Financial Spread Trading FAQs

To begin trading today, please complete our online application form, which you can access here. The form is completely secure and will take you about 5 minutes to complete.

After your details are submitted, we will process your application. We conduct an electronic check to confirm your identity and address. We will e-mail you to inform you if your account has been activated within 30 minutes of applying (assuming you do so between 08.00 and 18.00, Monday to Friday).

If you are a UK resident, and we are unable to confirm that you reside at the address you have produced in your application form, we will require additional information in the form of a recent bank statement or utility bill.

If you are an Irish or other non-UK resident, we will require proof of your address AND a COPY of your passport/driving license. You can fax these documents to us on +44 (0)20 7456 7013 or you can scan them and e-mail them to us at support@paddypowertrader.com. Upon receipt of those documents paddypowertrader will open your account where you can trade straight away.

In order for your account to remain open we need to verify your postal address. We will send a unique code to the postal address detailed in your application requesting you to email the code back to us. If we do not receive your verification code within 10 working days, we will be forced to suspend your account.

paddypowertrader offer deposit accounts, this means that you can only begin trading once you have deposited funds into your account. If you would like to hold an account in another currency (Sterling/US Dollar/Euro) Please contact our customer support team: support@paddypowertrader.com or free phone Irl: 1800 556 686; UK 08000 213 555.

Yes, you can nominate a family member or friend by completing a Power of Attorney form. Please click here to download the file. Please complete and send it to our customer service team at the address below:
paddypowertrader
4th Floor
12 Appold Street
London
EC2A 2AW
United Kingdom

We are open for trading from 07.00 until 21.15, Monday to Friday. Some currency markets are available for 24hr trading from 24.00 on Sunday night to 21.00 on Friday evening.

You can find details of the trading hours for individual products if you click on the "I" information button to the right of each product.

For a full, detailed list of all contract specifications, see our product information sheet.

We offer a wide range of products including indices, shares, commodities, currencies, bonds and interest rates.

You can find full details of the products we offer on our product information sheet.

We do not require you to deposit funds into your account until you wish to trade. To calculate the minimum deposit required to open a bet, you will need to review the Minimum IMR information, which can be found if you click on the "I" information button to the right of each product. If for example the Min IMR on your desired market is 50 and you want to place a €3 bet you will have to have at least €150 (50x €3) available in your 'Trading Resources'

For step-by-step guidance on how to make a bet, please review our "user manual"

paddypowertrader provides a variety of products to trade online or by telephone between the hours of 07.00 until 21.15 (London local time) and in 24hr or overnight markets you can trade online only.

You can make your spread bets online or by telephone but binary bets can be placed online only.

If you wish to trade by telephone, our dealing line is Irl: 1800 556 685 UK: 08000 213 444. If you have any problems or questions, you can call our Customer Support team on Irl: 1800 556 686 or UK: 08000 213 555. Please refer to our Product Information for specific trading hours of individual markets.

This subject is also covered in Tutorial 2: How To Trade, which is part of a set of video tutorials in The Trader Academy.

Your bet is valid until our market expiry time (except for rolling daily products which do not expire). Please see our Product Information Sheet for last dealing times and settlement details of individual markets.

If you decide to close your bet before it expires, you can close your bet manually in one of two ways.

1) The simplest way is to click on the "Open Positions" button to view your open bets. You will see a Close button on the right hand side. If you click this button you will only be given one option: to sell (if you are long) or buy (if you are short) your entire bet..

2) Alternatively, you can close your bet by finding the original product that you traded, entering an equal stake size and then making a bet in the opposite direction. For example if you make a £5 buy bet to open, you will need to make a £5 sell bet to close.

Your bet may also be closed if your automatic Stop-Level is hit or Limit Order is executed.

Any profits/losses incurred are realised upon the bet closure.

How can I Partially close a bet?

