CFD margin and leverage explained

• What is leverage in CFD trading?
• Benefits of leverage
• CFD leverage example
• What is CFD margin?
• Calculating margin
• The costs of leverage in CFDs
• How to manage CFD risks

What is leverage in CFD trading?

In CFD trading, leverage is the ability to trade without paying for the full value of your position upfront. Instead, you only have to pay a deposit called your margin.

While leverage is a powerful benefit, it will also increase your risk. So, before you start trading on margin, it’s a good idea to learn how it works – and how to manage risk using stop losses.

Want an introduction to CFDs? Take a look at the what is CFD trading page.

How leverage works in CFDs

Leverage works in CFDs because you never own the asset you’re buying and selling. You’re only speculating on price movements, which means you don’t have to pay for the full value of your chosen asset outright.

Say, for example, that you want to trade 10 US SP 500 (S&P 500) CFDs when the S&P 500 is at 4,500. 

The full value of your position is ($10 * 4,500) $45,000, but you won’t need that much in your account to execute your trade. You’ll just need to put down your margin.

Your profit or loss, though, will still be based on the full $45,000. You’ll make $10 for every point that the S&P moves in your favour, and lose $10 for every point it moves against you.

Benefits of leverage in CFD trading

Trading on leverage means you can gain the same amount of market exposure by depositing just a small fraction of the total value of your trade. This can be useful to CFD traders because it means that they can put their money to use elsewhere.

In our example above, you might only have to pay 5% of $45,000, or $2,250, to open your position. That frees up the remaining $42,750.

Another key benefit of leverage is that it helps magnify your returns, which is great news if the market moves in the direction that you expect. However, this comes with the downside that leverage will also magnify your losses – in exactly the same way as your gains.

CFD leverage example: share trading vs CFDs

To see how leveraged CFDs work in practice, let’s take a look at an example.

You want to trade 1,000 shares in company XYZ, which has a current share price of $2.50. You could invest in XYZ using share dealing, or you could buy 1000 XYZ CFDs.

Either way, the total size of your position would be $2,500 ($2.50 * 1000).

 

XYZ’s margin requirement is 20%. So by using CFDs and not physical share dealing, you only have to deposit $500 to execute your trade.

By trading on leverage, you’ve freed up additional funds to use elsewhere.

How leverage can magnify profits

Now let’s say that company XYZ’s share price rallies after strong earnings, increasing to $2.60 – so you decide to close out your trade.

With both share dealing and CFD trading, you would have made a return of $100 ($2.60 -$2.50 * 1,000) . However, the return on your CFD would be 20%, compared to just 4% on your investment. 

Why? Because you only deposited $500 to open the CFD position. 

 

How leverage can magnify losses

That’s how leverage works with a profitable position – but the same will apply if you close out at a loss.

Suppose your trade on XYZ was unsuccessful and you decide to close with a $100 loss. In this scenario,  the return on your CFD deposit would be -20%, because you’ve lost $100 when you deposited $500.

The return on your share trade, meanwhile, would be -4%. Using leverage has magnified your losses.

 

What is CFD margin?

CFD margin is the minimum amount that you’ll need to have in your account to trade or maintain a contract for difference.

Margin requirements vary across markets, and are always given as a percentage. The percentage tells you how much of your position’s full value you’ll need to deposit. The higher the requirement, the more volatile or illiquid the market.

To see the margin requirement for any City Index market, head over to the ‘Market 360’ tab on your trading platform.

Margin calls and close out levels

To keep a leveraged trade open, you’ll need to ensure that you have the required funds in your account to cover your margin at all times – especially if your position makes a loss.

Say, for instance, that you’ve only deposited the required $500 to buy your XYZ CFDs. If XYZ’s share price drops and your position sits at -$50, then you’ll only have $450 equity in your account, which isn’t enough to cover your margin requirement. 

This situation is called a margin call, and means your position is at risk of being closed. City Index will begin to close out positions (in order of largest losing first) after funds have dropped below 50% of the trade's margin requirement. 

To avoid margin calls, you should always ensure you have sufficient funds in your account to cover your position for the period that you decide to hold open your trade. 

