Best CFD Brokers/Platforms Compared & Reviewed (2024)

• Richard Berry
• UpdatedAugust 20, 2024

The UK’s Best CFD Brokers Compared

CFD Broker	Markets Available	Minimum Deposit	GMG Rating	More Info	Risk Warning
	12,000	£100	(4.3)	See Platform	69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	1,200	£1	(4)	See Platform	75.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	17,000	£250	(4.3)	See Platform	70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets with this provider.
	10,000	£1	(4.2)	See Platform	64% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	9,000	£1	(4.4)	See Platform	65% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	2,976	$50	(3.8)	See Platform	51% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money
	7,000	£1	(4.4)	See Platform	62.5% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	12,000	£1	(4.1)	See Platform	69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	5,000	£1	(4.2)	See Platform	69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
	2,100	£1	(3.9)	See Platform	76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
	3,981	£10	(4)	See Platform	66.95% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider

Our picks of the Best CFD Trading Platforms Reviewed

❓Good Money Guide Shortlisted Our Featured CFD Brokers Based On:

• Over 17,000 votes in the annual Good Money Guide awards
• Our team’s experiences testing the CFD trading platforms with real money
• In-depth comparison of the features that make these CFD brokers the best
• Exclusive interviews with the CFD brokers CEOs and senior management

What Is A CFD Broker?

A CFD broker offer contracts-for-difference via trading platforms so that their clients can speculate on the price of a financial market or asset going either up or down with leverage.

CFD brokers have been around for decades, and were originally used by institutional and professional investors to hedge portfolio exposure or build up large positions in listed equities anonymously.

However, over the years, as retail investors have become more sophisticated, private clients are able to trade CFDs on global markets.

Should You Trade With A CFD Broker?

CFD brokers offer a higher risk form of trading, so contracts for difference are not suitable for everyone. Here is a round-up of the advantages and disadvantages of using a CFD trading platform:

What Is The Best CFD Trading Platform For Beginners?

City Index is one of the best CFD trading platforms for beginners as they offer trading signals, lots of analysis and educational materials. They also have a feature call Performance Analytics that analyses your trading and tells you where you are more successful and which markets you should avoid based on your trading style.

Beginner Features:
Trading Signals	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Webinars	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Seminars	✔️	❌	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Leverage Control	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔️
Low-Risk Products	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️
Investment Account	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️

It is important to note though that CFD trading is a high risk form of investment and if you are completely new to investing it is not suitable to start trading CFDs. It is less risky to invest through tax-efficient stocks and shares ISAs.

⚠️ All CFD Brokers Good Money Guide Recommends Are FCA Regulated

The FCA is the Financial Conduct Authority and is responsible for ensuring that UK CFD trading platforms are properly capitalised, treat customers fairly and have sufficient compliance systems in place. We only feature CFD platforms that are regulated by the FCA, where your funds are protected by the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme).

Which CFD Broker Is Best For Advanced & Professional Traders?

Saxo Markets is one of the best brokers for professional CFD trading, predominantly because their client base is generally more sophisticated than other CFD brokers. As such, their trading platform has been designed with professional traders in mind with DMA access, physical trading on a robust, institutional-grade platform.

Likewise, IG and Interactive Brokers (IBKR) both offer DMA trading and physical investing.

Whilst both IG and IBKR both offer institutional trading for hedge funds and professional traders, IBKR (as with Saxo Markets) also offers on-exchange futures and options trading, so comes in second and IG, third.

Advanced Features:
Voice Brokerage	✔️	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Corporate Accounts	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Level-2	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌
Algo Trading	❌	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Prime Brokerage	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌

For more information on professional trading accounts, see our dedicated pro trader comparison page.

IG tops this list as they are a publicly listed CFD broker and offer DMA CFD trading and a personal service for larger clients.

Saxo Capital Markets is another good CFD broker for HNWs, as you can trade DMA, buy physical shares, bonds, and trade all sorts of exotic derivative products. They also have professional brokers available over the phone for trading if you want to work VWAP or other algo orders that may otherwise move the market if you did them yourself.

