Thinking of Giving CFD Trading a Go? Here’s Why Plus500 Should Be Your Go-to Trading Platform

CFD trading is an advanced type of trading that offers distinct benefits for experienced traders. These are financial derivatives that may not be suitable for all traders, but those who take the time to understand how they work may find CFDs useful in expanding their trading range. 

When trading CFDs, your choice of online brokerage matters. This is because differences in risk management tools, trading fees, customer support, and educational resources can impact your trading experience. 

Read on to find out if CFD trading is for you, and what to look out for when choosing a CFD trading platform. 

A Contract-for-Difference (CFD) is an agreement to exchange the difference in the price of a stipulated asset from the time you entered the trade to the time you exit it. 

In action, Contracts-for-Difference (CFDs) allow you to speculate on the price direction of an underlying asset or market without ownership of said asset. This means that you can trade the price action of any market you choose – commodities, equities, options, forex, etc – without having to first purchase or own shares, units, or currencies. 

You can go long or short in your trade, allowing you to potentially profit from both bull and bear markets. And because CFDs are traded on margin, you can control a larger position with a smaller capital, or start trading without having to pay the full price that a conventional trade would cost. 

As powerful as CFDs can be, they also come with their own set of risks. CFDs are leveraged products, which means both profits and losses are amplified. Importantly, the market may move sharply against your position while your contract is open, triggering a margin call, which means you’ll need to top-up your trading account with additional funds. 

CFD traders need to control the use of leverage, choose proper position sizing, and understand how to properly budget their funds between trades. They should also implement sound risk management using stops and orders – but this will depend on the types of tools provided by the CFD trading platform. 

Plus500 goes the distance to ensure its users have an optimal experience. Its signature award-winning trading platform is designed with user-friendliness top of mind. 

Newcomers can refer to the Beginners’ Guide to learn more about the basics of trading and the financial markets, and strengthen their knowledge with trading webinars, market analyses, “how-to” videos and other educational materials – all available for free at the Trading Academy. 

Meanwhile, Plus500’s trading platform is designed to be intuitive, catering to traders of all experience levels. But if necessary, you can consult the Trader’s Guide for more detailed explanations.

Finally, get a deeper look into market trends in +Insights, learning perspectives based on Plus500’s proprietary internal data to better inform your trading decisions. 

But that’s not all. Plus500 also has a generous rebate and bonus programme that can boost your trading results or help absorb market volatility. 

Plus500 also offers an array of helpful tools and features that can improve your trading experience in various ways.

Risk management 

As mentioned earlier, risk management is paramount when trading CFDs. Plus500 provides traders with powerful tools to manage risk effective, including: 

• “Close at Profit' [Take Profit ] or 'Close at Loss' [Stop Loss] rates. These tools are essential for getting out of positions in a disciplined manner, avoiding the temptation to overtrade. 

• Guaranteed Stop. Ensures a trade closes at your exact specified price, even if the market experiences extreme volatility, gaps, or slippage, protecting you from larger-than-expected losses.

• Trailing Stop. Automated risk-management order that locks in profits and limits losses by automatically adjusting its trigger price as a security's price moves favorably,

Economic calendar and alerts

Many price actions are triggered by market events such as earnings announcements or regulatory changes. With Plus500’s economic calendar, traders can easily keep track of important dates and could impact their positions or create opportunities. 

Additionally, Plus500 allows subscriptions to a variety of alerts to keep you informed of critical changes and events – price alerts, hourly or daily change %, and traders’ sentiment (buyers % vs sellers %). 

• Professional Support - around-the-clock dedicated customer service in multiple languages

Multi-screen charts

Depending on your CFD trading strategy, you may need to keep an eye on multiple price charts. This is easy to do with Plus500, which offers a multiscreen chart function so you can view multiple customised charts on one screen, while trading on another. 

Unique options CFDs offerings

Experienced traders will appreciate that Plus500 has unique option CFDs offerings. You can access leveraged Call and Put CFDs, ideal for traders looking to implement advanced or high-risk strategies.