With CFDs you can operate on many types of assets, practically almost everyone. Thanks to the flexibility of the CFDs, you can operate on Forex, on the share markets or raw materials. CFDs can refer to both a simple asset and an index.
Almost all the best platforms found on the web operate with the CFDs (Contract for Difference). This word, which means contracts by difference, is well known in the field of online trading.
CFDs are a derivative contract that replies the price of the asset to which it refers. The assets in question can be of various types, from the actions to the currencies, from the indices themselves to the cryptocurrencies up to the titles.
At the time of their invention in the London Stock Exchange environment (in the 90s), the CFDs had arisen as an alternative to the payment of the commissions and taxes that weighed on the exchange. This feature remains intact to date. In fact, the CFDs are not subject to commissions. The derived tax advantage continues to attract many.
However, this is not the only distinctive element of the CFDs. Through them it is possible to have economic benefits both if the price of the reference asset increases both if it decreases (if you can predict the trend in the right way).
How do CFD work?
The CFD tool, we reiterate it for clarity, replies the trend of a financial asset below, therefore for example the CFD Tesla replies the trend of the Tesla title on the stock exchange. To the same measure, the GBP/USD CFD replies the trend of the exchange rate between pound and dollar. Still, the CFD Ripple replies the price of the Ripple XRP and so on, but what is CFD trading?
Once you buy a CFD on a financial instrument here is what happens:
If the price rises, you earn those who have opened a “purchase” position. When clicking on “Compra”, a bullish position opens. The trader performs a long -type operation, with the aim of earning up.
If the price drops, he earns those who have opened a “sale” position. When clicking on “Sell”, a bearish position opens. The trader performs a short -type operation, with the aim of earning down.
The difference between the purchase and sale market price is given by the spread, a share that the broker takes as its own compensation to the opening of the position.
The underlying in finance
CFDs allow you to negotiate up and down on multiple financial instruments. There are many types of activities below: raw materials, actions, currencies, cryptocurrencies, ETFs and indices. Each class of activities below has its own characteristics.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are the latest arrivals on the financial markets but they are certainly among the financial instruments that most affect the new ones who approach trading. Many are interested in how to buy
Ripple or how to buy Litecoin for example, some of the most famous cryptocurrencies in addition to Bitcoin.
Considering the high volatility of cryptocurrencies, the CFDs can be particularly appropriate tools as it can be operated by exploiting sudden rises or even rapid and violent discounts, what happens above all for less capitalized cryptocurrencies such as Shiba Inu. In order to carry out operations at the best time, it is appropriate to have a trading account with brokers who have a good cryptocurrency app.
A defect of the CFDs in this case is that the spread for cryptocurrencies is quite high and the low financial leverage. On the other hand, on a platform like Etoro, cryptocurrencies can also be bought without CFD or by investing in the real asset.
Forex
With CFDs on Forex you can operate on currency couples such as USD/Jpy, EUR/USD and many others.
The high lever offered by brokers (about 1:30) and rather low spreads, allow you to buy and sell currency couples with very low costs. This is why Forex is the market with which we suggest starting to trade. Since it is a very dynamic market, currency traders are often very active. Transactions are open and closed in a few minutes. The movement is measured in very small units. This is called “Pips” (0.0001). A large amount of capital is needed to generate a difference in profit.
This is the reason why the platforms generally offer a lever. The losses are also leveraged and can cause the funds exhaustion very quickly. The movements of the price of each currency depend on many factors: the interest rates of the central bank of each nation, the statistics relating to exports and other economic events.
Raw material
The commercial practice of the exchange of raw materials is one of the oldest in the world. The raw materials are unique products, since they have a physical representation in the real world. These can be: oil, gold, platinum, copper, natural gas, sugar, wheat, oats, etc. Being part of the real world, they are often influenced by the events of the real world.
This means, for example, that if there is a drought and a deficiency of wheat, it is likely that the price of wheat increases, since the offer is lower than the question.
CFDs on raw materials allow you to trading on some of the most translated tools all over the world such as:
natural gas or oil. Also for the commodities the financial leverage proposed by the brokers can be quite high. There is a lot of attention to be careful with the trading on raw materials, often these also have a very accentuated volatility and are also susceptible to the announcements of the central banks.
ETF
The CFDs on ETFs have as underlying Exchange Traded Fund funds which are characterized by high liquidity and low management costs.
The CFDs allow you to exchange them up and down in a simple way and with a good variety of funds. Many CFD trading platforms offer a high number of ETFs on which to operate, which allows you to create your own diversified and balanced portfolio.
Index
CFDs on the indices refer to the main stock market indexes, such as:
The Dow Jones
the Nasdaq
S&P 500
FTSE MIB
Dax40, but also to emerging market indexes such as the Chinese Hang Sentg.
Brokers allow the same way to trading on other indices. Plus500 and Capital.com have special indices such as the Crypt Index and others.
Difference between CFDs and actions
An action represents a share owned by the company that issued that title. This implies the fact that the owner of an action also has a small part of the issuer. Precisely because of this, the assemblies of shareholders who have voting power are held annually or in conjunction with the results. With the CFDs, no shares of the company are held, but it is negotiated on the value of the stock exchange.