Which CFD Broker Has The Cheapest Commission & Spreads?

Saxo Markets and Interactive Brokers have the cheapest commission for CFD trading. City Index and CMC Markets often have the highest spreads.

Trading Costs
FTSE 100	1	1	1	1	1	0.01%	1	1	1	1.7
DAX 30	1.2	1.2	1	0.9	1	0.01%	1.2	1.2	1.8	1
DJIA	3.5	2.4	2	2.4	3	0.01%	4	2.4	5	3
NASDAQ	1	1	1	1	1	0.01%	2	1	1.9	1
S&P 500	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.01%	0.6	0.4	0.7	0.5
EURUSD	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.09	0.6	0.00%	0.6	0.6	0.8	0.9
GBPUSD	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.28	0.7	0.00%	0.9	0.9	1.3	1.4
USDJPY	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.14	0.6	0.00%	0.7	0.7	0.8	1.4
Gold	0.8	0.3	0.3	0.05	0.6	0.00%	0.4	0.3	0.28	0.35
Crude Oil	0.3	0.28	3	2	0.5	0.00%	3	0.28	0.4	3
UK Stocks	0.008	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.0005	0.02%	0.002	0.001	0.30%	0.0008

Some CFD trading platforms have fixed spreads, no matter how wide the underlying markets, for example, others have variable spreads which they widen and tighter depending on volatility and liquidity. For example, economic indicators like non-farm payrolls can make the market more volatile and widen spreads. Whereas, high market liquidity times like the open and close can mean that spreads are tightened. The general norm though is for brokers to offer spreads slightly wider than the underlying bid/offer to incorporate their commission.

What Is The Best CFD Trading Platform For Market Access?

IG offers the best market access with 17,000 instruments available to trade on it’s CFD trading platform. Plus you can trade CFDs with DMA (direct market access) and work orders inside the bid/offer spread.

Market Access:
Total Markets	12000	17000	11000	1200	9000	5233	10000	8,000	3700	2,100
Forex Pairs	84	51	338	62	182	100	54	20	138	57
Commodities	25	38	124	32	19	20	20	10	28	22
Indices	21	34	82	28	29	13	17	10	23	25
UK Stocks	3500	3925	745	192	5000	500	1575	na	450	230
US Stocks	1000	6352	4968	880	2000	3500	2110	na	1575	1080
ETFs	n/a	2000	1084	107	675	1100	160	na	0	138

Why choosing a CFD broker based on what markets you can trade is important.

The more market access the better, as you want flexibility when trading to give you as many opportunities as possible.

The major markets for CFD trading are:

• Forex
• Indices
• Shares
• Commodities
• Treasuries

While you can trade more things with Saxo Markets overall, IG has one of the widest choices of markets to trade CFDs on. If you want to trade something unusual, Spreadex will also look at markets on request.

Which CFD Broker Offers The Most Account Types?

IG offers the most account types with CFD trading, spread betting, DMA access, CFD options, and also general and ISA accounts for your longer-term investing.

Choosing a CFD broker that offers DMA CFDs

Account Types:
CFD Trading	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Spread Betting	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️
DMA	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌
Pro Accounts	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️
Investments	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌
Futures & Options	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	❌	❌

There are two types of CFD trading DMA, where you execute your trades directly on the exchange order book or OTC where you are trading on your broker’s bid/offer prices. Whilst technically all CFD trading is OTC (over-the-counter) because you are entering into a contract between the opening and closing difference in price with your broker, DMA CFD trading is when your OTC CFD orders are routed directly to the exchange.

The main advantage of DMA (direct market access) CFD trading is that you get better prices.

For DMA CFD trading your CFD broker will charge a commission after you execute a trade, but for OTC CFD trading, the commission is included in the spread.

Being able to buy at the bid rather than the offer and sell at the bid rather than the offer can make a big difference to when you enter and exit positions. However, many traders prefer OTC CFD trading where commission is included the spread as it makes calculating P&L and exit points simpler.

Which CFD Broker Trading Platform Has The Best Added Value?