Should you wish to reduce your initial stake but retain a portion of your bet you can do this by 'partially closing' your bet. To do this you must make a trade in the same market as your original bet but in a reduced stake size and in the opposite direction as your original bet. For example if you initial stake was a €5 'buy bet' you would 'partially close' your bet by making a €2 'sell bet' in the same market. This would leave you with a €3 'buy bet' remaining.

Please note that all markets work on a first in, first out basis. This means that if you initially buy €1 a point in the FTSE Rolling Daily at 6000 and then subsequently buy another €1 a point in the same market at 6005 (leaving you long €2 per point) the First sell you make will close out the first position opened, in this case the buy at 6000. So if you first sell was at £1 per point at 6010, then you would realise a profit of €10 on that trade (6010 – 6000). If your second sell was at 6007, then this would close out your second buy (6005) and you would realise a profit on this trade of €2 (6007-6005). Stop or Limit orders close out the bets to which they refer.

If you have a bet open and you make a bet in the other direction with a larger stake size than the existing bet paddypowertrader will close the existing bet and open a new bet representing the surplus stake in the opposite direction (assuming you have sufficient trading resources to do so). For example if you have a €5 'buy bet' open and you make a €8 sell bet in the same market, the €5 existing bet will be closed and a new €3 'sell bet' will be opened. This is commonly called a 'cut and reverse' trade.

This subject is also covered in Tutorial 2: How To Trade, which is part of a set of video tutorials in The Trader Academy.

You can see details of the trades that you have made and that have been settled if you click on the Trade History section of your account.

This information will be held on your account for 3 months.

This subject is also covered in Tutorial 2: How To Trade, which is part of a set of video tutorials in The Trader Academy.

Details of any open bets can be found if you click on Open Positions. If you have more than one trade in the same product, please click the "I" button and this will give you a detailed breakdown of your position in this product.

The automatic Stop-Loss Order that is linked to your open position can be found if you click on the Order Book button. This section also holds details of any New Orders or Limit Orders.

This subject is also covered in Tutorial 2: How To Trade, which is part of a set of video tutorials in The Trader Academy.

At paddypowertrader we always do our best to execute your stop loss orders at the level specified. However occasionally we may not be able to do so. The most common reason for this is ‘Gapping’.

Gapping describes the situation where any market ‘jumps’ from one correctly quoted price to another, significantly different, correctly quoted price. There can be many reasons for gapping. Economic figures, company announcements, natural disasters etc. can all cause prices to ‘jump’ from one level to another. The effect of such a jump is that a stop-loss order will be subject to a gap in the price.

One of the main occurrences of gapping in a spread bet is a movement in the underlying’ market price overnight, during which time paddypowertrader does not quote a price.

For example if the Ryanair price fell from €6.00 at Wednesday’s close to €5.00 on Thursday morning’s open, and you had a stop loss set to sell at €5.75, the stop loss would have actually sold at €5.00.

This is because the Ryanair price never actually ‘touched’ €5.75. However as soon as the price fell below €5.75 your stop loss was executed at the best possible price: €5.00.

Rolling Daily Bets provide a cost-effective solution for short-medium term trading. These daily bets do not automatically expire at the end of the day, but will "rollover" into the next trading day. Any orders linked to Rolling Daily Bets will also be rolled. An overnight financing rate will be applied on a daily basis.

Click here to see a two-page guide to Rolling Daily Bets which includes detailed examples.

This subject is also covered in Tutorial 2: How To Trade, which is part of a set of video tutorials in The Trader Academy.

paddypowertrader also offers the facility to rollover futures contracts. If you chose to roll any quarterly or monthly contracts, you will need to contact us shortly before our expiry date to leave a rollover instruction

For equities, paddypowertrader will expire the existing bet spread free (at just the market price) and offer the subsequent quarter at half of the spread.

For indices, commodities and Forex contracts, paddypowertrader will expire the existing bet at our mid point and offer the subsequent quarter at the corresponding level.

