Commodity trading

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.

Spread betting or trading CFDs on commodities offers the opportunity to speculate on the underlying price movement of popular metals like gold and silver, energies like Brent and West Texas crude oil, and natural gas, plus soft commodities such as wheat.

There are no commission fees to pay, although other charges may apply, including the instrument's spread, plus overnight holding costs if you're holding the trade open for longer than one day. View our trading costs for more details.

You can speculate on a huge range of commodity markets around-the-clock through spread betting and CFD trading, from Sunday night through to Friday night. Trade on your phone, tablet or PC on more than 100 commodity instruments using leverage.

With spread betting and CFD trading, you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of your position to open a trade, which is your margin requirement. Gold for example, has a 5% margin rate, which means there is a leverage ratio of 20:1. It's important to remember that trading with leverage amplifies your profits and losses equally, based on the full trade value, so it's very important to manage your risk carefully.

One of the features of spread betting and CFD trading on commodities is that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of your position – the initial margin requirement – to open a trade, known as trading on leverage. Trading on leverage amplifies your profits and losses equally, so it's important to manage your risk.

Gold Weekend allows you to spread bet or trade CFDs on the price of gold over the weekend, when the underlying gold markets are closed. Trading is available from 10pm on Friday to 10pm on Sunday, enabling you to respond to market news and events over the weekend.

Please note: Gold Weekend will be open for longer than usual during some bank holidays. Please check the ‘Product Overview’ for Gold Weekend in the platform for confirmed trading hours, especially around bank holiday weekends.

Check our full list of Gold Weekend FAQs for more details.

Gold Weekend is a separate instrument to Gold - Cash, with:

• Different trading hours

• Different pricing dynamics

• Typically wider spreads
  

Any positions held at close of business on Sunday will be rolled into Gold - Cash (XAU/USD) at the closing Gold Weekend price.

Note: Gold Weekend will be open for longer than usual during some bank holidays, and your position may roll into Gold – Cash at the end of the bank holiday on these occasions.

You can usually trade Gold Weekend between the following hours:

• Opens: Friday at 10pm

• Closes: Sunday at 10pm

Trading is normally not available outside these hours, but occasionally where this is a bank holiday and the underlying gold market is closed, Gold Weekend will be available for longer than usual. Please check the ‘Product Overview’ for Gold Weekend in the platform for confirmed trading hours, especially around bank holiday weekends.

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

Yes, CMC Markets UK plc (registration number 173730) is 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.

Under the FCA's Client Money rules, we're required to segregate client money (unless you agree with us otherwise) from CMC's own funds. The funds held in segregated bank accounts do not belong to CMC, and will be held in a way that enables it to be identified as client money. Learn more about client money regulations

CMC Markets earns revenue through spreads and other applicable fees and charges. The fees and charges that apply may vary depending on the product and account type.