Trade share CFDs
With CMC Markets from 0.05% with no minimum charge
CMC Markets is renowned for driving down the costs of trading through low dealing spreads and low margins. We have now cut the cost of trading share CFDs to just 0.05 % on many markets and the good news is that there is no minimum charge. Couple this with our fractional trading you can now trade any amount.
We have reduced our commission charges across our share CFDs as well. You can now trade European and Australian shares from just 0.05% and again with no minimum charge. If you trade US shares these are now just 1 cent per share.
For a full list of our share commissions, please click here.
No stamp duty
Share CFDs are not subject to stamp duty and there are no additional costs like floor fees, data feeds (except for Australian Share CFDs) and share registration fees. Apart from the underlying physical bid and offer spread your only execution cost is the commission.
Stamp duty in the UK is currently set at 0.5%, so if you trade a physical share with a total position size of £10,000 you will have to pay £50. This is on top of any additional charges like commission, registration fees etc.
Click here for cost comparisons of physical share trading against share CFDs*.
Customisable margins and transaction based stop looses
Over the last few years we have seen extreme movements in the share markets so we wanted to offer our clients additional tools to protect them during times of volatility. This is why we introduced our customisable margin and transaction based stop loss tools.
Customisable margin
You now have the option to choose your own margin requirements for each and every trade which can help you manage risk and financing costs. From a financing perspective, if you decided to fund 50% of the trade and use 50% margin, you would only pay financing on your net borrowings (in this case 50% of the total trade).
Traditionally most companies have fixed margin requirements and you have to pay financing on the total position size regardless of your margin. At CMC Markets we believe customisable margin (the ability to deleverage your position) is a cost effective way for our clients to manage their financing costs.
By using a customisable margin you can control your risk and financing during volatile markets to try and avoid a quick liquidation of your positions if they move against you.
Transaction based stop losses
Whenever you open a trade the platform will automatically suggests a stop loss based on the margin requirement for your trade (this feature can be disabled in preferences). This will be done by product, every time you trade.
If you vary your margin the stop loss will be aligned to your new margin requirements automatically. There is a simple financing slider in the deal ticket to allow you to select margins up or down. This enables you to balance your risk profile against your borrowing requirements. This new feature is only available to CMC Markets clients.
You can also have the platform automatically suggest a take profit order at a percentage of the market price. So if the stop loss is set at 5% you could have the take profit level automatically set at 10% to create a 2 to 1 Risk to Reward ratio. (You can enable this feature in preferences)
No minimum trade sizes with CFDs fractional trading
Our Next Generation CFD platform allows us to offer you the unique ability to trade shares at a fraction of any amount. This effectively means there is now no longer a minimum trade size when trading equity CFDs.
If you were to trade Vodafone with a traditional stock broker you would have to take out a minimum trade size of let’s say 100 shares. When you trade in this size you will quite often have to pay a minimum commission amount making the trade expensive. In effect, you may be paying commission on shares you have not bought.
With CMC Markets you can take out 0.01 of a share (called a unit). And remember there is no minimum commission charge so you can do whatever trade size you feel comfortable with and you just pay for what you have bought.
Low financing costs
CMC Markets current overnight borrowing rate is the Reuters zero coupon rate plus 2%. If the Reuters Zero Coupon rate is 1% your borrowing rate will be 3%. If you’re total position size is £10,000 then at 5% margin you will be borrowing £9,500 so your total overnight borrowing cost is equal to:
Bet borrowing cost = (£9,500 x 3%) / 365
Bet borrowing cost = £0.80 per night
Financing statement
Our financing costs are transparent. Every day, just after 17:00 New York time, any financing cost applicable for the previous day’s trading will be calculated and deducted from your account. Simply click on the summarised financing line and a detailed description of each charge with financing rates and carry costs will be available.
Trade the world from one account
One of the great advantages of CFD trading is access to the global financial markets all through one single account. You can also trade share CFDs markets in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. You can also trade forex, indices and commodities.
Click here for a complete list of all our shares products
Automatic balance conversions and 100% automation
Unlike physical share trading accounts CMC Markets automatically converts all of your positions and trades into your local currency using our current FX spot rates. When dealing with instruments that are traded in other currencies you no longer need to calculate this back into your home currency. You now know your financial position instantly.
In addition to this we offer 100% automation of all our trades meaning no dealer intervention. You also wanted fast execution so we give you millisecond trading, meaning you can get in and out of the market quickly.
Treatment of dividends and corporate actions
When you spread bet or use CFDs to trade stocks or an equity index, you are still able to benefit from dividends when they are paid.
If you have bought (gone long) you will be paid an additional credit equal to the dividend yield relative to the size of your position. If you are short (you have sold) a stock or an equity index when dividends are due, then you will incur a debit from your account, equal to the dividend yield relative to the size of your position.
During volatile market conditions this can be extremely important on any trade.
In-built commission
In addition we wanted to make trading share CFDs as clear and transparent as possible so we have built into our dealing spread the 0.05 % commission charge so when you execute a share CFD trade with us the commission charge is built into the spread. So what you see is what you get. There will be no additional commission charge to your account. You click and trade and that is it. This also applies to resting stops and limit orders.