(ThyBlackMan.com) Spread betting may not be the most familiar investment term in your vocabulary, but it’s an investment form that’s finding increased popularity all around the world. If you don’t know what it is, don’t worry. You’re in good company. Right now, more than half of Americans never invest in the stock market, at any point in life. That makes sense when you think about how volatile the stock market has been over the past decade. We all remember the global recession of 2008, the effects of which are still being felt all over the world. People have a right to be scared of investing in the stock market. Fortunately, this isn’t the only way to invest.
There are strong methods we can use to invest with little risk and great reward. These are methods commonly recommended to people as they save for retirement. The problem with these 
strategies is that they take many decades to pay off. In most cases, you won’t be able to see lifechanging results until you’re in your 50’s or 60’s. Some people want to see faster results, if they are to invest at all. Because investment education isn’t distributed through American school systems or media, most people don’t realize they have other options.
Spread betting is one such option. Spread betting uses data from stock market indexes, without forcing users to actually buy up stocks and take on that kind of risk. On the contrary, spread betting users investigate stocks, Forex, indexes, and more through trusted platforms like ETX Capital. With spread betting, an investor doesn’t own any stocks at all. Rather, he or she will make value speculations on the future values of stocks and other financial entities. If the price changes according to the investor’s guess, at the end of a chosen time interval, then the investor makes money. Losses are incurred when the price goes the other way. The amount of money that an investor makes depends on how much money is invested.
So that’s how spread betting works, but it doesn’t explain why it’s such a good alternative to traditional stock market investment. The difference lies in the time involved. Stock investment takes years to grow significantly, because that’s how long the markets take to grow. Market growth is built on the value of individual companies. While there will always be a few companies that have meteoric rises in a single year or two, most grow much more slowly. Overall, someone invested in American markets might hope to make 7-9% in a year, on a good year.
Because spread betting requires no ownership, only betting on market value changes, it’s a perfect option for people who don’t want to risk losing everything they own in the stock market. It’s also much faster to resolve than stock market buys. This is not to say that spread betting is without risk. It is risky. But it’s a different kind of risk than people are used to with stocks. Simply put, it’s a reliable alternative – not for everyone, but an excellent option for many.
Staff Writer; Shawn Jackson
