[pcabc]

The reason I like spread bets (IG) is that there is no tax due and unlike an ISA, no charges. Yes there is an increased spread which is how IG (and the no fee ISA platforms) make their money, but their bid/ask is usually pretty good and occasionally better than that offered by my (HL) ISA account. I find that the extra spread is more or less equal to the ISA fees and commissions. The other main benefit with spread bets is the option for guaranteed stop losses and trailing stop losses.

I have my dummy account with IG.  At some point I will go for a real account with them.  However, I found that with my dummy account, I was trying to notionally keep the account size too small for many trades and also that I was trying to track my DC pension, ISA, SIPP and the demo spread bet - too much to keep track of.  I've change strategy with the DC pension and to some extent the SIPP so I could try it again as I am actively trying to juggle fewer accounts.  Also I'm trying to only trade when I the market breadth is really strong on multiple time frames and trade less in general - something which seems to have worked well lately.