CFDs are the flexible way to trade on thousands of financial markets. The concept is simple: our dealers quote a price, you buy if you think the market will rise and sell if you expect it to fall.

A Share CFD is an undated contract that captures every aspect of share trading. You trade at the underlying market price, but you don't actually own the shares and do not have to put up the full contract value.

We quote a two-way price (i.e. Vodafone £1.80/£1.81). You buy at the top end if you think the market will rise, or sell at the bottom end if you think it will fall.

To open your trade, you do not need to pay the full amount for the position.

You trade on margin, a deposit starting from 5% for equities, and pay a small commission per transaction.

Share CFDs have no fixed expiry date, so you can close your position whenever you like.

While your position remains open your account is debited or credited to reflect interest and dividend adjustments.

Interest and dividend adjustments

When your position is open you pay or receive daily interest adjustments depending on whether you have a long or a short position.

Long positions

Your account is debited to reflect interest adjustments and credited to reflect any dividends.

This mirrors the effect of buying shares in the normal way, where you no longer earn interest on the funds used to buy the shares, but receive dividends instead.

Short positions

Your account is debited to reflect any dividends and credited with interest adjustments, unless LIBOR is less than 2.5%, in which case short positions will incur a debit.

This mirrors the effect of selling shares, where you earn interest on the proceeds of the sale, but cease to receive dividends.

Our interest rates are highly competitive, based on the inter-bank offered rate for the currency that the trade is denominated in, plus/minus xx%.

If you choose to go short, you may also be charged a borrowing fee, which will be included in the interest adjustment applied to your position.

Dividend adjustments are applied if you have an open position in a share on the ex-dividend date.

Non-guaranteed stops

We also offer free non-guaranteed Stops, Trailing Stops and Limit Orders, but these do not offer the same level of protection as Guaranteed Stops.

A non-guaranteed Stop will trigger an order to close your position once the selected level has been breached. However, if the market moves very quickly or gaps, your position could be closed at a worse level than the one selected.

A non-guaranteed Stop will reduce your deposit requirement but not by as much as a Guaranteed Stop.