Forex trading

There's no cost when opening a CFD trading account. You can also view prices and use tools such as charts, Reuters news or Morningstar quantitative equity reports, free of charge. However, you will need to deposit funds in your account to place a trade. You can find out more about the costs of placing a trade here

You can see the minimum trade size for all instruments on the platform, in the 'Product overview' section. 

Yes, CMC Markets NZ Limited is regulated by the Financial Markets Authority ('FMA') for the provision of derivative products, FSP41187.

As a CMC client, your money is held separately from CMC Markets’ own money and is held on trust in a segregated client bank account with a registered bank in New Zealand in accordance with the Financial Markets Conduct Regulations. We do not use client money to hedge our positions or to meet the trading obligations of other customers. The holding and disbursing of client money is in accordance with applicable law; as such, your money is protected with us.

Our income primarily comes from our spreads, while other fees, such as overnight holding costs, make a minor contribution to overall revenue. Our aim is to build long-term relationships by providing the best possible trading experience through our technology and customer service.

FX trading, also known as foreign exchange trading, or forex trading, is the exchange of different currencies on a decentralised global market. It's one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world. Forex trading involves the simultaneous buying and selling of the world's currencies on this market.
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When trading forex, you speculate on whether the price of one currency will rise or fall against another. For example, if you believe that the value of the New Zealand dollar will rise, relative to the value of the US dollar, you would go ahead and trade the NZD/USD pair.

To help you understand how forex trading works, view our CFD examples, which takes you through both buying and selling scenarios.
See forex example

Forex margin rates are usually expressed as a percentage, with forex margin requirements typically starting at around 0.2% in NZ for major foreign exchange currency pairs. Your FX broker’s margin requirement shows you the leverage you can use when trading forex with that broker. 

One of the advantages of trading CFDs is that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of your position to open a trade, known as trading on leverage. Remember, trading on leverage can also amplify losses, so it’s important to manage your risk.