Introduction to CFDs

Author: admin
July 28, 2010

CFDs have become a progressively common investment strategy for Aussies. For people who are fresh to the market, however, CFDs can be difficult to grasp initially.

Let’s break down CFDs for all those beginners present.

Let’s get one thing straight: CFDS aren’t shares.

Actually, CFDs have all the advantages of trading stocks, without the need of you actually needing to physically buy, own or sell the shares.

CFDs are almost similar to a board game variation of trading real shares in the market. They mirror the overall performance of a share, or an index.

With CFDs, you are making a contract with a provider (like IG Markets or CommSec) about the opening and closing price of a share or index you’re considering.

You are making a deal with the CFD provider to exchange the difference between the opening and closing prices of your share or index.

E.g. you think a company is going to crash. You can instruct your CFD provider to specify the price of the company’s shares (the start of the contract) and what level you believe the shares will fall to (the close of the contract).

If and when you hit your target, the CFD provider pays out cash relating to the difference between the starting share price, and when the contract is finished.

Generally participants typically keep CFDs for just a a few days or weeks. While CFDs are ideal for short-term trading, they’re not good for long-term trading, because every day you retain a position it costs money.

It’s actually not really a lot of money each day, but it’s money all the same. Whenever you buy or sell a share/index/tradable instrument, the usual expense is 10% of the price of the underlying shares.

It is good that CFDs are a great deal cheaper than trading real shares, as you are only trading on a margin.

And there’s also the side benefit of receiving access to the company’s dividends released during the CFD’s life.

However there’s downside, as well. Take into account CFDs are contracts, meaning they are two-way. You receive money if the price goes the way you think it does, but if it does not you will have to pay the CFD service provider when you get out of the contract.

The “borrowing” procedure involved in CFDs also magnifies whichever profits and losses you carry out, so whilst you stand to make decent money, you could also lose a lot more than you decided to put down to start with.




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