Please note that on rollover of futures contracts, the existing bet is closed, realising any profits or losses incurred and a new bet is subsequently opened.

The morning after a share goes ex-dividend (ex-div), the price of the share will drop by the amount of the dividend (approximately).

With a quarterly spread bet, the dividend will have already been removed from the price quoted by paddypowertrader so there will be no effect on the price quoted between the day before ex-div and the day after it.

In the case of Rolling Daily bets paddypowertrader will credit clients who have long (buy) bets 80% of the value of the dividend and will debit to clients with short (sell) bets 100% of the dividend.

For example, if Lloyds bank goes ex-div with a declared dividend of 7.5p, a client who was long (buy bet) of £10 a point would receive £10x7.5x80% or £60. A client who was short the same amount (i.e. £10 a point) in Lloyds would be debited with £75 (£10x7.5x100%)

Dividends on single shares will also affect the index of which they form a part. When a share goes ex-div then the index, of which that share is part, also goes ex-div and the value of the dividend is calculated in equivalent index points and clients are credited or debited in the same fashion as with a share. For example if Vodafone gives a 5p dividend and if for every 1p move in Vodafone's share price the FTSE 100 index moves by 1.2 points then a holder of a €10 'buy bet' in the FTSE Rolling Daily contract will receive (5)x(1.2)x(80%)x(€10) (or €48). A holder of a €10 'sell bet' would be debited (5)x(1.2)x(100%)x(€10) (or €60). So in the case of Rolling Daily bets on indices, we will make a dividend adjustment to clients' accounts as and when shares that form part of that index go ex-div. We credit clients who have long (buy) bets and debit clients with short (sell) bets. This 'dividend' effect is paid using the same formula as for individual equity bets.

With a quarterly spread bet, the dividend will have already been removed from the price quoted by paddypowertrader so there will be no effect on the price quoted between the day before ex-div and the day after it.

All major indices quoted by paddypowertrader have a Futures market related to them (i.e. the FTSE 100 has the LIFFE FTSE Futures market). This Future trades at a price which reflects the underlying market plus some adjustments. These adjustments are calculated from the theoretical value of dividends payable between today and the expiry of the Future AND the cost of carry for the index over the same period.

This Adjustment is called the 'Fair Value'. paddypowertrader will adjust the Daily Cash price of each index by its own Fair Value number each day. paddypowertrader links the 'Daily Cash' quote to the relevant future concerned and offsets the quote by the current Fair Value. Therefore the Cash Daily price is moved by the Futures price and not vice versa, this is because the cash price is a lagging market indicator which does not react in a timely manner to market moving news.

For rolling daily shares, we price our “bid” using the underlying market “bid” and the “offer” from the underlying market “offer”. Our spread is then added around the underlying market bid/offer to create ‘our quote’. On a day to day basis the difference between our bid and the underlying market bid will remain the same as will the difference between the offer prices. If the underlying market bid/ask spread widens/narrows then ‘our quote’ will widen/narrow with it.

We derive the future individual share prices (quarterly markets) by taking the underlying market price and adding the cost of carry from the bet date until the expiry date and removing any dividends/capital repayments on those shares which go ex-div/make payments between the bet date and the expiry date. We then add/subtract our spread to/from this forward calculated price.

We subscribe to a data feed which gives us the best bid and offer in the market from several major banks in any given currency pair. The best bid might be from one bank, and the best ask might be from another bank. We take the best of each (i.e. the highest bid and the lowest offer) and put our spread (which remains fixed) around this spread.

There is no single exchange on which all FX trades are transacted, and so there is never a single price at which you can say that a given currency pair is trading. Bank “A” might sell cable to Bank “B” at 1.7750, whilst at exactly the same time Bank “C” might sell cable to Bank “D” at 1.7755. Bank “A” may record its trades to a database to which Data Vendor “X” has access, whilst Bank “C” might record its trades on a separate database to which Data Vendor “Y” has access. If we use Data vendor “X” and you use Data Vendor “Y” we may see slightly different highs/lows/current prices. For this reason, it is highly possible for two different data vendors to be showing two different prices at exactly the same time in the same currency pair.