City Index provides the best trading signals through Smart Signals and post-trade analytics through Performance Analytics.

Added Value:
Trading Ideas	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	❌
Client Sentiment	❌	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	✔️	❌	❌
Post Trade Analytics	✔️	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
News & Analysis	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️
Web Based Platform	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️

Get added value from your CFD broker with trading tools

Most CFD brokers provide some kind of research and analysis on the markets for their customers. But generally, the better the broker, the better the research, tools and analysis. For example, some brokers like IG will provide lots of analysis tools, economic calendars, stock screeners and technical analysis signals. Whereas, others like Plus 500 will only provide a trading platform with no added value. It costs a lot of money to hire analysts and provide data to clients, and some of it (if you know how to use it) can be exceptionally useful.

Technical analysis provides a good overview of the markets, based on charts and historical data

• Fundamental analysis uses company financial releases to evaluate the health of a share price.
• Economic data and calendars show when important announcements are due that could result in a price move.

Here’s where you can find out about 2020’s award-winning brokers.

Which CFD Broker Offers The Most Account Base Currencies?

Interactive Brokers let you have complete control over your FX and you can have an account in almost any major currency.

Whereas other brokers like Saxo Markets will give you the choice of a few currencies and automatically convert your P&L into whatever base currency you are trading. So you can run three separate subaccounts in GBP, USD and EUR, depending on what you trade.

Whilst other more retail focusses CFD provides like eToro only let you trade in USD, so it doesn’t matter if you deposit GBP and trade GBP stocks and have GBP P&L, your account base currency will always be in USD.

Managing your foreign exchange exposure

When you trade CFDs the trade is usually settled in the contract currency. So, if you trade the FTSE, your P&L is in GBP, when you trade the US30, your P&L is in USD and when you trade USDJP your P&L is in JPY. This can result in lots of different currency conversions racking up FX fees, or it can result in you running a deficit in a currency and being charged interest. This is one area where CFD trading differs from financial spread betting where no matter the currency of an instrument your P&L is always in your base currency.

What Is The Best CFD Broker For Indices Trading?

IG offers the most (80) global stock market indices for trading, as well as ETFs. Spreads are competitive and IG also offer index trading at the weekend on European, UK, Asian and US indices.

IG offers CFD trading on over 80 global indices, as well as ETFs. Index trading is fairly straightforward and is second only to forex trading in popularity, and CMC Markets comes in a close second as their primary focus is Forex. Saxo Markets are also a good choice for trading indices via CFD, and for more information, you can compare all brokers for trading indices here.

What Is The Best CFD Broker For Stocks & Shares?

Saxo Markets has a great offering for UK CFD trading and also the option (as with IG) to trade UK stocks via DMA.I

Spreadex is also worth a look as they have recently launched CFDs (in addition to spread betting). Spreadex are a much smaller broker but offer personal traders who can work CFD orders on smaller stocks on request.

If you are trading UK stocks via CFD then IG is your best option because they offer some unique trading features that others don’t. For instance, you can trade CFDs on the grey market price of an IPO before it lists. IG offer weekend and out-of-hours trading on UK stocks, as well as CFD trading on smaller cap UK stocks.

If you are going to trade US stocks via CFD, you may as well do it with a US broker, and the best of the bunch is Interactive Brokers, AKA IBKR for short. IBKR was the pioneer of electronic trading (read up on them in our interview with Thomas Peterffy, the founder and CEO). While the Americans are not allowed to trade CFDs themselves, IBKR offer CFD trading through their UK office.

Saxo and IG are a close second and third as both brokers offer round the clock CFD trading on US shares. Both brokers offer DMA and out of hours trading, although IG pips Saxo to second place because of their presence in the US (albeit for forex trading only).

For more information on trading shares as a CFD read our how to choose an equity CFD broker.

What Is The Best CFD Broker For Commodities Trading?

CMC Markets has one of the broadest ranges of commodities trading via CFDs. If you want the simplicity and flexibility of trading commodities via CFD then CMC have an excellent offering.

