Trading 212 is a fintech company founded in 2004 in Bulgaria and headquartered in London, known for its investing app with no commission on stocks and ETFs (other fees may apply, see terms and fees) and more than 5 million funded accounts. The company is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), CySEC, BaFin and ASIC.
Spread betting is a leveraged derivative that magnifies the profit and loss of a position. It is very popular in the UK, where Trading 212 is based, due to the tax treatment of profits. It is a high-risk instrument, offered mainly to residents of the UK and Ireland and not available in the US or most of the EU.
If you are reading this article, you are probably interested in spread betting and want to know if you can trade it on Trading 212. So, in the sections below, we will explain the instrument, mention its pros and cons, explore if you can trade it on Trading 212 and provide alternatives for doing it.
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Does Trading 212 offer spread betting?
No, Trading 212 does not offer spread betting (checked in September 2026). Trading 212’s offer is built around its Invest account, with stocks and ETFs, and the Stocks and Shares ISA for UK residents. Trading 212 is based in the UK, a country whose residents can benefit from tax-efficient spread betting. Therefore, we can find in its community forum discussions about the subject and even clients’ requests to implement it on the platform. However, there has never been an official announcement indicating the intention to launch the service, and the company’s recent product launches (interest on cash, a debit card, the Cash ISA, multi-currency accounts) have all gone in the direction of long-term investing rather than leveraged trading.
The derivative most similar to a spread bet is the contract for difference (CFD). CFDs are derivative contracts where investors try to profit from the price variation of an asset without owning it. The investor receives (or pays) the difference between the price when the contract is opened and when the position is closed.
There are a few differences between a CFD and a spread bet:
- How the position is sized: with a spread bet you choose a stake per point of movement (for example £10 per point), while with a CFD you choose a number of contracts or units. Your profit or loss is the points moved times your stake in the first case, and the price change times the number of units in the second.
- Expiry: spread bets have an expiry date (daily funded bets roll over each night, quarterly bets expire on a set date), while CFDs have no expiry and stay open until you close them, with overnight financing charged in the meantime.
- Costs: spread bets are priced purely through the spread, while share CFDs often carry a commission on top of the spread.
- Tax (UK): spread betting profits are currently free of capital gains tax and stamp duty for UK residents, while CFD profits are subject to capital gains tax (but CFD losses can be offset against gains). Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and may change.
Both spread bets and CFDs are leveraged, and most retail investor accounts lose money when trading them. This is mostly due to the complexity and the leverage of the instruments, combined with a general lack of experience.
Trading 212 alternatives for spread betting
Pepperstone
Online brokerage firm founded in 2010 in Melbourne, offering spread betting to UK clients through Pepperstone Limited, authorised and regulated by the FCA (reference number 684312), with FSCS cover up to £85,000. You can spread bet on forex, indices, commodities and shares through TradingView, MetaTrader 4 and 5 and cTrader, with spreads from 0.0 pips on the Razor account and leverage of up to 1:30 for retail clients. It does not accept US clients.
Disclaimer: spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73.6% 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.
FxPro
FX and derivatives broker founded in 2006. The group is regulated by the FCA, CySEC, the FSCA and the SCB. UK residents can spread bet on more than 400 underlying instruments (forex, indices, shares, metals, energies and futures) with no commission through the FxPro Edge platform, which is available only to clients of the UK entity, FxPro UK Limited.
Disclaimer: spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage, and most retail investor accounts lose money when trading them. Check the current percentage in FxPro’s risk warning.
IG
The company was founded in 1974 as IG Index and is considered the world’s first spread betting firm. It offers spread betting on more than 17,000 markets, including forex, shares, indices, commodities, bonds, ETFs and options, with no commission (costs are built into the spread) and no minimum deposit for bank transfers. IG is listed on the London Stock Exchange (FTSE 250) and regulated by multiple top-tier regulators, such as the FCA, FINMA, BaFin, ASIC, MAS and the FSCA, among others.
Disclaimer: spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% 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 betting is mainly available to residents of the UK and Ireland, and UK retail clients cannot spread bet on cryptocurrencies, since the FCA banned crypto derivatives for retail investors in January 2021.