We do not require you to deposit funds into your account until you wish to trade. To calculate the minimum deposit required to open a bet, you will need to review the Minimum Initial Margin Requirement (Min IMR) information, which can be found on the middle information button 'I' associated with each market or on the Product Information sheets available online. If the Min IMR says 50 and you want to make a €3 opening bet you must have at least €150 available in your 'Trading Resources' which you can find on the bottom of the trading screen to the right of your account number and to the left of your 'Total Open Profit & Loss' figure...

You can credit your account in a variety of ways which are detailed below. Please note that due to money laundering regulations enforced by the Financial Services Authority, we are unable to accept funds from any other source than the account holders own funds.

You can deposit funds securely online or by telephone using a debit or credit card. There is a 2% charge for payments made by credit card. If you did not register a card when you opened your account, you can do so by clicking the Credit My Account button and then Add Card. Alternatively, you can call the Customer Support team on Irl: 1800 556 686 and UK: 08000 213 555.

As a credit card customer you should be aware of changes to the way some credit card companies charge for online betting transactions. Gambling transactions, which have until now been treated in the same way as any other purchase, will be treated as cash advances by some credit card companies. Cash advances are usually subject to a higher rate of interest than standard transactions, so you should check the terms and conditions of your card carefully

You can deposit funds directly into our bank account - please ensure you use your full name and your paddypowertrader account number as a reference. Please note that due to money laundering regulations, we cannot accept cash deposited into our bank account. Any funds credited in this way will not be added to your spreadbetting account and could result in significant delays on any refund. Please be aware that large deposits of cash into our accounts by any client may generate an enquiry to the relevant authorities.

Our bank accounts are held at Barclays Bank, 54 Lombard Street, London EC3. The details of our bank accounts are below:

To make a Deposit

All Currencies share the following details:

Account Name: paddypowertrader

Swift Code: BARCGB22

Sort Code: 20-77-67

Please check the grid below for the relevant account number and IBAN.

Deposit Currency	Account Number:	IBAN:
Sterling	10865990	GB83 BARC 2077 6710 8659 90
Euros	87634044	GB44 BARC 2077 6787 6340 44
US Dollars	78361300	GB51 BARC 2077 6778 3613 00

 

Please make your cheque payable to paddypowertrader and send it to paddypowertrader, 4th Floor, 12 Appold Street, London EC2A 2AW. We will not credit your account until your cheque has cleared.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept banker's drafts. If you are going to deposit funds using a building society cheque and it does not have your name on the cheque, we will need to see a receipt stamped by the building society to say that the money for that cheque came from an account in your name.

If you would like a refund from your paddypowertrader account, please call us or email us advising us of the amount you wish to receive and confirming the last 4 digits of the card you would like us to refund.

As stated above in the depositing funds section, we are regulated by the FSA so any funds deposited must go back to the original source. For example, if you deposited funds using a card we would transfer your funds back to this card. It can take up to 3 - 5 working days for the funds to appear in your account.

Please note that MasterCard do not accept refunds from gaming organisations. If you deposit funds using a MasterCard we will make refunds to a bank account in your name, or to the default bank account details registered on your spread betting account. It is possible that we may require proof of your bank account details to establish that the account is in your name. This should be in the form of an original bank statement dated within the last three months. The statement should include your name, account number and, for international clients, an IBAN or Swift Code. We may also need sight of the card in question via faxed or scanned documentation.

If you are an Irish or other non-UK customer and you have used a MasterCard to credit your account there is a charge for refunds under £1000.00. For UK customers we would refund your money via BACS and this will take three working days with no charge.

