Best UK CFD Brokers For Active & High-Volume Traders

StoneX Trading is essentially the new home of City Index, which has always been one of my favourite CFD brokers, particularly for more active and experienced traders.

What I like about StoneX Trading is that it sits somewhere between the newer app-only CFD brokers and the more complicated professional trading platforms. The main Web Trader platform is very easy to use, but there is still plenty going on underneath, with decent charting, trading signals, Performance Analytics and market research.

You also get a good choice of ways to trade. There is the main StoneX Trading web platform and app, TradingView integration and MT4 for traders who want something more technical.

One of the things I have always liked about City Index, and which remains important under StoneX Trading, is that it feels like a proper trading broker rather than just an app. That's particularly relevant if you are trading larger positions and want access to decent research and trading tools rather than simply a big buy and sell button.

The main downside is that StoneX Trading is an OTC CFD broker rather than a DMA broker, so if you want to work orders directly into an exchange order book there are better options. But for the majority of retail CFD traders, StoneX Trading offers a very good combination of competitive pricing, decent market coverage, good platforms and useful analysis tools.

Overall, StoneX Trading is a good choice for active CFD traders who want more trading tools and market analysis than you tend to get from the cheaper app-based brokers.

Pricing

StoneX Trading’s CFD pricing is competitive, although what you pay depends on what you trade.

Forex spreads start from 0.2 pips with no commission, while index spreads start from 0.3 points and commodities from 0.05 points. Share CFDs are priced differently, with US shares charged from 1.8 cents per share and UK shares from 0.08%. StoneX Trading only charges a separate commission on share CFDs; other CFD markets are traded through the spread.

As with other CFD brokers, you also need to consider overnight financing if you keep leveraged positions open overnight. This can become a significant part of your trading costs if you hold CFD positions for longer periods rather than using them for short-term trading.

One feature I particularly like is extended-hours trading. You can trade some leading US shares and indices before and after the main market session. The spreads can naturally be wider when the underlying market is closed, but it is useful if, for example, Tesla or Nvidia reports after the closing bell and you want to trade the initial reaction rather than waiting until the following day.

Market Access

StoneX Trading gives you access to more than 5,000 CFD markets from a single account. These include global stock indices, individual shares, forex pairs, commodities and a range of other markets.

That is more than enough market coverage for most CFD traders and means you can use one account for trading everything from the FTSE and Wall Street to individual US shares, currencies and commodities.

StoneX Trading also offers extended-hours trading on leading US shares and indices, which is becoming increasingly important as more market-moving company announcements take place outside normal US market hours.

It is worth pointing out that StoneX Trading operates as an OTC CFD broker rather than offering DMA CFDs. So you are trading against StoneX Trading's CFD prices rather than placing your order directly onto an exchange order book. For most retail traders that isn't really an issue, but more sophisticated equity traders who specifically want DMA may prefer a broker that provides it.

Platform & Apps

StoneX Trading gives you a good choice of platforms depending on how you trade.

The main Web Trader platform runs in your browser and has customisable workspaces and Performance Analytics. There is also the StoneX Trading mobile app, which is useful if you want to monitor positions and trade when you are away from your desk.

You can also connect to TradingView and trade directly from TradingView charts, which is a particularly good option if you already use TradingView for technical analysis. More technical traders can use MetaTrader 4, although MT4 access is focused on forex, commodities and indices.

Personally, I think the main StoneX Trading platform will be the best option for most CFD traders. It strikes a good balance between having plenty of functionality without making the platform unnecessarily complicated.

One of the more useful features is Performance Analytics. It looks at how you actually trade rather than just what the market is doing. You can analyse your trading behaviour and identify where you perform well, where you make mistakes and whether you are actually sticking to your trading plan.

Customer Service

Customer service has traditionally been one of the areas that differentiated City Index from many of the newer CFD trading apps.

There is a big difference between having a problem with a trading account and being able to speak to somebody who understands trading, versus going backwards and forwards with an automated chatbot.

StoneX Trading provides online support and chat alongside its trading platforms, and the business retains the feel of an established trading broker rather than a fintech app.

That is particularly important for larger and more active traders. If you are trading meaningful amounts of money, customer service becomes much more important than saving a fraction of a point on the spread.

Research & Analysis

Research and analysis is one of StoneX Trading's stronger areas.

You get access to market coverage from StoneX's global analysts, as well as StoneX TV and Market Intelligence. That is particularly interesting following the move from City Index to StoneX Trading because the StoneX Group has a much broader institutional presence in the financial markets.

There is also Performance Analytics, which I think is one of the more useful tools because it focuses on your own trading rather than just throwing more market commentary at you. It analyses your trading patterns so you can see when, where and how you tend to trade well or badly.

That may sound a little gimmicky, but one of the biggest problems CFD traders have is not finding trading ideas; it is sticking to a strategy and avoiding the same mistakes. Having something that analyses your actual behaviour can therefore be considerably more useful than another technical indicator.

Combined with the charting and analysis available through TradingView and MT4, StoneX Trading offers a good research package for traders who actually want to spend some time analysing markets rather than simply following prices on an app.

FOREX.com won Best Forex Broker in the 2025 Good Money Guide Awards.
Plus, as well as being regulated by the top tier FCA in the UK, FOREX.com is regulated by CySEC, NFA, CIRO, MAS, ASIC, CIMA, and FSA with access to over 7,000 markets, exclusively via CFDs.

