CFD trading on shares

Yes, you’ll pay commission to trade any share CFD markets with City Index – unlike all other asset classes, where you’ll pay via the spread instead. This makes the process of buying share CFDs fairly similar to the underlying market.

Our commission rates are just 0.08% on European and UK markets, or 1.8 cents per share on US ones. There’s a minimum commission of £10 on UK stocks, €10 on EU stocks and $10 on US stocks.

Want to trade shares with no commissions? Open a spread betting account, which features zero commissions on any markets.

A share is a single unit of ownership in a publicly traded company. A CFD is a contract that enables you to trade on the price movements of shares – alongside lots of other markets including indices, forex and commodities – without ever owning the underlying asset.

When you buy a single share CFD, it gives you the same exposure as buying one share. Buying one Apple CFD, for example, is the equivalent of buying an Apple share. However, the key difference is that with the CFD you never take ownership of the share itself. Instead, you’re trading a contract in which you agree to exchange the difference in the stock’s price from when you open your position to when you close it.

Learn more about CFDs vs shares.

When you trade a share CFD, you’re entering into a contract in which you and your CFD provider agree to exchange the difference in an asset’s price from when your position is opened to when it is closed.

Say, for example, that you buy 100 Coca-Cola CFDs at $55, then close your position at $60. You’d exchange the difference between $60 and $55, earning you a profit of $5 for each CFD you bought – or $500 overall. If Coca-Cola had fallen to $52 instead, you’d lose $300.

Learn more about how CFDs work.