The below chart shows how many commodities markets a CFD broker offers:

Most CFD trading platforms and CFD brokers offer access to gold, silver and crude oil, a good CFD trading platform for trading commodities should also include the lesser traded softs and exotic commodities.

For a full breakdown of CFD brokers that offer commodities trading, view our comparison table.

What Is The Best Broker For CFD Options Trading?

Saxo Markets stands out, with an excellent options board on a wide range of markets that can be traded as a CFD. CFD trading on options has grown in popularity as brokers try to compete on market coverage.

Most CFD brokers offer a smattering of CFD options on the most popular traded instruments like US stocks and major indices and forex pairs.

Below we have ranked how many CFD options markets the main CFD trading platforms offer:

1. Saxo Markets: 1,200
2. IG: 50
3. City Index: 40
4. Spreadex: 5
5. CMC Markets: 0

For more information on brokers offering options trading, view our options broker comparison table.

Which CFD Broker Has The Best Leverage & Margin Rates?

For retail clients CFD margin is standard across brokers since ESMA and the FCA introduced caps on what margin is available to retail CFD trading. Current margin rates for retail CFD traders are:

• Indices: 20%
• Major Forex pairs: 3.33%
• Commodities: 10%
• UK & US shares: 20%

Choosing a CFD broker based on margin and leverage

Professional trader margin rates vary from broker to broker and the lower the margin requirements, the more exposure you can have with the least funds on the account. You can compare professional CFD trading margin in our comparison table, but beware, the lower the margin, the riskier a trade, as you are leveraging your money sometimes up to 500 times.

So, if you have £1,000 on account, you could have £500,000 of exposure. If a price moves 10%, you have lost £50k, meaning that you owe the broker £49k. Many brokers now are introducing no negative equity protection, which means that you can never lose more than your account balance. Of course, this means that the leverage on offer will be reduced.

CFD Trading Explained

Before you can learn to trade CFDs, it’s important to understand what they are and what they are not. CFDs, have been around since the early 90’s and were primarily used by hedge funds and institutions to trade stocks and shares on margin. However, over recent years, with the rise of online trading platforms, retail investors have been able to trade forex, indices and commodities (as well as shares) via contracts for difference.

What Is CFD trading?

A contract for difference (CFD) is a leveraged financial product that allows traders to speculate on an asset class without actually owning the underlying asset.

It is very important to highlight that CFD trading is not investing. It is very high-risk speculation, and as CFDs utilise leverage it is possible to lose all your money quickly if you call the market wrong.

• Related guide: 50 rules for successful trading

However, if you call the market correctly, you can make a greater return on your money than by investing in fully paid-up physical stock as you are trading on margin.

CFD trading also has the advantage of not being liable for stamp duty which is currently at 0.5% of the value of a trade. This makes CFDs a more efficient way of trading stocks and shares in the short-term.

The key points to remember are that CFDs are a good tool for short-term speculators compared to physical stock buying as the costs are lower, but as CFD trading is leveraged, then the risks are higher.

CFDs are:

• A complex financial derivatives product
• A tool to go long and short the market, or hedge an existing portfolio
• A form of leverage trading that can increase your exposure to the market

CFDs are not:

• A low-risk way to invest
• Suitable for traders with no experience
• A get-rich-quick scheme

How Do You Trade CFDs?

When you trade CFDs you do it in much the same way as trading shares. For example, if you want buy 10,000 shares in a company you would instead go long 10,000 CFD.

It is essentially the same as buying 10,000 shares, but when you trade a CFD you speculate on the rise or fall of the price of the underlying instrument that the contract is over, without ever owning it, meaning that your interest in that instrument is purely economic.

CFDs or Contracts for Differences are cash-settled, and there is no delivery of shares or commodities, or whatever else the CFD is over.

Unlike futures contracts CFDs have no fixed expiry dates and in theory, a CFD can run on forever.

Though daily financing charges are applied on CFD trades that are held open beyond a business day, and they may make very long term CFD positions uneconomic.

