Orders Are Always Flexible

One of the best things about spread bets is that they offer almost total flexibility to traders, so don't think that just because you buy £5 a point of Vodafone and the stock price rises that you have to sell all £5 to take your profit.

You can for example take profits piece by piece as the market moves higher, perhaps covering £2 a point, then another £2 and finally the balance of £1. You can also do this with a loss making position, start to reduce the position by selling part or all of it.

There is a lot of flexibility with the orders as well. You can phone up and place a limit buy order for some spread bet, then change your mind and reduce or increase the price level as well as the amount per point.

For example, if the Vodafone spread bet is trading at £1.21-£1.215 you may place a limit buy order for £10 at £1.18, only later in the day to reduce the level to £1.17. Changing orders is a very accepted practice in the spread betting world.

Don't Change Orders Too Much

Be reasonable though, don't go changing orders every 5 mins because this is likely to create a strain between you and your spread bet broker. However if you're dealing online then you'll be able to change, amend and cancel orders as much as you like without bothering anyone.

All Types of Orders Are Normally Available Online As Well

Most if not all the orders described in this guide are available to place online via the Spread Betters software. The only problems that you may encounter are when you want to work a complicated order that needs to be explained. In that case you'll have to telephone the order in.

If Your Statement is Wrong Then Report It

A spread betting company may well transact thousands of orders a day for its clients, and sometimes the wrong trades are put into the wrong accounts. You might find when you check a statement that you're long £5 of FTSE, with the index up over 50 points on the day. This is clearly a mistake because you haven't traded for a couple of days.

There is a strong temptation to quickly sell the position, bank the profit and think that today was your lucky day. But you'd be very wrong to do this because the mis-allocated trade will be found out and taken out of your account. Therefore not only is the profit not yours but you now will be short of £5 in FTSE which you never wanted in the first place. In a situation like this there is no recourse for you.

If you see a trade on your statement that you know is not yours, contact the back office of your spread betting company and inform them - Don't try and get clever at somebody's else mistake.