Financial Betting Online

Introduction to Financial Betting - The vast majority of people associate betting with horse racing and sporting events, or perhaps casino games. However, there are many other forms of betting markets offered by bookmakers. One particular form of betting that has grown considerably in popularity in recent years is betting on the stock markets, otherwise known as financial betting.

Trading stocks and shares on the market has long been a common form of investment, primarily by financial professionals but also by many amateurs who enjoy trying their hand at buying and selling shares. Financial betting is a similar concept to stock trading but with one fundamental difference – you don’t have to actually own any shares. Essentially, you place a wager on whether you believe the value of specific shares will rise or fall in a given time frame. If you predict correctly then your bet is a winner.

There are many advantages of financial betting over the physical trading of shares. For starters, every time you buy or sell stock you have to pay a commission to a broker. As online financial betting and wagering does not involve purchasing shares, there is no commission to pay. It is also much easier to make money in a falling market, as you can bet on share values reducing in value.

Types of Financial Betting And Wagering

Financial betting sites offer a number of different markets, all of which are slightly different way of betting on the various financial markets. The four main markets for financial betting are as follows :

Share betting is fairly self explanatory and one of the more simple forms of financial betting. Essentially you are betting on the share performance for a specific company of an agreed amount of time. The amount of time can range from minutes or days to months. For example, let’s imagine you believed that the share price of a particular company was going to rise over a 3 month period. Rather than go through the rigmarole of buying shares in that company, and then disposing of them once they had gone up, you could simply place a wager with a bookmaker instead. You can usually bet on the share price of all major companies all over the world.

Index betting is basically the same principle as share betting, but rather than betting on a specific company you can bet on the performance of one of the global indices, such the FTSE 100 or the Dow Jones Index. As the price movement of indices is generally less volatile and easier to predict that in individual company, index betting is very popular with financial bettors.

Foreign exchange betting allows you to match up pairs of virtually any global currency and bet on they perform against each other. For example, if you believe that the US Dollar will increase in value against the Euro in a given time frame then you can back your judgement by placing a wager on that outcome. As another example, you could bet that the Pound Sterling will decrease in value against the Japanese Yen.

Commodity betting is again similar to share betting, but here you have the opportunity to bet on the rise or fall in the value of various commodities. Most vital resources, such as crude oil, wheat or coffee have a global trading value. This form of financial betting enables you to place a bet on whether you think a particular commodity will increase or decrease in value over a certain period of time.

Fixed Odds Financial Bets And Wagers

Most financial betting sites and online bookmakers will provide fixed odds for the markets they offer on financial betting. Fixed odds means you are given a price when you place your bet and if your bet wins you are paid out at that price. Fixed odds are usually in of two formats – either fractional odds such as 2/1 or decimal odds such as 5.5. A winning wager of $10 at 2/1 would return $20 plus the original stake. At 5.5, the same wager would return $55 including the original stake.

Financial Spread Betting

Financial spread betting online is somewhat more complex than fixed odds. Spread betting on the financial markets carries a lot more risk, but also the potential for greater returns. Basically your returns, or losses, in financial spread betting are based on not just whether a particular share price goes up or down, but on how much it goes down.

As an example, you could bet on a share price going up in value, and your bet might be for $10 a point. If the share price did rise, you would get a return of $10 for every point it rose by. However, if the price fell, you would lose $10 for every point it fell by. Financial spread betting can very profitable, but it is not for the faint hearted!

Online Financial Betting Tips

Most of the top financial online betting websites will offer markets for financial betting. Bets are generally placed in a similar way to betting on sports or, other markets. The prices for various financial bets can vary from one online bookmaker to the next so if you are getting involved in financial betting it is a good idea to have accounts at more than one online betting sites so you can compare the odds and place your wagers accordingly.