Shares 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.

Share trading in the underlying market is the buying and selling of company shares with the aim of making a profit. Shares represent a portion of ownership of a public company. At CMC Markets, we offer the opportunity to spread bet or trade CFDs on shares, so you don’t actually own the underlying share. Learn more about share trading.

One of the features 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 on leverage can also amplify losses, so it’s important to manage your risk.

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

With spread betting, you buy or sell an amount per point movement for the share 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.

As an example, say you wanted to buy £1,300 worth of Lloyds penny shares at £65 per share. For the spread betting equivalent of this trade, you would specify a stake size of £20 per point to get the same exposure as you would if you bought 20 Lloyds shares at £65 through traditional share dealing. 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 £260, instead of £1,300. However, remember that your profits and losses are based on the full value of the trade (£1,300). As a retail client, you will never lose more than the amount in your account.

Read our debate on spread betting vs CFDs and see our list of penny stocks in the UK​ for more information.

Share spread bets have an additional spread added either side of the existing spread. See our UK and US share spread bet examples below.

UK shares example:

CFD price/underlying sell/buy price: 250p / 255p
CMC 0.1% additional spread to be added either side, widening the spread:
250p – (0.1% of 250) / 255p + (0.1% of 255)
Spread bet sell/buy price = 249.75p / 255.25p

US shares example:

Share price | Cost
$0-15 | 1 cent (each side)
$15-25 | 2 cents (each side)
$25-35 | 3 cents (each side)
$35+ | 4 cents (each side)

CFD price/underlying price: $25.50 / $25.58
Share price falls into bracket three: $25-35.
So, 3 cents is added to both sides, widening the spread:
$25.50 – $0.03 / $25.58 + $0.03
Spread bet sell/buy price = $25.47 / $25.61

Spread betting allows you to trade tax-free on a wide range of financial markets 24 hours a day, from Sunday nights through to Friday nights. Trade on your phone, tablet, PC or Mac on a wide range of instruments using leverage. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change or may differ in a jurisdiction other than the UK. Read our article on how to spread bet to learn more.

When a stock goes ex-dividend, the value of that stock effectively falls by the dividend amount. This means if you hold a spread bet or CFD position on a company which announces a dividend, your account will be credited or debited on the day the stock goes ex-dividend.

If you were long (holding a buy position), you would have been disadvantaged by the drop in the market caused by the pay out of the dividend, so we would credit your account with the dividend amount, less any applicable dividend withholding taxes. If you were short the stock, you would benefit from the drop in the price, so the equivalent amount would be deducted. So, overall, you don't lose or gain anything from the adjustment. There are no withholding taxes on short positions. The dividend will appear as a 'Price Adjustment' in your account history within the platform.