ok, I think I have the answer.

IG guaranteed stops are 0.3% of total exposure. So it is £9 for a £3k bet and on IG they have to be a minimum of 5% away. I wonder if this is different on other sites.

Hi everyone. frenzy_123 from the iii chartsview and Morpheus from this site. It has been so long I had forgotten my password and needed to reregister.

It has been an extremely busy few years so I have been mainly long term investing with my main goal still to become a successful part time trader. I have made a small amount of money on the small amount of trades I have done, so I am still in the game. But I have been mainly, especially of late been working on a fully back tested strategy which is now nearing completion.

This strategy requires me to go long and short and so will require Spread betting (or CFD's), which I am new to.

So my question is regarding margin and guaranteed stops. I do not wish to use the full margin, however with guaranteed stops I am thinking this may be possible to do without the prospect of getting margin calls. So I would get say a £3k bet for ~£200. Is this a viable option and does anyone know how much it costs for a guaranteed stop, say in IG or similar?

Also, my holding period could be from weeks to months but probably no more than 3 months in the majority of cases. For Long positions is it best to use rolling spread betting or a Share ISA.

Does anyone recommend a spread betting firm with low spreads/costs? Any other tips or advice would be much appreciated.