The article focused on the growth of spread betting over the last few years as a result of favourable tax breaks. It also raises concern that the increase in spread betting may come at the expense of investment in direct equities.  The article states, ‘Compeer, the research group, has seen volumes of derivative transactions double in the last three years, mainly as a result of spread bets and “contracts for difference” – products traded in a similar way to spread bets.  Meanwhile, Compeer says, retail trading volumes of equities have stayed generally flat.’