WorldSpreads, a UK-based spread betting company, has just announced the launch of FTSE sector bets.

Sector bets are composed of stocks in the FTSE 350 index. Each sector aggregates all the companies that belong to that specific industry of the British economy.

Clients will have the following thirty sectors available to trade:

Aerospace & Defence
Beverages
Construction & Materials
Fixed Line Telecoms
Food & Drug Retailers
General Industries
Health Care Equipment & Services
Industrial Engineering
Media
Mobile Telecoms
Oil & Gas Production
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology
Real Estate Investment Trust
Support Services
Tobacco
Banks
Chemicals
Electricity
Food
Gas, Water & Multi Utilities
General Retail
Household Goods & Home Construction
Life Insurance
Mining
Non-Life Insurance
Personal Goods
Real Estate Investment Services
Software & Computer Services
Tech Hardware & Equipment
Travel & leisure

A sector bet is useful when a trader has a view on a specific industry but does not know well each stock. An interest rate hike is certainly bad for retail making the sector a possible short target for spread betters. Identifying the exact companies that will suffer the most is a much harder task.

A trader can also buy the sectors with the best economic prospects and sell the expected underperformers, instead of buying or selling a broad-based index like the FTSE 100. Many other strategies can be developed in spread betting with the use of sector bets.