ESTABLISHED IN 2000, WorldSpreads is Ireland's largest spread trading company, providing ordinary, individual investors with the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to trade individual shares, foreign exchange, stock indices, commodities and interest rates by telephone or online.

Conor Foley comments that at inception financial spread trading did not exist in Ireland, and similarly, no Irish spread trading companies operated in the multibillion pound UK or international markets. WorldSpreads was the first Irish company to obtain regulatory approval from the highly reputable Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK in 2004.

Since then, the company has expanded into nine other countries in Europe and the Far East by forming joint venture partnerships with companies in each of these areas and providing the product in the local language. WorldSpreads is engaged in an aggressive programme to introduce the product in another five countries during 2008 and a further nine countries in 2009. This is greatly facilitated by a scalable and proprietary software platform, on which 95 per cent of the business is now transacted. WorldSpreads floated on the AIM (London Stock Exchange) in August 2007 and on the IEX (Dublin Stock Exchange) in May 2008. WorldSpreads was the top performing Irish plc in 2007, with its share price increasing by 98 per cent.

In 2008 alone, the share price has increased by a further 35 per cent. The company employs 65 across its three offices in Dublin, London and Kuala Lumpur.

Product/Service:

WorldSpreads provides retail clients (private investors) throughout the world with the lowest-cost way to trade in all financial markets, by telephone and online - shares, currencies, commodities, indices and interest rates.

Customers:

The company now has 7,000 private individual clients. In the first four years of business, the focus was on Ireland and the UK. Since then, WorldSpreads has a wide geographic spread of clients from Ireland, the UK, Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Italy), eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, the Baltics) and the Far East (Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan). Over the next 18 months, the company has plans to expand into India, China and South America.

All of these clients have been, and will continue to be, serviced from the company's trading desks in Dublin, London and Kuala Lumpur.

What vision prompted you to start up in business?

A huge increase in the number of Irish people participating in the stock market and profiting from financial markets. A large number of people in international markets availing of the advantages of the company's financial products.

Is there any interesting or unusual circumstances surrounding the inception of the company or its evolution?

At the company's inception, knowledge of the product in both the Irish and international markets was virtually nil. In November 2007, a new EU-wide directive (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) was introduced that harmonised the regulatory framework for the financial spread trading product throughout all EU states.

This has significant benefits for the company as it can now seamlessly "passport" the product into each of these states without having to deal with the local regulator.

What is the best piece of business advice you ever received?

"Look after the downside and the upside will look after itself."

"Don't believe in your own propaganda."