A CFD — a contract for difference — is an agreement on a price. You do not buy a bar of gold or a barrel of oil. You open a position on its price, and when you close it, the difference between the opening price and the closing price is settled in your account, in US dollars.
Two directions
You can open a Buy position, which gains when the price goes up, or a Sell position, which gains when the price goes down. Either way, if the price moves against you, you lose money. Nobody knows for certain where a price goes next.
Leverage: a small deposit, a large position
With a CFD you do not pay the full value of what you trade. You set aside margin — a deposit that keeps the position open. With us it is a fixed amount per lot: $1,000 for each of your first 2 lots. One lot of gold is 100 ounces, worth many times that amount. That is leverage: the position is much larger than the money set aside for it.
Leverage works in both directions. Every move in the price is counted on the full size of the position, not on your margin. A move that looks small on the chart can be large for your account.
What you can trade with us
Gold (XAUUSD), oil (US Oil and Brent) and the Dow Jones (DJ30) lead our list, with fixed spreads; silver and the Nasdaq have fixed spreads too. You can also trade other indices, forex pairs and crypto, where spreads can change quickly. Everything runs on MetaTrader 5, on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac.
The risk comes first
You can lose money, and you can lose it quickly, especially when prices move fast around the news. Before you trade real money, practise on a demo account, learn the platform and decide how much you could afford to lose.
Key points
- A CFD is a contract on a price: you never own the gold, the oil or the index.
- A Buy position gains when the price goes up and a Sell position gains when it goes down — each loses when the price moves the other way.
- Margin is a deposit, not the size of your trade. Gains and losses are counted on the full position.
- Practise on a demo first, and only trade money you can afford to lose.
Try it
Ask Live support for a free 15-day demo account and open your first positions with practice money.
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