What is a contract for difference?
A contract for difference (CFD) is a popular form of derivative trading. CFD trading enables you to speculate on the rising or falling prices of fast-moving global financial markets (or instruments) such as shares, indices, commodities, currencies and treasuries.
CFD trading explained
Some of the benefits of CFD trading are that you can trade on margin, and you can go short (sell) if you think prices will go down or go long (buy) if you think prices will rise. CFDs are tax efficient in the UK, meaning there is no stamp duty to pay*. You can also use CFD trades to hedge an existing physical portfolio.
Introduction to CFD trading: how does CFD trading work?
With CFD trading, you don’t buy or sell the underlying asset (for example a physical share, currency pair or commodity). You buy or sell a number of units for a particular instrument depending on whether you think prices will go up or down. We offer CFDs on a wide range of global markets and our CFD instruments includes shares, treasuries, currency pairs, commodities and stock indices such as the UK 100, which aggregates the price movements of all the stocks listed on the FTSE 100.
For every point the price of the instrument moves in your favour, you gain multiples of the number of CFD units you have bought or sold. For every point the price moves against you, you will make a loss.
What is margin and leverage?
CFDs are a leveraged product, which means that you only need to deposit a small percentage of the full value of the trade in order to open a position. This is called ‘trading on margin’ (or margin requirement). While trading on margin allows you to magnify your returns, your losses will also be magnified as they are based on the full value of the CFD position.
What are the costs of CFD trading?
Spread: When trading CFDs you must pay the spread, which is the difference between the buy and sell price. You enter a buy trade using the buy price quoted and exit using the sell price. The narrower the spread, the less the price needs to move in your favour before you start to make a profit, or if the price moves against you, a loss. We offer consistently competitive spreads.
Holding costs: at the end of each trading day (at 5pm New York time), any positions open in your account may be subject to a charge called a ‘holding cost’. The holding cost can be positive or negative depending on the direction of your position and the applicable holding rate.
Market data fees: to trade or view our price data for share CFDs, you must activate the relevant market data subscription for which a fee will be charged.
Commission (only applicable for shares): you must also pay a separate commission charge when you trade share CFDs. Commission on UK-based shares on our CFD platform starts from 0.10% of the full exposure of the position, and there is a minimum commission charge of £9. View the examples below to see how to calculate commissions on share CFDs.
Please note: CFD trades incur a commission charge when the trade is opened as well as when it is closed. The above calculation can be applied for a closing trade; the only difference is that you use the exit price rather than the entry price.