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Trading guides

Browse trading-related articles aimed at all levels of experience, covering trading essentials through to more technical and strategy-based topics.

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Most popular articles

How to trade bitcoin

What is a trailing stop loss order?

How to trade grains

Morningstar market reports

Article library

Our article library has been organised into five categories below: trading strategies, trading essentials, technical analysis, trading definitions and popular assets.

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Trading strategies

Learn about different trading strategies, how they can help your trading and how to develop them.

TRADING STRATEGY

Day trading guide

Learn to day trade with our beginner's guide. We cover key aspects such as day trading strategies and the psychology of day trading.

TRADING STRATEGY

Trading the news

News trading strategies can be based on economic indicators such as company earnings reports, interest rates and inflation. Learn how to trade the news.

TRADING STRATEGY

Forex news trading

Almost every day there are major economic data releases that could have significant impacts on your current open positions. Learn more on forex news trading here.

TRADING STRATEGY

Top trading mistakes

Discover the three most common tradnig mistakes and how can you avoid making them.

TRADING STRATEGY

Building a simple trading strategy

A simple trading strategy can still be an effective way of catching significant moves, meaning you can use it across a variety of different markets.

TRADING STRATEGY

1-Click trading guide

Our 1-Click Trading feature allows you to open or close a trade with just one click. Learn more about 1-click trading here.

TRADING STRATEGY

What to do with big wins

Anyone who trades for long enough will probably encounter big wins from time to time. It's important to know how to handle these wins in a way that won't negatively affect your trading strategy and future trades.

TRADING STRATEGY

Learning from your trading mistakes

Discover pointers that highlight common trading mistakes and how you can avoid these by building a trading evaluation strategy.

TRADING STRATEGY

Forex pairs

Learn about foreign exchange markets including macro-economic and geo-political factors that help drive movements in currency pairs.

TRADING STRATEGY

Copy trading

Copy trading allows traders to copy trades executed by other investors in the financial markets.

TRADING STRATEGY

Buying the dip

Learn what buying the dip is, indicators that can be used for the strategy, if it works and what the alternatives are.

TRADING STRATEGY

Backtesting

Backtesting is a time and cost-effective way of measuring profitability in trades. Discover how to backtest a trading strategy manually.

TRADING STRATEGY

Stop-loss orders

A stop-loss order is a risk management tool that you should consider as part of your trading strategy.

Essentials & definitions

These articles cover trading essentials, from risk management to common mistakes and tips from experienced industry analysts.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Introduction to our financial markets

You can trade many CFD instruments with us, including FX, indices, commodities, shares & treasuries. Learn more here.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Defining trading goals

Setting precise trading goals can help to enhance profit potential when trading the financial markets. Learn about the importance of setting trading goals as part of your strategy.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Bid price and ask price

Find out the difference between the bid and ask price, also called the bid-ask spread, and how it affects liquidity, spreads and markets.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

What is a spread?

Discover what is spread in trading and how to calculate the bid-ask spread. See our spreads for major financial markets such as forex, indices and stocks.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Morningstar market reports

Morningstar quantitative equity research reports are available across most of our global CFD share products. Learn more about Morningstar market reports here.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

What are pips in trading?

Traders use pips (percentage in point) in forex to measure price movements. Determining the number of pips in a currency pair is crucial for your forex trading strategy.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

What is a trailing stop loss order?

Trailing stop-losses are similar to traditional stop-loss orders, but rather than remaining at a specific price level. Learn more about trailing stop losses here.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

What is fibonacci trading?

Fibonacci retracements are a popular form of technical analysis used by traders to predict future potential price support and resistance levels in the markets.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Common forex trading mistakes

The foreign exchange market is a highly sophisticated market and traders who rush into it can end up making some very costly mistakes. Discover common forex trading mistakes here.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Powerful trading tools for new traders

There are numerous powerful tools that can help you access high-quality trading information. Discover some of the top tools for new traders here.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Bear and bull markets

A bear market occurs when prices drop by 20% or more from recent highs, while a bull market occurs when prices rise by 20% or more from recent lows.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

What is MACD?

The MACD is a simple, yet effective indicator. Discover how to interpret and use the MACD for technical trading.

ESSENTIALS & DEFINITIONS

Over-the-counter (OTC) meaning

OTC stands for over-the-counter. In trading terms, over-the-counter means trading through decentralised dealer networks.

Tips

Learn how to build a trading plan, develop your own trading edge and put these into practise. We also discuss ways to structure and optimise your portfolio.​

TIPS

Trading tips

Discover our top trading tips and rules, and learn how to avoid common trading mistakes with advice from professional traders here.

TIPS

Risk management in trading

Discover why risk management is important to your trading strategy & learn pointers to keep in mind when planning your CFD trading strategy.

TIPS

Top trading tips from successful traders

Discover tips from some of the world’s best traders featured in a book that really stands the test of time.

TIPS

Stock market trading hours

Discover stock market trading hours for major exchanges across the globe.

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Fundamental analysis

These articles cover fundamental analysis strategies and best practises. This type of analysis focuses on external events that may have an effect on the financial markets, such as economic indicators and company fundamentals.

FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS

Price-earnings (P/E) ratio

An important aspect of fundamental analysis, P/E ratios help to indicate whether a company's stock is a good investment. Learn how to calculate P/E ratios.

FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS

Learn about non-farm payrolls (NFP)

Non-farm payrolls (NFP) figures can be used to build an effective spread betting and CFD trading strategy. Learn about what are non-farm payrolls.

FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS

Gearing ratio

Gearing ratios provide an insight into how a company funds its operations, relative to debt and equity.

Technical analysis

Learn how you can incorporate technical analysis into your trading to identify trading opportunites on charts. We cover some of the most popular chart patterns and explain some of the most common indicators that guide technical analysts.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Stock chart patterns

Identifying stock chart patterns in financial markets is a key element as part of your technical analysis. Discover the most essential stock chart patterns.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Advanced technical analysis

Technical trading strategies can be used as part of your spread betting and CFD trading decisions. We explore 5 key techniques through diagrams and examples here.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Candlestick trading

See how you use candlestick charts to track prices in all financial markets. Find out why candlestick trading is a prevalent method of price representation.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Chart timeframes for trading instruments

Choosing the right timeframe for charts is an important part of the trading process. Learn how to pick the best charts and timeframes for the markets you wish to trade.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Forex candlestick patterns

Forex candlestick patterns are a form of charting analysis used by traders to identify potential trading opportunities based on historical price data.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Forex trendlines

Trendlines are used in technical analysis to define an uptrend or downtrend. Learn more about forex trendlines here.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Trend recognition & primary indicators

Trend recognition is a critical factor in the success of any trading plan. Many investing strategies seek to profit from trending markets. Learn more about trend recognition here.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Technical analysis vs fundamental analysis

Learn about the difference between fundamental and technical analysis so you can pick a form of analysis that is best suited to your trading personality.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Elliott wave theory

Elliott wave theory breaks down price fluctuations of financial markets into cycles, each comprising of eight waves. Find out more about this theory.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Head and shoulders pattern

The head and shoulders pattern is a technical formation that indicates a trend reversal is underway.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Stochastic indicator/oscillator

The stochastic oscillator, also known as stochastic indicator, is a popular trading indicator that is useful for predicting trend reversals.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Double tops and double bottoms

Double tops and bottoms are chart patterns in technical analysis that can help a trader identify potential trades.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Cup and handle patterns

Cup and handle patterns are formed when there is a sharp price rise, followed by a fall. Learn more about cup and handle patterns.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Doji candles

Consult our guide on how to trade doji candlesticks, including the most common types: dragonfly, gravestone, hammer, long-legged and star.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Bull traps

Find out what a bull trap is in trading, how to identify one, how to trade it and the role that psychology plays.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Golden and death crosses

Learn how to trade two of the most popular technical analysis moving average combinations, golden and death crosses.

Assets

Find guides here to improve your knowledge on specific asset classes including stocks, shares, commodities and indices.

ASSET CLASSES

Futures vs Options

Find out what the main differences are between futures and options, and what are the benefits and risks of each derivative product.

ETFS

What is an exchange traded fund (ETF)?

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are investment funds that hold a collection of underlying assets, such as shares, commodities and bonds. Learn how to trade ETFs.

COMMODITIES

What is a commodity?

A commodity is a physical good that can be bought or sold on the commodity market either through futures contracts, or as a physical asset, via an exchange.

COMMODITIES

How to trade coffee

Coffee is a popularly traded soft commodity. Discover how to trade coffee Arabica and Robusta online via CFDs.

COMMODITIES

How to trade grains

Grains markets can be notoriously volatile offering high risk/reward opportunities for traders. Discover the best tips for trading grains.

COMMODITIES

How to trade commodities

Discover how to trade commodities on our online platform, which offers over 100 commodity instruments such as oil, gas, gold & sugar.

COMMODITIES

How to trade gold

Discover some of the best tips and techniques for gold trading, including physical gold bullion and coins.

COMMODITIES

How to trade oil

Read our complete guide to oil trading, including how to become an oil trader and the best tips for trading crude oil.

COMMODITIES

Is gold a good investment?

Why invest in gold? Discover several viewpoints as to whether gold is a good investment right now.

STOCKS

What is equity trading?

Equity trading is the buying and selling of company shares or stocks on the financial market. Find out how to trade equities.

STOCKS

What is share trading?

Share trading is the buying and selling of company stock with the aim of making a profit. Find out more in our share trading guide here.

STOCKS

Trading penny stocks

Penny stocks often have a low share price, which gives a higher scope for breakouts and growth. Find out how to trade penny stocks or penny shares.

STOCKS

How to swing-trade stocks

Learn the basics of swing trading in the share market and gain valuable insights into five of the most popular swing trading techniques and strategies for stocks.

STOCKS

Meme stocks

Meme stocks represent companies that have gained viral attention from social media platforms such as Reddit.

STOCKS

Water stocks

Water is the most important natural resource in the world. Continue reading to discover how you can trade on the price movements of water stocks and ETFs.

STOCKS

Gaming stocks

Investing in video game stocks has recently gained popularity despite the current adverse circumstances. Learn more.

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

How to trade bitcoin

Follow our step-by-step guide to trading bitcoin to learn how to trade on bitcoin price movements via CFD trading.

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