Posts Tagged ‘leverage’

What is a CFD?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

What is a CFD?

 

A CFD (Contract for Difference) is an agreement to exchange the difference between the entry price and exit price of an underlying share. For example if you buy a CFD at $10 and sell at $12 then you will receive the $2 difference. If you buy a CFD at $10 and sell at $8 then they pay the $2 difference.

 

When you enter a CFD contract this does not involve buying the underlying instrument, even though the movement of the CFD is directly linked to the share price. Because you do not own the share you are only required to provide a deposit which could be as low as 5% for Australian shares. This means you can trade up to 20 times your initial capital.

 

Why Trade CFDs

 

Leverage: CFDs enable you to obtain full exposure to a share for a fraction of the price of buying the underlying instrument. CFDs require only a small initial margin as a trading deposit.

The ability to go ‘short’: CFDs allow you to sell shares you don’t own. This enables you to benefit from falling share prices.

Simplicity: CFDs mirror the price and liquidity of the underlying market

Hedging: CFDs allow you to employ more advanced strategies such as hedging your existing share portfolio.

 Dividends and Corporate actions: CFDs allow you to benefit from dividends or bonus issues which may occur in the underlying instrument on which the CFD is based.

 Cost: Trader Dealer provides the most competitive brokerage structure on the Australian market. Trade $100,000 of stock for just $66. But that’s not all, trade unlimited times in the one stock on the one and well book it as one trade at the end of the day.

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CFD Trading Models

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

There are three types of CFDs available on the Australian market.


1. Market Made CFDs

2. ASX CFDs
3. Direct Market Access (DMA) CFDs


Market made CFDs first hit the Australian market back in 2002
. When you deal with a market maker you trade on their market, with their prices and liquidity. Transparency is an issue when dealing with such providers as the prices are not guaranteed to replicate the underlying exchange. Providers have the ability to increase the spread between the bid and offer therefore costing you money. Re-Quotes are a common occurance when dealing with market makers – each time costing you money.


ASX CFDs are relatively new
. They are exchange traded with the ASX novating the transaction between the buyers and sellers. Although a good idea in principal, the life blood of any market is liquidity and unfortunately, ASX CFDs lack this critical ingredient. From a statistical point of view, ASX CFDs account for less than 1% of the Australian CFD market according to Investment Trends.   


With Direct Market Access CFDs, you are guaranteed to be trading on the price and liquidity of the underlying exchange
. Your order will be visible in the market depth and will be subject to the conditions set out by the particular exchange.  From the example below, if you placed an order to buy BHP at $36.59 (level 7), your order would be behind two existing orders at that price level.

 

 DMA CFDs ensure transparency during execution and reduced trading costs.

market-depth

 

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