Indices

Indices typically track the performance of a group of listed companies. For example, the FTSE 100 is an index that tracks the 100 largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Trading on indices involves speculating on whether you think an index will rise or fall from its current level. Learn more about indices

You can start trading on indices by opening a live account. If you would like to practise your index trading strategy first, you can open a demo account to trade with virtual funds.

Leverage refers to the use of borrowed money to enlarge a financial position and increase the potential return of a trade. When you open a leveraged trade with us, you deposit the margin (the amount of money you put up to control a larger position) while we provide the rest of the total value of the trade. The margin is usually a small percentage of the total trade value. For example, if the margin rate is 3.3%, you only need to deposit 3.3% of the total trade value to open a position. A 3.3% margin rate equates to a leverage ratio of 30:1, meaning the trade size is 30 times larger than the margin amount. Leverage amplifies both potential profits and losses, meaning that you could make large losses if the market moves against you. It's therefore important to manage risk.

Spread betting allows you to trade tax-free on a wide range of financial markets 24 hours a day, from Sunday night through to Friday night. Trade on your phone, tablet, PC or Mac on a wide range of instruments with leverage.

When you spread bet or trade CFDs on indices via our platform, you don't buy or sell the underlying index. Instead, you're taking a position on whether you think the index will go up or down.

With spread betting, you buy or sell an amount per point movement for the index instrument you're 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.

While you can trade on leverage, meaning you only need to put up a minor percentage of the overall trade’s value, any profit or loss is based on the full value of the trade. As a retail client, you can never lose more than the amount in your account, which is known as negative balance protection. See the major global indices you can trade with us.

You can spread bet tax-free on indices*, meaning you just have to pay the spread. Other trading costs may apply, depending on whether you hold a position overnight, for example. You can also trade on forward indices, which avoids overnight holdings costs, though these tend to have higher spreads. View the minimum spreads on our ‘cash’ indices

*Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change or may differ in a jurisdiction other than the UK.

Yes, you can. Some global exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the performance of major stock indices include the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets Index ETF and Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF, all of which can be traded on our platform.

When indices rebalance, there is negligible impact on the index since it always reflects the value of the constituents at any given time. But when a new stock is dropped or added to an index, the price of that company can sometimes see a substantial movement in price, so it may be a good idea to keep an eye out for constituent changes.

A forex index tracks a basket of currency pairs that share the same base currency, giving you exposure to a specific currency’s movement versus a range of major currencies. Learn more about our 12 forex indices, including the CMC GBP Index, CMC USD Index, and CMC EUR Index.