How to trade spot markets (2024)

Monitor and close your position

You can monitor your open positions on your IG account. Any running profit or loss will move in line with the underlying asset prices. Once you are ready to close your trade, click on the open position and select the ‘close’ button. Your final profit or loss would be realised upon the closing of the trade – the calculation would vary depending on whether you are trading CFDs or spread betting.

Remember to follow your trading plan when closing positions, and avoid emotional trading decisions such as fear or greed.

See a spread betting example

Let’s say you expect the Tesla share price to rise from 885 over the next couple of days. You open our spread betting platform and you see that the buy price is 884 and the sell price is 886. You could open a spread betting position to buy the market at £5 per point of movement. Every point of movement in the underlying market is now worth £5 to you – so if the Tesla share price rises by 20 points, you’d make a £100 profit but if it falls by 12 points, you’d make a £60 loss.

Alternatively, if you thought the Tesla share price would fall, you could open a spread bet to sell the market. If it did fall in price, you’d profit – but if it increased instead, you’d make a loss.