An example of CFD trading explained

Let’s imagine we want to take a long (buy) position in Vodafone shares, but rather than buying the stock we choose to buy a CFD over them, and we have £5000.00 available to us for the trade.

Assuming that Vodafone shares are trading at 100p we could have invested £5000 into the stock to buy 5000 shares.

But using as CFD, which on leading equities typically offer leverage at a ratio of 5:1 we only need to commit £1000 to the trade to control a CFD over 5,000 Vodafone shares.

On that basis then might choose to take on a larger position, by using a deposit of £2000 to create a CFD over 10,000 Vodafone shares.

So, imagine that we have placed the CFD trade in the morning and that just before Wall Street opens Vodafone’s share price has risen to 110p per share – compared to our 100p entry price.

We now have running profit on our position of +10p per share – true for both the physical stock and the CFD trade.

However, because we have taken a larger position in Vodafone, using a CFD we have a larger running profit.

How to calculate running profit on CFD trades

In this case, that’s calculated as follows:

10,000 (the number of shares in our CFD) * 10p the running profit per share) = £1000.

Let’s imagine that the price of Vodafone continues to appreciate throughout the afternoon and that by 4.15 pm the stock is trading at 115p per share.

The running profit on the CFD position has now reached 15p per share and we cash in by selling our CFD position to close realising a gross profit of £1500.

10,000 *15p = £1500.

Our outlay on the CFD trade was £2000.00 initial deposit plus a commission or trading charge, and we have made a £1500. gross profit.

A figure that represents 75% of our initial deposit on the trade.

When we compare that to the profit we could have made investing £5000. into Vodafone shares, which is £750. or 15% of the initial outlay of £5000. We can immediately see how the gearing or leverage within a CFD can work in our favour.

What are the advantages of CFD trading over other forms of trading?

CFDs are among the most flexible of financial trading products and they can be tailored to fit all shapes and sizes of trades.

Here’s a summary of some of the features of CFD trading compared to bothExchange Traded FuturesandFinancial Spread Betting.

One of the best things about CFDs is that they are not deliverable and instead are settled for cash. That means that traders can go long or short using CFDs with equal ease, as they never have to take or make delivery of the instruments that the contract is over. As such CFDs can be used to profit in markets that are falling or to hedge physical positions against a downturn in the markets.

There are no absolute minimums in terms of cash required to open a CFD account but realistically you will probably need to have an initial deposit of at least £2000. for it to make economic sense. And ideally a figure closer to £5000. is preferable. Smaller sums limit the scale and number of positions you can take and CFD traders with small deposits can face higher marginal costs in terms of minimum ticket charges etc.

Short-term trading tends to be driven by sentiment which these days is often categorised as being either risk on or risk off. So it’s important for traders to be able to identify times when the market and fellow traders are feeling fearful and other times when they are feeling greedy.

Many CFD traders play the swings in market sentiment by jumping on to the trends they create, where weight of money and influence push the market in one particular direction.

More experienced traders will sometimes take a contra position for example getting long risk assets such as equities, when the market is in a risk off mood. This is often referred to as buying the dip. However deep pockets and good timing are essential for that strategy to work well.

One way for CFD traders to identify trends and trend changes in the market and the instruments they trade, is through the use of Technical Analysis which is the study of price action and volume.

The study of price action can reveal a great deal about market and trader sentiment and the price points at which bullish or bearish sentiment is triggered or fades away. That in turn can provide a framework around which traders can build their CFD trading strategy.

To learn more about technical analysis see ourdedicated TA section.

What are the disadvantages of CFD trading?

The main disadvantage of CFD trading is leveraged losses on CFD trades. That leverage can work against us just as easily and had Vodafone shares fallen by -15p across the trading day, then that CFD position would have created a running loss of -£1500.

We would either have had to close the position and realise the loss, or place further variation margin, equivalent to the running loss, on our account, in this case, £1500. in order to keep the position open if we wished to hang on to trade.

You also do not own the underlying asset, so unless our broker allows it you will not be able to vote on corporate actions or attend AGMs. This also means that there is added risk of default. When you own physical shares you are the ultimate owner so if you broker goes bust you still own the shares. However, with CFDs, the counterparty is the broker, so if they go bust you may lose the position.