If a problem occurs on your account, it is important for us to be able to contact you. Please ensure that your email address is always up to date and, if necessary, please check to ensure that your inbox has not exceeded its limit. We send all contract notes via email and it is your responsibility to provide us with the correct contact details. Your contract notes are proof of the trades that you have made and if you have any kind of query we will ask you for copies of your contract notes.

If you wish to change your password, please call us and we will conduct a security check to confirm your identity before amending your account details.

If you have forgotten your username or password, please call us or, if you are unable to do so, please email us. We will send you some information that may remind you of your username or password. We are unable to send passwords via email for security reasons.

Log into your account and click on Account Summary. You will see details of the most recent closing trades you have conducted and details of any profit/loss.

You will receive a contract note via email for each trade you make whether you trade online or by telephone.

You can view your statement of account online once you have logged into your account.

Most modern PCs will run our interface successfully but we recommend that you have at least a 750 Mhz Pentium III (or equivalent) processor with 156MB of RAM and 1MB of available hard disk space.

We support Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT. We also support Apple Mac platforms.

The paddypowertrader trading platform is web browser based and therefore you do not need to download any additional software onto your computer. As a general rule we design our systems to work with most browsers on any system with any ISP (internet service provider) connection (dialup or broadband but we do recommend that you use broadband)

You may need to upgrade some of the existing software on your machine and the information below will guide you through this process. If you have any questions, please call our Customer Support team on Irl: 1800 556 686 and UK: 08000 213 555 and we will be pleased to help.

The site requires Flash 6 or later. If you are unsure if you have Flash, or wish to check you have the latest version, you can download the latest version of Flash here.

If you wish to see our charts, you will need Java. You can download the latest version of Java here.

You can access the paddypowertrader website using the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox and Netscape. We also support AppleMac platforms.

You will get the best results from our site if you set your screen resolution to a minimum of 1024 x 768 pixels.

Our site should be fully compatible with the Apple Mac. If you do experience problems with our web site, we recommend upgrading to the latest version of Internet Explorer for Mac. Please be aware that although Microsoft may continue to provide security and performance updates to the Internet Explorer for Mac, no major new releases are planned.

If you find that Internet Explorer for Mac does not work properly, please try using Apple's new Safari browser.

Our interface uses Session Cookies, and these must be enabled before you can log in. "Cookies" are small amounts of data that a website can send to your web browser and store on your computer. Cookies do not contain personal information about you (unless you knowingly provide it). We use cookies to enhance navigation and the functionality of our website to securely verify your identity.

Please follow the instructions below to allow your browser to accept Session Cookies.

Amending your Cookie/Security Settings:

In your browser toolbar at the top of your screen, select Internet Options from and either:

- Internet Explorer 5

Select the Security tab, then Internet, then Custom Level. A new window will appear. Scroll down and select the option to 'Allow per session cookies'.

- Internet Explorer 6

Select the Privacy tab, set the slider to Medium, and press the OK button. Alternatively, select Privacy then Advanced and tick the boxes next to 'Override automatic cookie handling' and 'Always allow session cookies'.

- Netscape

Select 'Cookie Manager' from the 'Tools' menu and choose to 'Unblock [or Allow] cookies from this site'.

- Mozilla Firefox

Select Options from the Tools menu, then select Privacy. Expand the Cookies heading and tick the box for 'Allow Cookies'.

Note: To find out which version of Internet Explorer you are using, click 'Help' and then 'About Internet Explorer' on your browser menu.

Although we have taken care to design the site to be compatible with the most popular firewall vendors, it is quite possible that specific firewall settings or configuration could limit your experience of the paddypowertrader website. If you are using a firewall and are not sure whether it is the cause of your problem, please email us with details of the type of firewall that you have.

As a simple test, you could shut down your firewall for a few seconds while you reload the paddypowertrader site. If you are still experiencing trouble, it is most likely that your firewall is not the root cause. If the problem is no longer evident, your firewall is most likely blocking/changing certain content. It would be a good idea to contact your firewall vendor for support.

