City Index, the London based Spreadbetting firm is recruiting for 'aspiring traders' to take part in an online TV Series, due to start in October 2012. The traders will be taught the tricks of the trade by professionals, and the most successful graduate of the Trading Academy will win £100,000.

The company (which showed £10M pre-tax profit in 2011) is well known for it's creative advertising campaigns, and this appears another well thought out promotional piece. Dave Harris from Happy Spread Betting said, "I've always admired City Index's approach to marketing, and this is another great example of a fun idea that will tick the boxes by being quirky and educational - whilst giving the company some great publicity. Who know's - it might even make it onto main-stream TV."

Of course, City Index need to be careful and appear to be doing all the relevant back-ground checks of the contestants. Alan Sugar's 'The Apprentice' was caught out back in 2010 when two contenstants turned up with criminal records - one for racial abuse, the other for possessing offensive weapons. They appear to be looking for a range of contestants from complete beginners, to experienced traders - so it promises to be an interesting campaign.