Instruments and markets

Bitcoin CFD

A contract for difference tracking the price of bitcoin. It gives exposure to the price move without holding the asset, with no wallet, no custody and no settlement in the coin itself.

Commodities

Raw materials traded as instruments - energy, metals and agricultural products. Prices are driven by physical supply and demand rather than by interest rates, which makes them move on a different calendar from financial instruments.

Contract for difference

An agreement to exchange the difference in an instrument's price between opening and closing a position. It gives exposure to the move without ownership of the underlying asset.

Crude oil

The two benchmark crude grades - WTI in the US and Brent internationally - traded as instruments priced per barrel. Both are volatile and both respond to inventory data and production decisions.

Cryptocurrency

Digital assets traded around the clock, offered on most retail platforms as contracts for difference rather than as the asset itself. Volatility is high and it does not pause for a weekend.

Exotic pairs

Pairs matching a major currency with a smaller or emerging-market one - USD/TRY, USD/ZAR, USD/MXN and similar. Spreads are wide, moves are large, swap charges are heavy and liquidity can disappear with very little warning.

Forex

The market for exchanging one currency for another, traded as pairs. It runs 24 hours from Sunday evening to Friday evening and is the deepest market by volume, which is why spreads on major pairs are so tight.

Indices

Instruments tracking a basket of shares - the Dow, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and their international equivalents. Traded as contracts for difference, they give index exposure without owning any share.

Major pairs

The most traded currency pairs, all quoted against the US dollar: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD and AUD/USD. They carry the tightest spreads and the deepest liquidity, which makes them the cheapest pairs to trade frequently.

Minor pairs

Pairs between major currencies that do not include the US dollar - EUR/GBP, GBP/JPY, EUR/AUD and similar. Spreads are wider than on the majors and daily ranges are often larger, so the same strategy costs more to run.

NAS100

The common symbol for an instrument tracking the Nasdaq 100, an index of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq. It is the most volatile of the major US index instruments.

Natural gas

A traded energy instrument priced per unit of gas, known for volatility well beyond any other commodity. Weather forecasts and weekly storage data drive most of its movement, and daily ranges regularly dwarf those of currency pairs.

Silver

Spot silver, quoted as XAG/USD in US dollars per troy ounce. It tends to move with gold but with a larger percentage range and materially thinner liquidity, which makes position sizing carried over from gold too large.

SPX500

The common symbol for an instrument tracking the S&P 500, a market-cap weighted index of 500 large US companies. It is the standard benchmark for the US equity market.

Tick value

What one minimum price increment is worth per contract. It is the futures and index equivalent of pip value, and it converts a stop distance directly into a dollar figure.

Underlying

The asset a derivative's price is derived from - the index behind an index contract, the barrel of oil behind an oil contract. You trade the derivative; the underlying sets its price.

US30

The common symbol for an instrument tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a price-weighted index of 30 large US companies. It is quoted in index points, each worth a fixed amount per contract.

XAU/USD

The symbol for spot gold priced in US dollars - XAU is the code for one troy ounce. It is the most traded metal instrument and one of the most volatile instruments on a retail platform.