Check that you are using the correct username and password for your LIVE account and not logging into the demo account area. Live account passwords must contain at least one number. If you continue to experience problems, please contact us directly to confirm your login details.If you're using Internet Explorer, please try restoring your Internet Explorer Settings. restore default settings

If you're using Internet Explorer, please try restoring your Internet Explorer Settings. restore default settings

For all other browsers, please try deleting your temporary internet files and cookies and make sure that your security levels are set to medium or low not high.

If all else fails, please try disabling any pop-up blockers on your system or alternatively please call us as you may have locked yourself out of your account.

Our interface uses Session Cookies, and these must be enabled before you can log in. "Cookies" are small amounts of data that a Web site can send to your Web browser and store on your computer. Cookies do not contain personal information about you (unless you knowingly provide it).

We use cookies to enhance navigation and the functionality of our website to securely verify your identity.

Please follow our instructions to allow your browser to accept Session Cookies. If you have any questions, please call us at paddypowertrader.

You should contact us immediately if your trade is not confirmed within 20 seconds please call us Irl: 1800 556 686 UK: 08000 213 444. If the timer symbol hangs beyond 20 seconds, you may have lost connection with our server so once again please call us.

This problem is caused by a poor connection to the Internet. Please disconnect from the Internet then re-connect. Also ensure that you are not currently downloading any large files. Most of the time, this will resolve the problem.

If you are receiving errors clicking on links or buttons, you may have settings in your Internet Explorer browser that are causing these problems.

If you are having problems viewing certain pages on the paddypowertrader website, restore your Advanced Settings in Internet Explorer to their default settings:

1. Click on the 'Tools' menu at the top of your web browser window, and then select 'Internet Options'.

2. On the Internet Options screen, click on the 'Advanced' tab that is at the very top right of that screen. Click on the 'Restore Defaults' button which is found at the bottom of the Advanced tab. This will allow Internet Explorer to restore its Advanced settings to their defaults. Click the 'OK' button to save these changes.

3. If you then go to the 'General' tab, please then click on 'Delete Cookies' and 'Delete Files', when you click on 'Delete Files' a box will appear in which you will have to check the box with 'Delete offline content' next to it.

4. If you then go to the 'Security' and 'Privacy' tabs, pleas ensure that all levels are set to medium.

Once you have done the above steps, please then press 'OK' to close the dialogue box. Once this is done, you will have to restart your browser by closing it down and opening a new one or simply by pressing 'F5' on your keyboard to refresh it.

The paddypowertrader website is protected by a Thawte verified certificate. This means that any information that you provide is protected by a secure certificate provider, thus ensuring the security of the site. More information regarding Thawte can be viewed at http://www.thawte.com

We take complaints very seriously at paddypowertrader. If you have a complaint, please contact our Customer Support team either by telephone on Irl: 1800 556 686 UK: 08000 213 555 or via email to support@paddypowertrader.com. Alternatively, you may write to us with your complaint to:

Customer Support
paddypowertrader
4th Floor
12 Appold Street
London EC2A 2AW

Very often problems may arise as a result of misunderstandings and can be easily resolved by our Customer Services staff. However, we recognise that there may be occasions when you feel that our service has not met your expectations and you wish to raise this with us more formally.

In this case, please, contact our Compliance Officer, Guillermo Lopez, either by email, in writing or by telephone.

Mr Guillermo Lopez
Padddypowertrader
4th Floor
12 Appold Street
London EC2A 2AW

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7456 7000 Email: g.lopez@londoncapitalgroup.co.uk

If are not satisfied with our response, you are entitled to contact the Financial Ombudsman for an independent view. You can access the FOS Leaflet at http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/consumer-leaflet.htm

Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London E14 9SR

Telephone: 0845 080 1800
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

To be eligible for the service, you will need to submit details of the complaint within six months of the date of our final response to you. Please note that the Financial Ombudsman Service can only consider complaints, which we have not been able to resolve to your satisfaction through our own internal procedures.