How to start trading

When browsing the product library, there are many options to filter by. You can choose between cash and forward instruments, asset class (type), sector or industry (sub-type), region and specific country. We also offer topical categories. Our ‘Hot Products’ section is based on instruments whose recent trade volume has increased significantly versus the monthly average, whereas the ‘Price Movers’ shows particularly volatile price movements.

Share baskets are exclusive to CMC Markets’ clients. These allow you to trade on a basket of stocks that fall under a relevant theme, including Big Tech, Driverless Cars, Renewable Energy, 5G and Oil & Gas. In comparison to trading on individual shares, share baskets come with lower holding costs and zero commission fees. These can also help to diversify your portfolio. Learn more about thematic investing​.

These charts can be analysed in various timeframes, depending on whether you are employing a short-term or long-term strategy. For example, if you choose to use a scalping strategy​ for a popular forex pair, you could set the time interval in the first tab to 5, 10 or 30 seconds, allowing you to capitalise on small price movements. If you choose to use a position trading strategy for a blue-chip stock, you could set the time history in the second tab to 1, 3 or 6 months, allowing you to grasp the overall trend and direction of the chart. Learn about trading on different chart timeframes​​.

As all instruments require the use of margin (or leverage), with differing percentages, you do not have to pay the full value of the position upfront. Margin trading comes with many risks, so it is important that you understand the risks of leverage​​ before placing an order.

Please note that once an order is placed with one-click trading, you will not have a chance to cancel the order, so you should take extreme care when using this feature. Watch our video tutorial on one-click trading to get started.

There are also draw tools that traders can apply to the chart manually. These include technical aspects such as trendlines​ ​and trend channels, support and resistance levels and Fibonacci retracements. There are also more simple draw tools such as buy and sell arrows and price projection boxes, which you can use to highlight possible entry and exit points on the chart.

You can search for instruments that have shown recent breakout and emerging patterns in the ‘News & Analysis’ tab, which will be applied automatically to their price chart, or you can apply them manually through the ‘Patterns tab’ at the bottom of the price chart.

These fundamental reports highlight key company statistics, such as market capitalisation, dividend yield, revenue, earnings per share and more. They also suggest whether a particular share is under or over-valued in the stock market, which can help you to make appropriate trading decisions, based on your strategy and goals.

You can also use the instrument’s chart to open a Reuters news feed. This will bring up any recent news that is relevant to the share (or commodity, currency pair, index or treasury) that you are looking at. For example, when opening a Reuters feed from the Newmont price chart, this shows relevant news and headlines related to the gold or mining industries.

Read our article on how to trade the news using our fundamental platform tools.

• Create watchlists. You can create a trading watchlist based on the instruments that you want to monitor. This often comes in the form of a stock watchlist, although you can also create commodity, index and forex watchlists, or a mix of multiple asset classes. Learn how to create a watchlist on our platform.
• Set up trading and price alerts. Trading alerts are free and automatic notifications that you can switch on for desktop or mobile, in the form of emails, SMS or push notifications on the app. Read about setting up trading alerts, which include price alerts, trade execution alerts and notifications for upcoming economic events.
• Access our exclusive trading forum. With a live account, you will have access to our social trading forum​. Here, users of the platform can share information about the financial markets, as well as strategies and tips for trading. It is commonly used for copy trading also, as users can share their own chart analyses with others and explain how they may have experienced profit.
• Analyse market sentiment. Our client sentiment indicator is a useful trading tool that displays user behaviour on our platform. It shows the percentage of clients that are currently going long or short on an asset, which may help or influence your own trading decisions, based on if there is strong market sentiment toward a particular asset. Learn about our client sentiment tool.

Our wide range of charting features and trading tools, both fundamental and technical, can be used on our spread betting platform​ or CFD trading platform​, depending on which product you decide to trade.

1. Open an account.
2. Choose your product between spread betting and CFDs.
3. Consult our trading guides and platform tutorials.
4. Keep up to date with market news.
5. Utilise risk-management tools such as stop-loss and take-profit orders.