How to buy, sell and short BP shares

How to buy or invest in BP shares

You can buy BP shares in two different ways. The traditional way is to invest in the company by share dealing. This is where you buy shares directly in the company and becoming a shareholder, making you eligible to receive dividends (if paid) and vote in company decisions.

The other way is to trade derivatives, like spread bets and CFDs.

Trading derivatives involves speculating on the rise and fall of the market price of shares. If you think they’ll go up, it’s called ‘going long’. If you reckon they’ll go down, that’s known as ‘going short’.

Keen to trade or invest in BP shares? Here’s how to do it with IG:

Investing in BP shares

1. Create or log in to your share dealing account and go to our trading platform
2. Type ‘BP’ in the search bar and select it
3. Select ‘buy’ to open your investment position
4. Choose the number of shares you want to buy
5. Confirm your purchase and monitor your investment

Trading BP shares

1. Create or log in to your trading account and go to our trading platform
2. Type ‘BP’ in the search bar and select it
3. Choose your position size
4. Click ‘buy’ in the deal ticket
5. Open your position and monitor your trade

Remember that trading with leverage involves increased risk.

How much would it cost to invest in BP?

We now offer commission free trading (though stampy duty still applies to UK shares).

If investing in BP shares isn’t for you, you can trade on the price of the shares with derivatives. You’ll be able to:

• Get full exposure with a small deposit – typically 20%-25% of the full value of the trade
• Spread bet without paying tax on your profits
• Hedge your positions with CFDs, offsetting losses against potential profits

Open an account now to get started

How to sell or short BP shares

When the time comes to sell your BP shares – either to take a profit or cut a loss – you can do so easily via our share trading platform. 

Alternatively, you could short BP shares. ‘Shorting’ or ‘short-selling’ shares with spread bets or CFDs means you can make a profit if the share price falls. This is possible because you can take a position without actually owning any shares by using leverage.

You can also short shares to hedge your existing investment. If you suffer losses from one position, the profits from the other will offset those losses.

It's importnant to remember that trading on leverage is considered riskier than share dealing. Proper risk manaement is essential.

Learn more about hedging

Here’s how to sell or short BP shares with IG:

Selling BP shares

1. Create or log in to your share dealing account and go to our trading platform
2. Type ‘BP’ in the search bar and select it
3. Select ‘sell’ in the deal ticket to close your investment position
4. Choose the number of shares you want to sell
5. Confirm the sale

Shorting BP shares

1. Create or log in to your trading account and go to our trading platform
2. Type ‘BP’ in the search bar and select it
3. Choose your position size
4. Click ‘sell’ in the deal ticket
5. Confirm and monitor your short position

BP’s live market prices

BP shares: the basics

London-headquartered BP is one of the world's largest integrated energy companies, operating across the full energy supply chain, from finding and extracting oil and gas, to refining it, trading it, and delivering it to customers as fuel, lubricants and petrochemicals. It also has a growing presence in renewable energy, including solar, wind and electric vehicle charging.

BP has operations across Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australasia and Africa. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and a secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB).

When you buy a share in BP, you become a part-owner of the company. As a shareholder, you may benefit in two main ways: through capital growth (if the share price rises) and through dividends (regular cash payments BP makes to shareholders from its profits).

BP is traditionally known as a strong dividend-paying stock, which makes it a common choice for income-focused investors. However, dividends are never guaranteed. BP famously suspended its dividend in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and cut it again in 2020 during the pandemic.

BP's share price is sensitive to a number of factors,  most importantly the global price of oil and gas. When energy prices rise, BP tends to generate higher profits and its share price often follows. When they fall, the reverse is true.

Beyond commodity prices, investors also watch BP's production output, debt levels, the pace of its energy transition strategy and broader geopolitical events (particularly anything affecting major oil-producing regions).

BP has moved from a traditional upstream/downstream structure to an integrated model built around four business groups:

1. Production & Operations
2. Customers & Products
3. Gas & Low Carbon Energy
4. Renewables & EV Charging unit

The company also maintains a global trading function that operates with significant independence.

BP key personnel: who manages the company?

These are the key names behind BP at present:

• Meg O'Neill — BP CEO since 1 April 2026, O'Neill is the first woman and first external hire to lead a major global oil producer. She previously grew Woodside Energy into Australia's largest listed energy company, and before that spent 23 years at ExxonMobil in technical and senior leadership roles worldwide
• Carol Howle — Deputy CEO and EVP for supply, trading and shipping, Howle served as interim CEO following Murray Auchincloss's departure in December 2025. A 25-year BP veteran, she has deep knowledge of the company's trading operations and was instrumental in ensuring a smooth leadership transition
• Kate Thomson — Chief Financial Officer since February 2024, Thomson oversees BP's financial strategy at a critical time for the company, as it works to reduce debt and balance investment between its traditional energy business and longer-term low carbon ambitions

How to analyse BP’s share price

For accurate insight into BP’s share price performance, you’ll need to do both fundamental and technical analysis.

Fundamental analysis involves looking at the macroeconomic influences that affect a share price. Changes in senior leadership, interest rates, product changes, and in BP’s case, even climate change and pollution – these factors will all impact the share price.

Some of the common metrics you could use to conduct fundamental analysis include BP’s price-to-earnings ratio (P/E ratio), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS).

Technical analysis aims to predict what the share price might do in the future by looking at its history. You’ll look at chart patterns and price action to determine what value the market may hold.

BP shares summed up

• You can buy BP shares in two ways – traditional investment and trading derivatives
• Investing in BP shares involves taking ownership of the company’s stock and will make you eligible to receive dividends (if paid) and vote on key decisions
• Trading derivatives such as CFDs and spread bets enables you to take a position without owning any underlying shares
• Shorting shares allows you to potentially make a profit when the share price falls using spread bets and CFDs
• You can use fundamental and technical analysis to gain insight into BP’s share price performance