Pros and cons of spread betting
Pros
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You are not limited to betting on rising prices. If you expect the price of a stock to fall, you can also bet on it falling and profit from it.
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You gain full exposure to the asset without acquiring ownership or paying the full price, so your initial outlay (margin) is lower than it would be if you bought the asset.
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For UK residents, spread betting profits are currently exempt from capital gains tax and stamp duty, because HMRC treats them as gambling winnings rather than investment income. Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and may change.
- Generally, spread betting has no commission or dealing fees. Only the spread is charged to the client.
Cons
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This type of financial instrument is highly speculative and extremely risky. Its leverage magnifies volatility and potential losses, which can exceed your initial margin unless the broker offers negative balance protection or you use a guaranteed stop.
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Losses are not tax-deductible, for the same reason that profits are tax-free.
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Since you do not own the underlying asset, spread betting gives you no voting rights or other shareholder rights, and dividends are only reflected through price adjustments.
- Overnight financing charges make spread betting unsuitable for long-term holding.
Key points to consider when choosing a spread betting broker
If you want to look for spread betting services, we have provided you with a few alternatives to start with. Here are a few of the factors that you should consider when choosing the right broker for you:
- Costs: generally, spread betting accounts are free and the broker profits from the spread, so the difference between the bid and the offer is what you pay on every trade. Look for tight spreads on the markets you trade most, and check overnight financing rates if you hold positions for more than a day. Low liquidity widens spreads, and some brokers widen them further to earn more.
- Regulation: it is important to assess whether the broker you use is regulated by a top-tier regulator such as the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). For spread betting this is almost a given, since only FCA-authorised firms can offer it to UK residents.
- Investor protection: UK clients of FCA-regulated brokers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000 if the broker fails, and retail clients benefit from negative balance protection.
- Trading offer: since the underlying asset determines the P&L of your position, it is important to trade with a broker that offers a diverse set of markets, and guaranteed stop-loss orders if you want to cap your risk.
- Customer support: eventually, you will have problems using your trading platform. For that purpose, it is important to find a broker with good customer service that can quickly solve your issues.
FAQs
What is Trading 212?
Trading 212 is an online broker that allows you to invest in stocks and ETFs with no commission (other fees may apply, see terms and fees). Its platform has features to diversify your investments by giving you access to fractional shares through an investment pie. You can also set up an auto-invest tool to automate your investments according to your needs and preferences. Pies & AutoInvest is an execution-only service. Not investment advice or portfolio management. Automatic investing refers to executing scheduled deposits. You are responsible for all investment and rebalancing decisions.
Trading 212 operates in most European countries and has a user-friendly platform. Its range is focused on long-term investing, so active traders looking for options, futures or spread betting will not find them. Trading 212 does not provide spread betting services.
What is spread betting?
Spread betting is a derivative: a contract whose value comes from an underlying asset, like a currency pair or a stock. Derivatives are frequently used to hedge positions or to gain leverage and speculate on the price of the underlying asset.
In a nutshell, spread betting is a contract that allows investors to bet on the price movement, up or down, of an underlying asset. When the bet is closed, the profit or loss is the number of points the price moved multiplied by the stake per point that the investor chose.
When spread betting, you do not acquire ownership of the underlying asset and your position is leveraged. This makes this type of investment risky, since you gain full market exposure to the underlying asset while putting up only a fraction of its value as margin, magnifying your profit and loss.
To illustrate: let’s say that you think a stock that currently costs 100p is overvalued and will fall, so you place a bet of £10 per point (per penny) that the price will fall. If it drops to 95p, you close the bet with a profit of £50 (5 points x £10). If instead the price rises to 105p, you close the bet with a loss of £50 (5 points x £10). Note that the broker’s spread is deducted on entry, so the price needs to move beyond the spread before you break even.
Is spread betting tax-free in the UK?
Currently, yes: profits from spread betting are not subject to capital gains tax or stamp duty for UK residents, because HMRC treats them as gambling rather than investing. The flip side is that losses cannot be offset against other gains. Tax rules can change and depend on your circumstances, so check with a tax adviser if spread betting becomes a significant part of your income.