CFD trading platforms make money in two principal ways firstly if they act as agents they earn a commission on each trade their clients make and an income from the overnight funding charges they levy.

However they may also act as principal in which case they make prices to their clients and capture the spread between those prices, they oppose their clients trading taking an equal and opposite position. Under this model the firm will profit if the client loses and lose will if the clients profit.

In an age of computerised trading firms often operate a hybrid model under which certain trades and clients receive an agency execution service, whilst others are “B”- booked i.e. the firm takes on the clients trade on its B or principal book. Those B book positions may be hedged from time to time based on internal market exposure rules.

Note though that in CFD trading whether your trade execution is under agency or B-book arrangement your trade counterparty is always your CFD trading platform or provider.

If you are trading CFDs or spread betting on stocks here are six hidden costs and dangers that you probably haven’t though about.

Trading OTC or over the counter’ products such as CFDs &spread bettingwill always be dangerous and especially risky if you are dealing on margin, where you can lose more than your initial deposit.

You should be aware of that fact as pretty much every financial promotion, website, account form and contract note will have a risk warning on it somewhere.

Although according to the FCA’s insight website we may all be sufferingrisk warning fatigue.

So, other than making or losing huge sums (relative to your initial margin) what other dangers lurk in the shark “invested” waters of ultra high-risk CFD trading?

Here’s a list of things to watch out for when trading CFDs:

CFD trading commission or spread widening

There are generally two types of execution charges fortrading CFDs. Either commission with clean prices, or no commission with a widened spread.

If you get charged commission it means you buy or sell at the actual bid/offer or inside if you are using aDMA (Direct Market Access) broker.

If you are being charged a spread then you won’t get charged a commission, but you will be buying or selling at a price slightly wider than the bid/offer. So for example, if a stock is trading 101/102 your price maybe 100.9/102.1.

The spread is usually widened inline with what the commission would be. In this case 10 basis points or 0.1%You will agree to a commission rate when you open an account phrased either as “basis points” or as a percentage.

If you arespread bettingyou may find a broker who can offer you DMA on some smaller stocks by getting them to work an offer in the underlying market. But generally, you will be charged a widened spread.

If you are charged 0.1% commission that’s £100 on a £100,000 trade or 10 basis points. They are the same, just different terminology.

Normally, most brokers are quite clear about this, but it is worth checking you are not being charged double. If you have a high commission and don’t get market prices, it may be time to change your broker.
For larger traders paying commission and trading, DMA means you can trade inside the best bid/offer. The ability to get within the spread can often compensation for paying commission on wider prices.

CFD interest on overnight positions.

Just like when you borrow money from the bank, when you are trading a CFD you are borrowing to do so, and there is an interest rate attached.

A long time ago, when I opened my firstCFD accountI vividly remember the salesman saying, “well, you get charged around 2.5% over/under base, but you shouldn’t really factor that into your trading”.

Hmmm, not LIBOR base, the firm’s base, which depending on the currency can currently be above 3%.

So that’s 3%+2.5% or 5.5% on your positions size (depending on the first it will either be the initial position size of the daily, you need to check).

So if you buy £100k of stock and hold it for a year that’s £5,500 in interest charges.

As with everything else in trading these rates are negotiable if your account is large enough.

You can read more on overnight financing charges here.

FX currency deficits on CFD trading P&L

Most CFD trading platforms will have your account in one currency and do automatic currency conversions into that currency when you have a different currency P&L.

But your broker may have a treasury cost to running a book in multiple currencies and will charge accordingly.

So, if you put £100k on your account and trade GBP stocks, but then buy $100k of US stock on 10% margin. You have a GBP but no USD. So you are essentially running a USD overdraft to fund the USD position. You may not have a margin call, because your GBP nets off the USD.

But as your broker has bought the USD stock to write a CFD around, they have still had to lodge USD with the exchange for the purchase, and will, therefore, pass the costs of this on to you.

