CFD/Share Trading

CFDs are an efficient means of trading shares, indices, commodities, and currencies. Find out why GCI is a global leader:

All trading is commission-free with up to 400:1 leverage
Free trading software with live charts and streaming quotes
Trade shares, indices, commodities and currencies (click for a full list)
Mobile Phone / PDA trading capability
Test trade with all products and live prices on a Free practice account

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CFDs Explained

The "CFD", or "Contract for Difference", was developed to allow clients to receive all the benefits of owning a stockwithout having to physically own the stock itself. For example, instead of purchasing 1,000 shares of Microsoft from a stock broker, a client could instead buy a 10 lots of Microsoft on the GCI CFD trading platform. A $5 per share rise in the price of Microsoft would confer to the client a $5,000 profit, just as if he had purchased the actual shares that are traded on the exchange. A major difference is that there are no exchange fees and many of the inefficiencies of trading the underlying shares on the exchange are eliminated. GCI can therefore offer CFDs with zero commissions and very attractive margin requirements. CFDs have grown in popularity dramatically over the past few years, and we believe that this will increasingly be the preferred way to trade the financial markets.

The other major benefit of trading a CFD is the fact that the client can trade on margin. CFD trading means clients can trade a full portfolio of Shares, indices, or commodities without having to tie up large amounts of capital. Using the example above, a client purchasing $50,000 worth of CFD Shares will only be asked for $2,500 margin.

CFD Performance

As with Shares, CFD investors benefit from normal market movements. Clients' open positions are valued in real time, with every tick of the market. Profits or losses similarly are credited to or debited from the clients account equity in real time.

Margin

Unlike physically purchasing stocks, clients only have to deposit approximately 5% of the value of the Shares. So if you want to buy $50,000 worth of Shares, you only need to have $2,500 on deposit with GCI.