I’ve been trading with a TradeHub account at Bux Markets and I’m happy to recommend it as I feel the platform is intuitive and understated. Apparently Bux Markets been going since 2009 so still relatively young although its roots go further:

‘Bux Markets was previously known as Ayondo Markets. Ayondo is a company registered in the UK offering spread betting and CFD products. Bux’s trading business was originally started under the name of Gekko in 2008 and was led by Edward Drake who had previous roles within IG index and Cantor Index (now competitors). In 2009, a Swiss company, Next Generation Finance Invest (NextGFI), which invests in financial market solutions and owned the Ayondo label took an interest in Gekko and became a major investor.’

Bux’s trading platform is known as Tradehub. The platform is designed for both beginner and professional traders and also unusually offers a variable margin function. The platform itself is web-based and built on HTML5 trading technology with a number of innovative tools having been brought together and integrated on a single platform. Variable Margin, easier trading with notional amounts and 24 hour trading. Trading with notional amounts means that the order ticket is very straightforward; you can simply enter the desired nominal amount to be used per trade, in the order screen. The watchlist can be combined to suit individual needs. Besides, the controller is handy to adjust the leverage or the margin per trade. The Account Summary is particularly helpful as it highlights the liquidity level of the account. Given as a percentage, it shows the “fitness level” of the account.

Bux Markets Tradehub Trading Platform

The variable margin feature allows you to set the margin you prefer on your trades above a minimum level. I particularly like this as it means you could operate your spread betting account like a normal brokerage account. This means that if you set the account leverage to 1:1 (i.e. fully funded) then the overnight financing costs are effectively zero on daily rolling positions.  You only pay overnight financing on the amounts you ‘borrow’, so when fully funded, £10/point on say, some-co stock when at 600p/share, with £6000 deposited in the account and the position opened with 1:1 leverage, then a bought and held position pays the (small) spread to open/close incurs no overnight financing (roll) costs yet still receives 100% of the dividends. If you hold a position overnight financing is incurred at a very reasonable 2.5% on Libor.

So if you needed cash quickly then you incur a small spread to sell the current fully funded position and immediately re-buy again but using perhaps a 2:1 variable margin setting, and half of the fully funded position amount is freed up (but from then on you pay LIBOR+2.5% pro-rata overnight on the ‘borrowed’ half amount). They also credit 100% of dividends as I have said (85% for US stocks in reflection of US withholding tax). Perhaps they anticipate that most clients will not fully fund positions and incur LIBOR+2.5% to ‘borrow’, accepting fully funded positions on ‘at-cost’ basis.

They have additional insurance protection for £500,000 above and beyond the FSCS £50,000 protection. Their support desk was helpful and copied me the policy detail (certificate is openly available on their web page).

To recap the pros are:

• Tight and competitive spreads on thousands of markets.
• Financing is charged at just LIBOR +/- 2.5% for holding overnight positions.
• Financing fees are only charged on the ‘borrowed’ amount (unlike other providers who charge you on the full amount including the amount you put up as margin).
• Free Guaranteed Stops on many markets (up to a maximum stake).
• Bux Markets pass on 100% of the announced dividends net of withholding tax (unlike other providers who may pay just 80% of dividends).
• Negative Balance Protection; in the event your losses exceed your account balance, Bux Markets will not seek to recover those losses from you.
• Bux Markets has also introduced an extra customer insurance of up to £500,000 per client. This is in addition to the FSCS cover of up to £50,000.
• Trade for yourself or follow the trades of other top traders who trade with Bux Markets!

An additional perk is that guaranteed stops are free at Bux Markets although these are not offered on all markets and are subject to a maximum stakes size and minimum stop distance requirements. For example on GBP/USD the maximum stake size for a guaranteed stop loss is £16 per point or less, this minimum distance is 51 points away.

Bux Markets seem to be pushing their social trading platform the most, where you deposit and then can pick a trader to follow like for like (proportioned to whatever you stake) according to whatever trades they make.

On the downside Bux Markets don’t offer trailing stops. It would also be nice to see a combined currency account option, so you could $1/point on Wall Street, £1/point on FTSE 100 ..etc. As-is you have to open separate Dollar and Pound accounts. The range of bets is reasonable but could be wider (FTSE 250 daily rolling for instance isn’t available).

Downsides:

• No trailing stops.
• Limited range of individual shares.

Bux Markets are currently offering an extra bonus of up to £500 on your deposit when you open a trading account if you can demonstrate that you already have a spread betting/CFD account with another provider. Further terms and conditions apply. Check here for full details. Please note that you do not need to move or switch from your existing broker to claim this offer as such but simply demonstrate that you have an existing account with another broker (by sending Bux Markets a copy of your statement). The offer comes with our compliments and is exclusive to Financial-Spread-Betting.com visitors which means that you can’t get it elsewhere. We hope you’ll use it to make the most of Bux Markets’ highly intuitive trading platform and sentiment trader.

One of the big risks with spread betting providers is internal fraud or ineptitude. Spread betting companies can and do fail, even legitimate ones so the extra customer insurance of up to £500,000 per client is definitely a plus.

To trade on the go, Tablet, iPhone and mobile android versions are available to download. A demo account is available for those who want to try out the functionality or test a trading strategy.

Of course, bear in mind that spread betting is a leveraged product, and can result in losses that could exceed your initial outlay. The people at Bux Markets realized that some people might not wish this added risk exposure so they’ve setup a special guarantee where they’ve waived the negative balance funding obligation.  This means that with Bux Markets you cannot lose more than your deposit, giving you added protection and reassurance.  Having said that do keep in mind that trading is not for everyone, and you should make sure you fully understand the risks involved before starting to trade.