Some institutional or professional brokers are reluctant to do automatic FX conversions for clients trading in different currencies, as some like the currency exposure.

Plus a currency can move 10%, so your broker would be susceptible to client complaints if the 10% move was in their favour.

If you are trading on markets around the world, make sure that you regularly check your currency exposure and instigate conversions where necessary.

What Are The Best CFD Trading Strategies?

CFD trading platforms offer the facility for you to trade the financial markets, but only you can implement a winning strategy to make money trading.

If you are looking for a CFD trading strategy, these three golden rules are a good place to start:

1) Run your wins, cut your losses

This requires discipline and one of the main reasons that people lose money trading is because they are too eager to lock in a profit. Trading CFDs is a numbers game and the best hedge fund managers in the world only get it right about half the time.

That means that half of the trades they execute a loss. The market is based on trend and reversion so technical analysis plays a high part in short and long-term CFD trading.

If you call a trend-right you are going to make money if you leave the trade open, if it a loser cut it straight away. You can do this by using a stop loss or a trailing stop loss.

2) Don’t overtrade

If you only have £10,000 to play with you definitely don’t want to put all that into one trade. Sure, if it’s a winner great but if it’s a slow mover or a loss then you are stuck and won’t be able to enter into any new positions when potentially profitable opportunities come up.

Plus, if there is a shock short-term overall market then you’ll get a margin call and be forced to close your positions because you can’t cover the variation margin. Being forced to close a position is one of the worst things that can happen to your trading strategy.

3) Diversify your positions

One of the great things thatCFD brokers provide the facility for is making money when the market goes down. This means that you can have a wide range of positions but actually remain fairly market neutral.

For example, if you are short some individual stocks because you think they are badly managed then you are exposed to an upwards move in the markets. So you can hedge using a CFD position in the underlying index to protect against this. You could also have some long positions in similar sector stocks as some protection.

The key thing to remember is that profitable CFD traders don’t openmassive single positions and hope for the best.

If you want CFD trading tips, most financial media produce daily buy and sell recommendations which are often a good source of stimulus.

One thing to remember though is that stock tips in the papers are usually based on fundamental analysis with a longer-term view as opposed to CFD trading which usually employs market timing and technical analysis as this is more relevant for short-term price moves in liquid stocks.

Here are our top providers for CFD trading ideas and tips:

• An FCA-regulated CFD trading platform – most CFD brokers can provide analysis and trading signals. City Index for example has an excellent trading signal section called SMART Signals.
• Investors Intelligence– since 1942 they have provided daily long/short trading ideas and model portfolios
• Stockopedia – set up screens and get trading ideas from fund manager strategies
• Trading Central – trading signals based on technical analysis
• Autochartist– trading signals based on technical analysis
• Stockomendation – aggregates stock recommendations
• FuturesTechs– subscription service for professional and semi-professional traders
• Good Money Guide – our daily updated trading signals feed displays potential buy and sell targets for UK stocks

These services act independently from CFD trading platforms and are in some cases regulated by the FCA .They often highlight trading signals and CFD trading buy and sell signals, but it is up to the trader to decide if they are any good and worth of a trade.

You can also get a form of CFD trading tips from thesocial trading brokers, where you can follow traders and copy their trades. But, picking a trader to follow is just as hard as picking a winning stock. If you look at the people that make money on social trading platforms a lot of them mirror the portfolios oftop global growth fundsor have just had a bit of luck.

Where to trade CFDs?

Most established CFD trading platforms have one or more of these services integrated into their CFD trading platform or provide it through a subsidised or separate subscription if asked. If you are looking for a CFD broker you can view our CFD account comparison tables, read our guide on how to compare CFD trading platforms or find out what to avoid when choosing a CFD platform.

This article contains affiliate links which may earn us some form of income if you go on to open an account. However, if you would rather visit the CFD brokers via a non-affiliate link, you can view their CFD trading pages directly here:

• City Index
• Capital.com
• Interactive Brokers
• Spreadex
• CMC Markets
• Pepperstone
• IG
• Saxo Markets
• eToro
• XTB