you invest in BT shares with a share dealing service, you own them outright. But, when you trade BT shares, you are speculating on whether the share price will go up or down without having to take direct ownership of the underlying.
Some market participants prefer trading to investing. This is because when you trade, you receive various tax benefits, the opportunity to hedge your exposure and the ability to get more flexibility by trading with leverage.
With leveraged trading, all you need is a deposit – known as margin. However, please remember that when trading with leverage, your profit and your loss is determined by the full size of the position, not the margin required to initially open it.
To buy or sell BT shares, follow these steps:
Create or log in to your IG share dealing account
Open the IG trading platform and search for ‘BT’
Choose the price you want to deal at and the number of shares you want to deal
Select ‘buy’ to open a new position or ‘sell’ to close a current position
Monitor your investment
To go long or short on the BT share price, follow these steps:
Create or log in to your IG trading account
Open the IG trading platform and search for ‘BT’
Choose the price you want to deal at and your position size
Select ‘buy’ if you think the price will rise or ‘sell’ if you think it will fall
Monitor your trade, and take steps to manage your risk
BT’s business model is based on providing customers with communications and connectivity services. The company is committed to long-term investment projects across its network.
This includes plans to upgrade its old copper network cables to ultrafast fibreoptic cables by 2025 – an upgrade that forms a central part of the its business model. The Openreach division is largely responsible for this upgrade, but the Group also has a number of other divisions:
Global Services: specialises in managed IT network and cloud services
Enterprise: provides communications and IT services in the UK and the Republic of Ireland
Consumer: sells products and services from BT Group companies
Openreach: focuses on services such as fibreoptic connections between BT terminals and homes and businesses
Before trading or investing in any company, you should study its fundamentals. A fundamental analysis will look at the different factors that affect a company’s operations, such as its executive team and financial statements. You should also study the economic health of the sector in which the company operates, as well as the economy as a whole.
There are various ratios you can use to carry out a fundamental analysis of BT stock:
Return on equity (ROE): ROE measures how much income a company makes by selling products and services compared to shareholder investments. To calculate BT’s ROE, divide its net income by its stakeholder equity
Earnings per share (EPS): EPS outlines whether a company is profitable or not by attaching value to its shares. To calculate BT’s EPS, you would divide its total profit by the number of outstanding shares
Price-to-earnings (P/E): The P/E ratio tells you how much you have to spend on its shares to make $1 in profit. To calculate BT’s P/E ratio, divide the company’s market value by its earning per share
Minimum size 1
Margin 20%
Minimum stop distance 1
Minimum guaranteed stop distance 8.5%
08:00 - 16:30 (UK - London Local Time)
Your aggregate position in this market will be margined in the following tiers:
| Tier | Position size | Margin |
| 1 | 0 - 580700 Shares | 20% |
| 2 | 580700 - 2903500 Shares | 20% |
| 3 | 2903500 - 11614000 Shares | 20% |
| 4 | 11614000 + Shares | 75% |
If your aggregate position is larger than Tier 1, your margin requirement will not be reduced by non-guaranteed stops.
Please note: we have tried to ensure that the information here is as accurate as possible, but it is intended for guidance only and any errors will not be binding on us.
Other positions taken by clients trading this market
Use this to see how IG client accounts with positions on this market are trading other markets. Data is calculated to the nearest 1%, and updated automatically every 15 minutes.
This is calculated to the nearest 1%.
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More from IG:
How can I trade BT stock?
You can trade BT stock with financial derivatives such as CFDs and spread bets. These products enable you to take a position on the price of BT shares without taking ownership of the underlying asset, meaning that you can use them to speculate on the price rising by going long, or on the price falling by going short. If you’d rather buy the shares outright, you can do so by share dealing.
Who are BT's main investors?
BT’s main investors are other large companies. The table below gives details about the ten largest shareholders in BT stock and the size of their ownership share:
| Investor | Ownership share (%) |
| T-Mobile Holdings Ltd. | 12.10% |
| Atlas Services Belgium SA | 2.70% |
| The Vanguard Group, Inc. | 2.40% |
| Threadneedle Asset Management Ltd. | 2.20% |
| BlackRock Fund Advisors | 2.10% |
| Legal and General Investment Management Ltd. | 2.07% |
| Norges Bank Investment Management | 1.70% |
| Invesco Asset Management Ltd. | 1.50% |
| Natixis Investment Managers International SA | 1.35% |
| BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd. | 1.25% |
Aside from these companies, BT stock is also owned by thousands of individual and corporate investors around the world.
What do I need to know about BT stock?
BT is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the UK, and its shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. BT is also included in the FTSE 100 index of companies.
BT Group’s operations are diversified across a range of industries and markets, and it has also made a series of high-profile acquisitions over the years. These include the mobile phone network operator EE, which is the largest mobile phone network operator in the UK and the largest 4G provider in Europe.
The BT Group has a number of other divisions, including BT Consumer – the retail division of BT Group – and BT Global Services, which offers security, networking and cloud sharing services to over 180 countries.
Who are BT's key personnel?
BT has many key personnel because of the Group’s various divisions. These include:
| Name | Position at BT |
| Jan du Plessis | Non-executive chairman of the board |
| Phillip Jansen | Group chief executive |
| Simon Lowth | Group chief financial officer |
| Marc Allera | CEO, Consumer |
| Bas Burger | CEO, Global Services |
| Clive Selley | Chief executive, Openreach |
What is the history of BT and its share price?
BT was formerly owned by the British government, but the company was privatised in 1984. The government sold 50.2% of its total ownership stake to investors in 1984, and the rest between 1991 and 1993.
Following the completion of the privatisation process in December 1993, BT’s share price increased over 320% to trade at its highest price ever of £961 per share on 17 December 1999. However, for the next decade or so, BT’s share price fell steadily, declining 85.6% between 17 December 1999 and 18 December 2009.
From 2009 up to 21 November 2019, BT’s share price gained 35.30%. This was despite its share price experiencing increased downward pressure after the UK voted to leave the EU, which was reflected in BT’s share price falling a little over 50% between June 2016 and November 2019.
This share price drop was not entirely due to Brexit however. Since the middle of 2018, there has been increased pressure on BT to cut costs as its Openreach division prepares to upgrade its copper lines to fibreoptic cables. This project is being undertaken to help to supply the whole of the UK with ultrafast broadband by 2025. This project might lead to more cuts in the future, which could ultimately affect the share price even further.
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1 Place 3+ trades on UK shares in the previous month to qualify for a £3 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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