If the Gallup 7% Romney lead is right then make money spread betting. Latest ECV spreads bit.ly/XszSeY twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/st…

— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 18, 2012

So far in this White House race we haven’t mentioned the spread betting markets which are a high risk high return form of punting.

The basic feature is simple – the more you are right the more you win and the more you are wrong the more you lose.

My experience of spread betting on the 2012 White House race has not been good and so far I’ve been a loser. On the day of the first White debate I bought Obama at 325 electoral college votes. A few days later when it was becoming clear that the fight had changed I got out of my position by selling Obama at 303 ECVs.

That cost me a fair bit of money. My buy level minus my sell level multiplied by my stake. In this case 22 times the stake level. Ouch.

The latest spreads from SportingIndex are above

As you’d expect the market is settled on how many ECVs the contenders chalk up. If your buy level is lower than the actual outcome then you win your stake multiplied by the difference in number of ECVs.

One feature that’s really nice is that you can close down a bet at any stage – taking a profit or stopping further losses.

But be careful, This is for experienced punters.

Mike Smithson

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