One of the things financial spread betting has done has brought a whole range of capital markets to the attention of the retail investor. Spread betters can trade stocks on a wide variety of world indices, as well as bet on commodities, currencies and bonds all from one trading platform. Even the professionals and institutions would have difficulty doing this.

You cannot buy stock in a futures account, or bet on indices in a currency account. But with financial spread betting and its counterpart contracts for difference account holders can trade different financial instruments all from one central account. For the retail investor or budding trader spread betting has has proven to be manna from heaven.

Though trading stocks on international exchanges has always been possible for the retail investor it can be a chore to set up and to have funds denominated in multiple currencies. On top of that not every stock broker offers such a service.

As a spread better if you fancy a punt on an international exchange, and good old FTSE100 stocks are just not sexy enough (lets face it there not) then you can always gravitate to where the real action is. That may be China, it may be Brazil or it could be Singapore.

Many of my own spread bets are on stocks listed on the Canadian TSE. On this index there are a plethora of metals miners and oil producers to choose from.

Most if not all of these were beaten down mercilessly during last year’s stock market meltdown which would have been a great opportunity to go short (I personally spent most of my time just sitting and watching the carnage unfold).

But now these producers are trading at much lower levels even the most capitally challenged spread better can afford to trade some of these stocks. Remember with spread betting the price of a stock counts. If a stock is trading at $15.00 that may imply a lot of risk for a small account holder but if the stock is trading at $5 that entails a lot less risk.

My own TSE mining stock campaign is very much an anti dollar play. Without trying to sound too much like an economist most of my TSE trades are bets on the ongoing currency debasement of the once mighty US dollar.

It is not just the US that are on a campaign to turn their currency to toilet paper but they are the most prominent. As the dollar is crucified so that politicians can justifiy their jobs, the value of things priced in dollar’s rises. Just so happens many of the beneficiaries of this currency debasement are located on the TSE.

The chart above is that of Penn West Energy Trust the largest energy trust in both North America and Canada. Known for its stable management, amazing resource potential and a chart that I can spread bet with all the ease of drinking a cup of tea this is one of my favourite TSE stocks.

There are miners on the UK exchanges as well. Great companies  such as world commodities leader BHP Billiton or natural gas producer BG Group and a number of small oil producers; but its always good to have options. One of the hardest tasks for a trader is to find stocks that are suitable for the trading of his or her particular technical trading system. Certainly there are a few on the TSE that suit mine.

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Tags: Campaign, Miners, Technical Trader, Traders Personality, TSX, US Dollar

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