How do I calculate my required margin?

To calculate your required margin on any position, you need to know its total size and margin requirement. Let’s say, for example, that you want to buy 5 Wall Street CFDs at 34,000 and Wall Street has a margin requirement of 5%:

• The total size of your position is (5 * 34,000) $170,000
• 5% of $170,000 is $8,500
• You need $8,500 in your account as margin

However, you don’t need to calculate any of this manually – whenever you open a position in the City Index platform, you’ll see how much you’ll need in your account displayed on the deal ticket.

Keeping a CFD position open

When you have multiple positions open at once, keeping track of your total margin requirement can be tricky. But again, you don’t need to calculate anything yourself. Instead, you can use the Margin Indicator on the City Index platform.

The Margin Indicator is always displayed at the top of our Web Trader platform, or in the dropdown from the top of the mobile app. It tells you how much equity you have in your account, compared to your total margin requirement.

• If the indicator is greater than 100%, then you have the funds on your account required to keep your positions open.
• If it falls below 100%, your account will be subject to a margin call. This means that you no longer have the required funds on your account to meet the margin requirement, and you should take action (detailed below) to address this. A warning symbol will also be displayed next to the margin indicator.
• Should it fall below 50%, one or more of your open positions will be automatically closed, until the indicator returns above 50%. This is to prevent you from incurring additional losses, and you’ll be notified via email when automatic closeout has occurred.

What should you do if you are on margin call?

If you are on margin call, you have three potential options:

1. Close out your trade, realise the loss and reduce your overall margin requirement
2. Reduce the size of your positions to free up some equity in your account
3. Add additional funds to your account. You’ll need to cover the shortfall in margin, and may want to consider additional funds to sustain any further losses

The costs of leveraged trading

As well as ensuring you have enough funds on your account to cover the margin, you'll have to pay other costs to cover a leveraged CFD trade. Chief of these is overnight financing.

When you trade on leverage, your provider is essentially lending you the funds to cover the full size of your position. Overnight financing is the cost of keeping this loan open for more than a single trading day.

Find out more about the costs of CFD trading.

Three ways to manage CFD risks

1. Use margin sensibly



It’s usually a good idea to be prudent when sizing CFD positions, instead of using up all the free equity in your account as margin. As we’ve already covered, you could quickly find yourself on a margin call otherwise.

Many traders limit themselves to only risking 1% or 2% of their total funds on an individual opportunity. That way, you can sustain multiple losses without running the risk of a margin call.


2. Use stop losses



Stop-loss orders will automatically close out a trade if it hits a certain level of loss – which can help limit your risk on any given position. You can add them via the deal ticket, or to an existing trade.

When placing a stop-loss order, it is important to note that the price at which your position is closed could be different from where you placed your stop, if the market gaps. Gaps occur when there is significant market volatility and prices change rapidly, meaning that closing prices can differ from the trigger prices that have been set.

To remove the risk of gaps negatively affecting your stops, you can use a guaranteed stop loss order (GSLO). These will always trigger at the price you set, even in highly volatile markets. They are free to place across thousands of markets, and you’ll only pay a small fee (known as the ‘stop premium’) if your stop is triggered.

3. Use CFDs to hedge



As CFDs allow you to short sell and potentially profit from falling market prices, they are sometimes used as a hedging tool by investors as 'insurance' to offset losses made in their portfolios.

For example, if you have a long-term portfolio, but feel that there is a short-term risk to the value of your investments, you could use CFDs to mitigate a short-term loss by 'hedging' your position.

This way, if the value of your portfolio does fall, the profit in the CFDs would help you offset these losses, enabling you to retain your portfolio without incurring any significant loss to its overall value.

CFD margin and leverage FAQs

What are City Index's margins?

City Index’s margins on CFDs range from 5% for most forex pairs and indices to 20% for selected commodities. For a full breakdown of margins, spreads and full pricing information, please visit our pricing and charges section.

What markets can I trade using leverage?

You can trade with leverage across a wide range of markets with City Index, from FX and shares to indices and commodities. Our pricing and charges section breaks down everything you need to know.