Spread betting refers to speculating on the direction of a financial market without actually owning the underlying security. It involves placing a bet on the price movement of a security. A spread betting company quotes two prices, the bid and ask price (also called the spread), and investors bet whether the price of the underlying security will be lower than the bid or higher than the ask.

The spread bettor does not actually own the underlying security in spread betting, they simply speculate on its price movement.