Trade CFDs online

A CFD represents the price movement of an asset and the investor gets a clear picture of the value changes that happen during the duration of holding the position open.

When a trader agrees to a futures contract, they agree to buy or sell the underlying asset at a determined price and date in the future. It is a contract that will be executed in the future and the set price will stay unchanged, irrespective of the value movement of the asset. The buyer of a futures contract has to compulsorily execute the underlying asset when the contract expires. Consequently, the seller of the contract/deal has the obligation to provide the asset at the decided date.

Futures operate on prices established by the markets as they are traded on exchanges. On the other hand, CFDs work on prices established by the broker. Thus, the integrity of price is expected to be higher in the case of futures, when compared with CFDs.

Simply put, futures can be considered a less flexible and more structured alternative to CFDs.

CFDs can be traded by those who have a good understanding of how the market and product works. Traders need to have basic knowledge about terms like margin calls, leverage, long and short calls, and the understanding that you can lose more money than you put in, speed of stock market trading, and asset behavior to a certain extent. The key calculation is understanding how a profit or loss can be made.

Traders need to be educated to gain a solid understanding of the markets and create a thoroughly researched trading strategy that is personalized to their needs. To learn more about trading CFDs, the Axi Academy has several guides, eBooks and webinars to get you up to speed.

Leverage is a loan provided to traders that makes it possible for them to buy and sell trading instruments with less initial capital needed. Depending on your region, Axi offers 50:1 leverage for standard trading accounts. You can choose to take lower leverage if you like.

However, when you apply leverage to a trade, the potential exists to lose more than the amount you have deposited in your trading account. In general, the greater the leverage, the higher the potential returns but the higher the potential losses may be.

The date post which the CFD contract matures is the CFD contract rollover date. A futures contract's expiration date serves as the last day you can trade that particular contract. Before contract expiration, a futures trader has three options: Offsetting or liquidating the position, Settlement, or Rollover. A rollover is when a trader moves their position from the front-month contract (close to the expiration date) to another contract date further in the future, to avoid the costs or obligations associated with the settlement of the contracts. Contract rollovers are profit neutral.

The minimum trade size for Standard and pro accounts with Axi is 0.01 lots. This number can change however depending on the instrument you are trading.