Trading success can often be the result of minimizing your losses and this very point is emphasized when trading a highly leveraged product like Index CFDs. In fact the golden rule of trading success can be found in the old trading maxim: Cut your losses off short and let your profits run and if you are able to follow this formula for success you should be on the right side of the ledger more often than not.

What is an Index CFD?

Index CFDs are highly leveraged CFD products that enable you to gain access to the main indices around the world. You can begin trading the SPI 200 (sometimes referred to as the Aussie 200), FTSE, Nasdaq, S&P 500, Dow Jones and CAC 40 to name a few. You get an amazing amount of leverage as most CFD brokers allow you to trade at 1% margin or 100 times leverage.

The greatest risk to your trading account

Trading Index Contracts for Difference at 100 times leverage or 1% margin allows you to make extremely large gains or losses on your trading account. It is for this very reason that the number 1 risk to you when trading index CFDs is the way you control your leverage. When trading it is important to understand that you control the leverage on your account. This means that with $10,000 cash in your trading account, you can access as little or as much leverage as you desire. In effect this means you control how much risk you take on board by either trading a very low levels of leverage or trading risky at very high levels of leverage. Clearly the smartest option is to keep your leverage very small.

The hidden costs of trading Commission free index CFDs

Incredible amounts of marketing dollars are spent attracting new market participants to trading index CFDs and the main emphasis is on ‘commission free trading’. Now whilst they are not lying it is important to read the fine print and get a feel for what the real costs to trading this product are. All CFD brokers charge an overnight financing rate which means for every day you hold the position long, you get charged a certain rate. For index CFDs that rate is normally plus or minus 4% as opposed to plus or minus 3% for share CFDs so bear this in mind when trading the indices.