There are too many to list. Of course there are the main shares on the UK market, Wall Street and the big European bourses such as Germany. But then most spread betters offer shares on markets such as Finland, Greece, Ireland and Hong Kong.

Mostly only the larger capitalised stocks are quoted, so of course they'll be a quote on all the major companies but perhaps not on a smaller company with, say, a market capitalisation of £4million.

With most shares both the traditional daily Cash bet and Quarterlies are offered. And as usual if short term trading the Daily Bets are usually cheaper to trade (tighter bid-offer spreads) but there will be an overnight financing charge (if held overnight).

The quarterlies are more suited for medium to longer term trades, in excess of a week. For example, trade the quarterly if you're bullish on Vodafone or Barclays for the next several weeks or months.

Most spread bet brokers will quote 3 separate quarterly bets. For example, if the date is now January they'll offer a March, June and September bet. Tailor these to your trading view. If bullish for the next month or so use the March, if bullish heading into the summer trade the June etc.

Assume the market has been moving higher but you feel the shares can go even higher so want to continue to keep the bet open. You'll need to place a rollover bet which will simultaneously sell the March contract and buy the June contract. This will mean your long trade will have been rolled over into the next month and is still open. Two points to note -

There's an incredible range of equity spread bets available but do watch some of the bid-offer spreads because they can be expensive, especially when short term trading. But this depends on which market and how popular the share is.

Spread betting shares is a great training ground for the new trader as he or she is already likely to have experience in how the stockmarket works and operates.