PV22 Jul 2020 23:37
Regarding your comments about spreadex - a reduced holdings RNS would not be something positive.
I've seen others mention similar things about the company hedging etc in relation to their customers trades.
As someone who actively spread bets, I can tell you that it does not work in the way I have seen it described here.
When a customer opens a 'bet' (trade), spreadex can either
A) play it safe and literally open a corresponding trade in real time, (and also close at the same time as the customer). They make money be charging daily borrowing costs (to cover a leveraged position), and they will likely also offer a slightly wider spread so they will also make a tiny % on the opening and closing price of the trade.
B) Go against you by not opening a corresponding trade. If the customer 'wins' the 'bet', spreadex will have to pay out (and make a loss), but if the customer loses, then spreadex keep the money the customer lost, because spreadex did not open a corresponding trade.
I don't know exactly how the spread bet company will determine whether to go with A or B - but presumably the default would be to play safe the majority of the time. I can only imagine they would go against the customer if they have a staggeringly awful track record with their trades. Its not exactly practical for them to examine every customers trade and assess its merits in a fraction of a second in order to determine if it is 'safe' to follow the customer.
I can think of absolutely no reason why spreadex would take a long position to counter or hedge a customer taking a short position. It would effectively double their exposure when there is absolutely no need to do so - they can simple guarantee a profit by making a duplicate of the customers order.
Spreadex's holdings are indicative of their customers taking large leveraged positions in Kefi, (no different to other people buying with HL for example), except they have a bigger exposure.
If anyone can offer proof to the contrary, I would be very interested to see it.