Evening Standard, London, Angus McCrone Column.

Byline: Angus McCrone

Nov. 14--In the 1980s, captains of industry used to complain about "short-termism" in the City. That was in the days that short-termism meant hanging on to an investment for only a year or two. Nowadays, day-traders would laugh at that definition. There are several thousand private investors in Britain today who aim to book profits on share trades in hours, rather than a year -- not to mention the couple of decades favoured by American investment guru Warren Buffett, known as The Sage of Omaha.

Personally, I find it hard to get my brain round a time horizon of a few hours. Day-trading tends to be based on technical analysis rather than the fundamental considerations I favour. I prefer looking for moves over a few weeks.

However, the day-trading market exists -- and there is fierce competition between those financial providers who are at-tempting to address it.

Next week, bookmaker IFX plans to introduce daily spread betting on the top 100 stocks in Britain.

The idea is for customers to make an up-bet or down-bet on a share and then either to close it later that day or let it expire at the end of the session.

The advantage IFX is promising is a narrower spread than it currently offers on spread bets expiring in a month's time. For instance, yesterday the bookie was quoting a spread of 177.5-179.5 for Vodafone shares in mid-December.