A commodity is a physical good that can be bought or sold on commodity markets. Commodities can be categorised into either hard or soft varieties. Hard commodities are natural resources like oil, gold and rubber, and are often mined or extracted. Soft commodities are agricultural products such as coffee, wheat or corn.

Commodity Index | Major Commodity Indices

Q: How can I trade commodity CFDs?

Commodity CFDs are a type of derivative product, with zero commission fees (other charges may apply). View our commodities page for more information, including our commodity CFD spreads and margin rates.

Q: What is leveraged trading?

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.

Q: Is it free to open an account?

There's no cost when opening a live trading account with us. You can also view prices and use tools such as charts, Reuters news or Morningstar quantitative equity reports, free of charge. However, you'll need to deposit funds in your account to place a trade.

Q: Is CMC Markets regulated?

CMC Markets Germany GmbH is a company authorised and regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). CMC Markets complies with the requirements of §84 of the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG) regarding client funds.

Q: How does CMC Markets protect my money?

CMC Markets Germany GmbH is a broker regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). It holds funds of private clients separately from its own funds in separate bank accounts. In the unlikely event that CMC Markets Germany GmbH is unable to meet its financial obligations, the EdW would cover any claim for damages by claimants up to €20,000, provided that certain criteria are met.

Q: How does CMC Markets segregate client money?

Retail client money is kept in separate trust accounts. By keeping retail client money separate from CMC Markets' own funds, it ensures that retail money is not owned and cannot be used by CMC Markets, as it is held on trust for retail clients. Learn more about client money regulations.

Q: How does CMC Markets make money?

Our income primarily comes from our spreads, while other fees, such as overnight holding costs, make a minor contribution to our overall revenue.

Q: What can I trade on with CMC Markets?

You can trade on financial instruments when you trade CFDs with us. Take a look at our popular markets and instruments.

EU regulated

35+ years' expertise

FTSE 250 group

2025 WINNER

Best Mobile Trading Platform

ADVFN International Financial Awards

2023 WINNER

No.1 Web Platform

ForexBrokers.com Awards

2023 WINNER

Best CFD Provider

Online Money Awards

More than a commodity trading platform

100+ cash and forward commodities

Trade on 'cash' and forwards across a wide range of precious metals, energies and agricultural commodities.

Around-the-clock trading

Speculate on popular commodities like gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas from Sunday night through to Friday night (includes a short daily break).

Trade the whole sector

Take a view across a whole commodity sector from a single position, with our bespoke commodity indices.

'Cash' markets

Tighter spreads, no rollovers and charting back as far as 2011 to help your analysis.

Dedicated customer service

Experienced customer service available to support you in your trading

No partial fills

All orders are fully executed without dealer intervention, regardless of your trading size.

What other traders are saying about CMC Markets

As a financial services pioneer, we‘ve got the expertise allied to over 35 years‘ industry experience. That‘s why 2 million+ global traders and investors put their confidence in us.¹

Major commodity indices to trade

Agriculture Index

The Agricultural Index contains Soybean, Corn, Soybean Meal, Wheat, Coffee Arabica, Soybean Oil, Sugar Raw, Cotton, US Cocoa, Coffee Robusta, Sugar White and Oats, covering a broad spectrum of the soft commodities sector.

Commodity index costs

View the spreads, margin rates and trading hours for our three major commodity indices in the table below.

View all of our costs

How do commodity indices work?

Our commodity indices group together individual commodities to make a commodities 'basket'. The indices track the underlying prices of the commodities within that index. If the individual commodity prices in that index increase, then the value of the index goes up. Conversely, if the individual commodity prices decrease, then the value of that index falls.

There are several benefits to commodity index trading as opposed to trading individual commodities. It can be a more cost-effective and efficient way of trading the market, allowing you to take a view on a commodity sector as a whole without having to open individual positions on each commodity. This can be a good way to diversify your portfolio.

However, it's important to be aware that CFDs are high-risk, speculative products. High volatility combined with leverage could lead to significant losses. As with any leveraged product, profits and losses will be based on the full value of your position. While you could profit if the market moves in your favour, you could just as easily make significant losses if the trade moves against you and you don't have adequate risk management in place.

