Markets

A platform presents gold, the Nasdaq, Brent crude and Tesla as seven identical rows with a buy button on each. They are not identical. One is a metal with a monetary history, one is a calculation with no owner, one is a barrel that somebody eventually has to store, and one is a company that reports its earnings on a Tuesday.

These guides cover what sits underneath each instrument and, just as importantly, what the CFD wrapper around it does and does not give you. Every count here comes from the same hundred broker records the rest of the site is built from.

6 min readWhat are currency pairs?Every forex trade is a comparison, not a purchase. You are never simply buying euros - you are buying euros with dollars, and the price can move because of either side.

6 min readTrading goldGold pays no interest. That single fact drives most of what it does, and it explains why the metal can fall on the day inflation comes in hot.

6 min readIndex trading explainedAn index can close up on a day when most of its companies fell. That is not a glitch in the calculation - it is the calculation, and it is the thing worth understanding before you trade one.

6 min readCommodity trading explainedOil inventories fell, which is bullish, and the price dropped anyway. Commodities trade on the gap between what happened and what was expected - and on a curve most retail traders never look at.

6 min readCryptocurrency CFDs explainedA Bitcoin CFD rises and falls with Bitcoin and gives you none of it. No coins, no wallet, no keys - and, less obviously, no way out while the market is shut and the price is moving.

6 min readShare CFDs vs buying sharesThe same company, the same price movement, two completely different products. One makes you an owner. The other makes you a counterparty, with a nightly bill.

6 min readFutures vs CFDsBoth give you leveraged exposure in either direction. One is a standardised contract on a public exchange; the other is a private agreement with your broker. Almost every practical difference falls out of that.