S&P 500 Spread Comparison UK: 10 Brokers Tested (2026)

Which Broker has the lowest S&P 500 | US 500 spread in the UK?

S&P 500 spreads are typically low. Why? 

Because the underlying futures market is highly liquid, and good liquidity often means tight spreads.
If your spread betting (which is tax-free for UK traders) or CFD broker uses a liquidity provider, it means they can pass that saving onto you and still make money.

But, we’ve all seen the headline spreads… or “spreads from…” and to be honest, it’s hard to know what the real world spreads are until you’ve opened an account and actually placed a few trades.

So, I decided to do a spread comparison and share it with my fellow British traders.

Here’s how I did the spread test:

I took ten of the most popular brokers, opened up the S&P 500 (or US 500/SPX as many call it…), then squashed them all onto one screen, and took a screenshot at a specific time.

To me, that mirrors how we actually trade… we spot an opportunity, open a ticket and execute. 

I did this on Friday, 1st May 2026 at 19:01 BST… Now, I chose this because it’s a typical time you might trade the S&P, a few hours before the US closing bell at 9 pm.

The brokers I chose were:

IG
CMC Markets
Plus 500
Capital
Pepperstone
FXCM
Oanda
City Index
Forex
FX Pro

The market’s price action was fairly typical as well. Coiling after some price discovery to the upside, ATR moving lower. In other words, spreads should be competitive around this time.

S&P 500 Price Action When Spreads Checked

Lowest S&P 500 Spreads

In no particular order yet, these were the US500 spreads:

Capital 0.4pts
CMC 0.5pts
IG 0.4pts
City Index 0.4pts
FXCM 0.5pts
Oanda 0.4pts
Plus500 0.7pts
FX Pro 0.7pts
Forex 0.6pts
Pepperstone 0.4pts

I observed each broker’s S&P 500 price for a minute or so and noted down any spread changes.

The only two brokers I saw on variable were Oanda, which moved up to 0.6pts at one point and IG, which moved from 0.4pts to 0.46pts… Everyone else seemed to be fixed.

Most brokers’ spreads were fairly competitive, 0.4pts – 0.5pts were the most popular, which is pretty good for a market that does the equivalent of 75pt daily ranges.

 

CMC's US 500 spread: 5pts = 0.5pts.
IG's S&P 500 spread varied a bit. From 0.4pts to 0.46pts.
But it didn't go to 0.46pts very often, so couldn't catch a screenshot! 0.44pts (above is what I got)

S&P 500 broker spreads ranked: From best to worst

Ok, so let’s rank them in order. Lots were tied for the top spot this time… (any broker out there want to break ranks and cut to 0.3pts?!)

  1. Capital, Pepperstone, IG, Oanda and City Index 0.4pts
  2. CMC and FXCM 0.5pts
  3. Forex 0.6pts
  4. Plus 500 and FX Pro 0.7pts

As a side note, it surprises me why Forex and City Index have different spreads all the time. They are both owned by StoneX, so why is one more expensive? I dunno….

Anyway, as I said, the top spot was shared by a few brokers this time.

Well done to Capital, Pepperstone, IG, Oanda and City Index, all tied at 0.4pts.

On the S&P 500, the difference between the cheapest broker and the most expensive is 0.3 pts. That sounds tiny, but it adds up (trust me!). Use the Spread Saver to see what you could save.

Five-way tie is a bit of a cop-out, though, so let me give you the tiebreaker!

Capital and Pepperstone also came joint top on my Dow spread comparison at 2pts each.
Pepperstone was also the best in my  Nasdaq spread comparison with 1pt.

So if you generally trade US indices, those two are probably a decent starting point.

Always check for yourself, and remember spreads can change at any time. This was just a test at a single point in time. I’ll update this in a month.

Meanwhile, you can see my other spread comparisons on these other markets:

Indices: Dow, Nasdaq, DAX, FTSE,
Commodities: Gold, Oil,
Forex: USD/JPY, EUR/USD, GBP/USD

If you’re new to UK spread betting, it’s worth knowing why spread betting profits are tax-free.

And if you want to see the whole lot in a table for easy comparison, then take a look at my Spread Checker tool.