Cryptocurrency index trading

A cryptocurrency is a type of digital money created from code. They function autonomously, outside of traditional banking and government systems.

Cryptocurrency trading is the process of speculating on a digital currency's price movements. Instead of buying and selling directly via a crypto exchange, you can get exposure to cryptocurrency price movements without owning the asset, through a CFD trading account.

As opposed to when you buy crypto directly, when you speculate on its price via CFD trading, you can go long or short, based on your view of the market.

There are a number of costs to consider when trading CFDs on cryptocurrencies, including spread costs, holding costs (for trades held overnight - this is essentially a fee for the funds we 'lend you' to cover the leveraged portion of the trade) and guaranteed stop-loss order charges (if you use this risk-management tool).

Learn more about our trading fees

We aim to provide a diverse, balanced view of the cryptocurrency market's performance with our three crypto indices, which enable you to take a broader view of the crypto market.

For our Major Crypto Index, we've established a cap so no single cryptocurrency can constitute a weighting of greater than 40% of the index. While no individual constituent makes up more than 40% of the Emerging Crypto Index, we may establish a cap of 40% for this index should it become necessary at a future date. The All Crypto Index gives 60% of the total weighting to major cryptos and 40% to emerging coins. Each cryptocurrency is then weighted equally within that banding. The weightings of any uncapped component that then fall below a 5% floor will be increased to that value, taking proportional market capitalisation from any uncapped index component.

We monitor our crypto indices periodically to see whether any adjustments need to be made to constituent weightings. We also monitor closely for any hard or soft forks, which may necessitate adjustments to the constituent cryptocurrencies. If such adjustments are made, we will change the index divisor to ensure that there is no resulting impact on the index prices.

One of the advantages of trading CFDs 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.

CMC Markets has 15 global offices, including in the UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and Bermuda. CMC Markets' entities are licensed and regulated by the local authorities, for example, CMC Markets Bermuda is licensed to conduct investment business and digital asset business by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (‘BMA’).

As a CMC Markets' client, your money is held separately from CMC Markets' own funds. It is held in segregated client bank accounts distributed across a range of major banks, which are regularly assessed against our risk criteria. Under the BMA rules, retail clients must be provided with negative balance protection. This means that your maximum loss is the amount you have deposited with us.

If you're trading on MT4 or MT5, select the instrument you wish to trade ('double-click' on your PC), and a new order window will appear. Enter your desired volume (in lots), add any risk-management orders such as a stop-loss or take-profit order. Then place a market order in the direction you wish to trade; buy to go long, or sell to go short. There are several ways to place trades or orders using MT4 or MT5 – you can learn more about MT4 or MT5 functionality by navigating to Help > Help topics or Help > Video guides.

If you’re trading on our Next Generation platform, search for your desired instrument from the 'Product Library'. Select your chosen instrument ('right-click' on your PC), and select ‘Order Ticket’. In the order ticket box, choose your order type (from Market, Limit, and Stop-Entry Order), and then enter your desired volume in units or amount (this can be configured from the ‘Settings’ menu in the main navigation). Add stop-loss and take-profit levels to minimise your risk, and choose to ‘BUY’ or ‘SELL’, depending on whether you want to go long or short. When you’re ready, select ‘Place Buy Market Order’, or ‘Place Sell Market Order’.

For retail clients, the maximum leverage you can currently trade with is 200:1 (or 0.5% margin) with our CFD trading and FX Active accounts.

TradingView is a trading research platform where you can view charts, analyse trends and interact with an online community. You can connect your TradingView account to your CMC Markets account, enabling you to open, manage and close trades within TradingView. Learn more about TradingView here.

MetaQuotes' MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are globally popular forex and CFD trading platforms. TradingView is a trading and charting platform which you can link to your broker account to place trades. Our proprietary web-based platform is feature-rich and enables access to trade CFDs on 12,000 instruments.

With each platform you can choose from our CFD trading or FX Active accounts. Our FX Active account offers spreads from 0.0 pips on six major FX pairs, with a 25% spread discount on all other pairs. There is a fixed, low commission at $2.50 per $100,000 notional value traded.  

Our trading platform doesn’t require any downloads, while MT4 and MT5 requires downloading to fully utilise its features, such as algorithmic trading (through Expert Advisors) and social trading available via the MQL4 and MQL5 communities. 

The MetaTrader platforms offer hedging positions by default, while CMC’s trading platform offers netted positions by default. 

Yes, you can open an opposite, related, or alternative trade, with no interruption for traders using Expert Advisors.

Log in to your MT4 or MT5 client portal or our trading platform and follow the instructions in the funding section.

You can reset your password by selecting 'Forgot password?' on the login page. We'll then send instructions for changing your password to the email address you use to log in to your account.

Our aim is to provide a high level of service to all our clients, all of the time. We value all feedback and use it to enhance our products and services. We appreciate that from time to time things can go wrong, or there can be misunderstandings. We are committed to dealing with queries and complaints positively and sympathetically. Where we are at fault, we aim to put things right at the earliest opportunity. You can find our complaint handling procedure here or contact us at global@cmcmarkets.com to begin your account query. Please note that all queries and complaints will be handled in English.