CFD trading costs

• Spreads
• Margins
• Holding costs
• Guaranteed stop-loss orders
• Dormant account activity charge
• Rollovers

What is a spread?

The spread is the difference between the buy price and the sell price quoted.

When you place a trade, you will either buy or sell the particular market you're trading on, depending on whether you believe the underlying market price will rise or fall.

The spread is one of the key costs involved in CFD trading – the tighter the spread, the better value you're getting as a trader.

What are margins?

In order to open a CFD position on your account you will need to deposit a certain amount of money, known as the margin.

CFD trading using margin allows you to open a position by only depositing a percentage of the full value of the position. This means that your losses will be amplified as both profits and losses are relative to the full value of your position. CFD trading using margin is not necessarily for everyone and you should ensure you understand the risks before placing any trades.

Forex

View the spreads, margins and trading hours for our forex pairs, indices, commodities, shares and treasuries, as well as details on holding costs and Guaranteed stop loss order premiums.

Indices

Commodities

Shares

Treasuries

Holding costs

If you plan to keep a position open overnight, your open positions may be subject to a charge called a holding cost. These charges apply from the end of each trading day (5pm New York time). The holding cost can be positive or negative depending on whether you are long or short.

Holding costs for indices are based on the underlying interbank rate of the index (see table) plus 2.5% on buy positions and minus 2.5% on sell positions.

For share CFDs, holding costs are based on the underlying interbank rate for the currency of the relevant share (see table) plus 3.5% on buy positions and minus 3.5% on sell positions.

FX holding costs are based on the tom-next (tomorrow to next day) rate in the underlying market for the currency pair and are expressed as an annual percentage.

Buy position holding rate = tom-next rate % –1%
Sell position holding rate = tom-next rate % + 1%

As a general rule, if the interest rate of the first named currency is higher than the second named currency in the pair (subject to the 1% adjustment detailed above), and you hold a buy position, the holding cost will be credited to your account. Conversely, if you hold a sell position in this scenario, the holding cost will be debited from your account.

Holding rates for Gold and Silver are based on a daily flat percentage.

Commodities and treasuries forward contracts are not subject to holding costs.

Guaranteed stop-loss order charges

A guaranteed stop-loss order (GSLO) is a risk management tool which works in the same way as a stop-loss order, except that for a premium, it guarantees to close you out of a trade at the price specified regardless of market volatility or gapping. If the GSLO is not triggered then we'll refund 50% of the original premium.

Example GSLO premiums

These are some examples of GSLO premiums on a selection of our popular instruments. This rate can be found on the platform for each applicable instrument.

• ¹ GSLO premium = premium rate x trade size.
• ² Amounts are automatically converted into your home currency using the prevailing CMC Markets conversion rate.

Is there a dormant account inactivity charge?

A monthly inactivity charge of £10 will be deducted per dormant account where funds are available. An account shall be considered dormant if there are no open positions and there has been no other trading activity for a continuous period of two years.

The monthly inactivity charge of £10 will be deducted from a dormant account, usually within the first two (UK) working days of the month, until either:

1. The account is closed by the client or CMC Markets;
2. Trading activity recommences on the account; or
3. The balance of the account is reduced to zero.

Once the balance of a dormant account has reduced to zero, we will not deduct further monthly inactivity charges from the dormant account. A dormant account will not incur a negative balance as a result of the deduction of the monthly inactivity charge.

If you decide to reactivate your dormant account by trading again, the inactivity charge for up to three previous months (up to a maximum of £30) where this has already been deducted will be refunded to your account.

Rollovers

With CMC Start, we offer commodities and treasuries as forward contracts (with the exception of Gold and Silver which are cash instruments). These instruments have a fixed expiration or settlement date. Any positions you have open will be automatically settled at the closing price when this date is reached.

You are able to automatically rollover forward positions to keep a trade open beyond its expiry date. When you roll a forward position to the next contract, your profit or loss is realised and you enter the new trade at the mid-price, saving 50% on the spread cost. There will usually be a small cost for rolling over forward positions.

*A minimum spread is the lowest spread that will be shown on the given instrument. If the underlying market spread widens throughout the trading day, or you are trading out of hours, the platform spread may also widen. The spreads shown are for the first price available for the average market trade/bet sizes in the relevant instrument. The spread will widen for larger trade/bet sizes, see our platform for more information.