very dismayed at my first trade with ig index having not been told that price qouted was linked to ftse futures market prices as trade was out of hours(7.33).
buying at 4531 when the real price was 4518!with an 18 point stop you would think i would be stopped out at 4500 but youve guessed it i was stopped out at 4513,the market hit a low of 4508! could anyone give a few tips or pointers for future trades thanks

Peacock

I use IG myself and had a similar problem the first time I was stopped out on a trade (they actually agreed to change their literature on stop losses having reinstated my bet - but it was on a share not an index).

As for advice, the following would be a few steps:

Read the IG Index rules book from cover to cover and make notes on any rules which may apply to the trades you will be making (especially the difference between guaranteed stops and normal stops).

Trade with the minimum level bet for the first couple of months. Use whichever system you have decided upon and you should cover most eventualities of the platform and how it operates and any surprises will not be nearly as costly.

Peacock, bets on indices with all spreadbetters are linked to the futures at all times. Even instruments called "cash". "Cash" in this context means settled at the end of the day, not the cash index. Generally the various FTSE indexes will move in tandem with a fixed differential with respect to each other, and they may be ahead or behind the real index depending on sentiment. They have to do it this way since only the futures are tradeable on the market and if they traded the real index with you they would be exposing themselves to arbitration (you buying their index and selling the future or vice versa).

Peacock

Just received your email - if you update your profile i will send you a reply