How our commodity indices are weighted

For the Energy Index and Agricultural Index, the components were initially weighted according to the average daily trade value of the nearest six futures contracts, where available, for the 12 months preceding the index launch date, based on the initial index value of $10m.

For the Precious Metals Index, Gold and Silver are split equally to collectively make up 70% of the index weight. The remaining two components, Platinum and Palladium, are also split equally and collectively make up 30% of the index weight. Subsequent index reviews are applied as shown in the index methodology.

^*Agricultural Index divisor: 9,935.59. Index created at a base level of 1,000 as of 29 March 2019. Initial target index value = $10 million.
^**As of last review date, 21 March 2025.

Energy and Agricultural Index methodology [pdf]

¹Energy Index divisor: 10,164.13. Index created at a base level of 1,000 as of 29 March 2019. Initial target index value = $10 million. ²As of last review date, 21 March 2025.

Energy and Agricultural Index methodology [pdf]

¹Precious Metals Index divisor: 10,004.16. Index created at a base level of 1,000 as of 29 March 2019. Initial target index value = $10 million. ²As of last review date, 21 March 2025.

Precious Metals Index methodology [pdf]

Powerful technology you can rely on

To trade with us, you choose a CFD account that suits the platform you want to use.

Standard CFD account provides access to our proprietary and award-winning Next Generation platform, available on PC and mobile. This account can also be linked to TradingView.

To trade on Metatrader 4, you must create a separate MT4 CFD account. This account is only compatible with MT4 and does not provide access to Next Generation or TradingView.

Note: MetaTrader 4 only offers trading in currencies, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.

Read more below about the platforms we offer and find out which one best suits your trading style.

2025 WINNER

Best Mobile Trading Platform

ADVFN International Financial Awards

Mobile app

Get the functionality of our web platform in your pocket with mobile-optimised charting, full order-ticket features and real-time alerts.

Web platform

We've invested over £100m into our award-winning platform², creating pioneering technology that suits all styles of trading.

Open a demo accountMore on our web platform

platform

TradingView

Research with TradingView, trade with us

TradingView

Connect your CMC Markets account to TradingView and trade on its world- renowned charting platform, used by over 90 million traders and investors.

Open an accountLink your account

Award-winning broker

2025 WINNER

Best Mobile Trading Platform

ADVFN International Financial Awards

2023 WINNER

No.1 Web Platform

ForexBrokers.com Awards

FAQs

New to commodity trading?

What is a commodity?

How can I trade commodity CFDs?

What is leveraged trading?

New to CMC Markets?

Is it free to open an account?

Is CMC Markets regulated?

How does CMC Markets protect my money?

How does CMC Markets segregate client money?

How does CMC Markets make money?

What can I trade on with CMC Markets?

Do you have any questions?

Email us at eusupport@cmcmarkets.com or call us on +49 (0) 69 22 22 440 44 (Lines open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday).

¹Based on over 2 million unique user logins across CMC's trading and investing platforms, including partners, as at November 2025.

²Best Mobile Trading Platform, ADVFN International Financial Awards 2024; No.1 Web Platform, ForexBrokers.com Awards 2023; No.1 Most Currency Pairs, ForexBrokers.com Awards 2023; Best Charting (Germany), Investment Trends Leverage Trading Report 2023; Best Customer Service (Germany), Investment Trends Leverage Trading Report 2023; Best In-House Analysts, Professional Trader Awards 2023; No.1 Platform Technology (UK), ForexBrokers.com Awards 2022; Best CFD Provider (UK), Online Money Awards 2022; Industry Pioneer with "Outstanding" Customer Rating (Germany), Focus Money Test Edition 36/2022, "Very good" Trading Platform (Germany), Deutsches Kundeninstitut (DKI) Survey 2022.

Commodity index trading

More than a commodity trading platform

What other traders are saying about CMC Markets

Major commodity indices to trade

Commodity index costs

How do commodity indices work?

How our commodity indices are weighted

Powerful technology you can rely on

Mobile app

Web platform

TradingView

Award-winning broker

FAQs

Ready to get started?

Do you have any questions?