Investing in the Markets without Buying Shares: CFD Trading
Published by Manny on Tagged Finance-Investing
A Contract for Difference, or CFD is an two way trading deal between two different parties based on the rise or fall in the trading price of an agreed number of shares in a company over an agreed time - no actual share purchase is necessary. While it may sound slightly complicated it really is not at all. Major hedge funds have been making use of Contracts for Difference for more than ten years in the UK stock market as an alternative means of investment to traditional share trading. In many ways CFD trading is similar to spread trading in that both are margined products so you can gear yourself up or take a position that is a multiple of your available funds.
So for example the margin on a firm youre interested in was 10%, establishing a position of £100,000 would really only require a deposit of £10,000. Any running profits that you make can actually be used as margin to esablish new positions but any losses would have to be made good by reducing your position or by providing extra funds.
While stamp duty of 0.5% on all UK share purchases has in the opinion of some traders reduced the cost effectiveness of ‘day-trading’ traditional stocks and shares, both CFDs and spread betting are exempt and this has actually added to their appeal. CFDs are liable to capital gains tax whereas spread bets are tax free, but losses incurred from spread bets are gone for good while CFD losses can be offset against any future profits for the purpose of tax. When you trade in CFDs, you purchase those contracts in almost the same way that youd buy shares. Let’s say you wished to invest on a thousand shares in a business - with CFD trading you would need to sell 1,000 units at eg 494p per share, whereas with spread betting you would just place a bet of £10 per point to get an equivalent return.
A lot of CFD providers allow you to post orders anywhere within the bid offer spread whereas spread betting firms post their own two-way, take it or leave it price in the same way a bookie would. Most CFD providers allow you to post orders anywhere within the bid-offer spread whereas spread betting firms post their own two-way take it or leave it price exactly as a bookie would. CFDs do not wrap the costs of financing a position within the spread (as does spread betting) but charge those costs and commissions on an individual basis. CFDs do not wrap the costs of financing a position within the spread (as does spread betting) but charge those costs and commissions separately. Because of this, the CFD spread quote will constantly be very close to the underlying price of the share or commodity that you are following. CFD’s also mimic almost every aspect of actually owning the underlying share or market, so if you hold a position long enough, you receive the benefit of any dividends being paid on the underlying shares.
Ultimately there is no hard and fast rule as to whether CFDs or Spread Bets are ‘better’ - you just need to understand the differences as each will be suited to different investing styles. Although they should not be regarded as substitutes for long term investment or saving, as more people seek to take control of their financial destiny, theres been a growing realisation that going short is a legitimate means of trading in market thats become increasingly difficult to profit from in a traditional sense.
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