How is spread betting http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/Shares-trading.html different to normal trading? Obviously spread betting is tax free and you are trading on leverage which means that you only have to put up a small amount of money to open a trade. The thing is that with spread betting you need to be in control of your wins and losses at all times. The flexibility is there in that the minimum sizes are quite small so you can start small in a controlled way.Spread betting providers also offer guaranteed stops, which can be important in today's volatile markets.