ETF trading

There's no cost when opening a live spread betting or CFD 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.

Yes, CMC Markets UK plc (registration number 173730) and CMC Spreadbet plc (registration number 170627) are fully authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Retail client money is held in segregated client bank accounts and money held on behalf of clients is distributed across a range of major banks, which are regularly assessed against our risk criteria.

Yes, your eligible deposits with CMC Markets are protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensations Scheme (FSCS), the UK's deposit guarantee scheme. If CMC Markets ever went into liquidation, retail clients would have their share of segregated money returned, minus the administrator's costs in handling and distributing these funds. Any shortfall of funds up to £85,000 may be compensated under the FSCS.

As a CMC client, your money is held separately from CMC Markets' own funds, so that under property, trust and insolvency law, your money is protected. Therefore your money is unavailable to general creditors of the firm, if the firm fails.

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

We never aim to profit from our clients' losses. Our aim is to build long-term relationships by providing the best possible trading experience through our technology and customer service.

You can trade on 12,000 markets when you spread bet with CMC Markets. See a list of all our popular markets and instruments.

As an example, let’s say you want to put down a total of £1,000 on your ETF trade. Due to the leverage available with spread betting (5:1 in this case), you would be able to enter this position with an initial outlay of £200, instead of £1,000. However, remember that your profits and losses are based on the full value of the trade (£1,000). As a retail client, you will never lose more than the amount in your account.

One of the advantages of spread betting and CFD trading 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 ETFs on leverage can also amplify losses, so it’s important to manage your risk.

When you spread bet or trade CFDs on ETFs on our platform, you don’t buy or sell the underlying ETF. Instead, you’re taking a position on whether you think the ETF price will go up or down.

With spread betting, you buy or sell an amount per point movement for the instrument you are trading, such as £5 per point. This is known as your stake. With CFD trading, you buy or sell a number of units for a particular instrument. For every point or unit that the price moves in your favour, you gain multiples of your stake, and vice versa. Read about the differences between ETFs and CFDs.

There are a number of costs to consider when trading on ETFs, including spread costs, holding costs (for trades held overnight) and guaranteed stop-loss order charges (if you use this risk-management tool). See our trading costs.