1970s : 1980s : 1990s : The Future?

The 1990s - A Public Bull Market - Spread Betting Enters The Mainstream

Bull markets feed off publicity, and publicity feeds off ever higher prices. The difference between the bull market in stocks in the early 1980s was the influence by the media combined with the rapid growth of the personal computer and the internet. The stockmarket advance was literally beamed into people's homes.

Whereas in the 1980s the private investor took somewhat of a back seat, from 1994 onwards they became a major voice and impact on the financial markets, and here was the break needed to propel the financial spread betting companies to a higher plateau.

Business literally boomed for both the spread betting companies as well as their clients, with fortunes no doubt made and lost. The papers and magazines started to pick up on spread betting. Whereas back in the early 1990s one might have found a small reference to Spread Betting in the media every once in a while. Now whole articles and TV comments were appearing on a regular basis. Financial channels such as CNBC and Bloomberg also featured it at length.

Spread Betting companies were quick to cater to their client demands offering markets not just on their traditional products like stock indexes and currencies but now on most of the bigger stocks in the UK, continental Europe and the US. Many clients also realised that due to financial spread betting companies offering zero commissions and NO Stamp Duty combined with tax-free profits it was often cheaper to trade with them rather than through their traditional stockbroker.

The Great 1980's Bull - FTSE 100 Index 1984-1990