The volatile stock market has led to soaring interest among investors in spread betting, says investment website Interactive Investor.

Interactive Investor (www.iii.co.uk) has seen its number of traders double year on year and expects this trend to continue during the rest of 2008 as investors look at alternative ways of making money in a volatile market.

Asghar Hussain, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor, says, ‘The current intraday volatility is proving to be a spread better’s paradise. The short-term spread betters are out in force. Trading volumes on the key sectors of banking, mining and housing soared by 25 per cent in June. We have also experienced a large number of bets per trader being placed per day as they take advantage of the volatility in the current market.

‘Our CFD traders have been less active during the current quarter. Following on from a massive rise in both equity and index CFD trading at the start of the year the market became harder to call in Q2. Trading has been more difficult for CFD users as they prefer to invest over a longer time period than spread betters.’