Southampton has the highest percentage of retail investors trying spreadbetting for the first time, according to data released today by Spreadex.

The financial and sports spreadbetting provider said 28.5 per cent of Southampton residents visiting its website between 1 October 2010 and 31 March 2011 were first time visitors, making the South Coast the highest growing spreadbetting population.

Unsurprisingly, Greater London had the most day traders, with 419,948 visiting the Spreadex site during the six-month period, followed by Manchester (29,024), Birmingham (17,480), Glasgow (13,247) and Kensington (12,653).

Residents of Leeds, Milton Keynes and Bristol were the most inquisitive, looking at 15, 12 and 11 web pages per visit, according to the report, while those living in Lambeth and Edinburgh did the least research, visiting only 7 pages per visit.

Andy MacKenzie, marketing communications manager at Spreadex, noted that the City of London was the birth place of spreadbetting, so it makes sense for it to remain as the source of the most trading customers.

He added, ‘We are seeing increasing numbers of new accounts opening from across the country and it’s evident that the practice is no longer being limited strictly to those who work in finance or business in the south east.

‘More and more people are realising that you can trade from home and don’t need to be at a hedge fund or a stockbrokers to try and make money from financial market movements.'