24-Hour FOREX.com Test

I took FOREX.com out for a 24-hour test drive, to trade with real money and try out some of the key features on the streets of the City of London. Here's what happened...

"For FX sake", I thought to myself when faced with writing a review about a forex broker. Firstly because all these brokers do is offer access to the forex market (or so I believed). Secondly, because I've never had much success with forex trading.  I find the nuances of intra-day technical analysis too complicated.

I'm an old-fashioned trader – I like to look at the market and think it's either overvalued or undervalued and, in my mind anyway, that's easier when looking at a company's share price, an index or even a commodity. But for some reason, with forex trading, I've never really got the hang of it.

Having said that, I have dealt currency for about 20 years now, but more as a broker rather than as a trader. For instance, I used to do some prime brokerage for institutions that would hedge their currency exposure when buying aeroplanes.

But I was so frustrated with how opaque pricing was in currency trading, that I decided to start up my own currency brokerage specialising in high-value currency transfers (£250,000 upwards) and undercutting everyone. It was called Berry FX, you can still see the demo on YouTube. Basically, personal service with the best rates anywhere ever. But now I just let other currency brokers compete for clients by trying to offer the best exchange rates.

But you want to know what I think of FOREX.com.

24 Hour Test

I took FOREX.com out for a 24-hour test drive around the City of London, putting some real trades on whilst going about my business to see if I could make any money.

I started out at the Bank of England with £10,000 on account at 11:30am. Lunch was a few minutes' walk from the tube station, so I took the opportunity to put some trades on using FOREX.com's trading signals. I've used these for years; back in 2018, they were known as GetGo and it was a standalone forex trading app. When I reviewed it then, I said these were the future of forex trading signals but are they still?

There are a couple of things that make these signals better than the rest.

• They tell you the success rate.
• The signal is linked to an order ticket.

When I was walking down King William Street to L’Antipasto to meet some contacts for lunch, I put a few trades on. First, I looked at the traders that had a historic success rate of over 50% and followed them. Then I looked at trading signals that had a success rate of less than 50% and traded against them. It's a pretty simple strategy that generally works (not always, though). I used the classic stop/limit risk/reward ratio, aiming for twice the potential loss as a potential win. Again, simple forex trading strategies. The market is not hard to call, but if you get a trade right, it often pays to let it run for longer, but if it's wrong, close it sooner.

Trading Central

On the way to my next meeting, I took a few moments on London Bridge to look at some of the other signals on FOREX.com: Trading Central. Now, Trading Central has been providing technical analysis to brokers for decades and supplies a constant stream of manually and automatically updated trading ideas throughout the day to give traders an indication of where the markets may go.

It's not as fluid as the trading signals, as you have to put the trades in manually, but still gives you a bit of stimulus. This is great for someone like me because I generally have an idea of what I want to do from eyeballing a chart (I did, after all, run a technical analysis division for 5 years), but it's nice to get confirmation of your thoughts one way or another.

Execution

When you are actually trading there are some great other features on the app:

• Swipe to trade: a bit like Tinder (so I hear)
• Chart on tickets: with a quick tap, you can bring up a chart when on the order ticket (to double-check)
• Working orders on charts: when looking at a chart, you can see your working orders and positions
• Position potential: as well as seeing what margin is required when placing a trade, you can also see and set your stops and limits as a potential monetary amount instead of pips

Post-Trade Analytics

Once you've done a bit of trading, you can review your trading history and see where you do well and where you can improve. This is a great feature as it can break down how well you trade by time of day, markets or volatility.

You can also set up "Play Maker" if you have a trading strategy and want to stick to it. Obviously, you can't get that sort of data in a 24-hour test drive, so I'll have to revisit that another time.

Demo Account

FOREX.com has a pretty good demo account. In fact, it's hard to tell the difference between the demo and live trading platform. You get the same functionality and as trades are OTC, the same prices.

However, when I opened a demo account to test it, I already had a real account. So after I got my demo account login details, I clicked through to the "Webtrader" portal and (funny or alarming, depending on how you look at it) my live account details were auto-filled in by Google Chrome.

Now, had I not been checking my email, to ensure that the platform had sent me through my credentials, I might not have noticed that I was logging into a live account. It could have been disastrous if I'd started trading away thinking it was paper money. Even more so as you get £10,000 in demo funds and I'd deposited £10,000 in my live account when I took FOREX.com on a 24-hour trading signal test drive.

It reminded me of when a trader thought that he was trading on a demo account and put $1bn worth of orders through and then sued his broker because it voided his €10m profits.

TradingView & MetaQuotes

I had a good play about with TradingView, as it's now the go-to destination for traders. TradingView is a sort of social network for traders where you can view charts (they are excellent) and post trading ideas (take with a pinch of salt). As TradingView has grown, it has also become an execution venue, so you can link your FOREX.com trading account and deal straight from the charts. This shouldn't be too much of a stretch for most traders as the charts on the app and web-based platform are provided by TradingView (which, incidentally, is one of the largest financial-based websites in the world now).

You can also trade on MT4 or MT5 (but only MT5 in the EU), if you are into that sort of thing...

Am I a Forexpert?

I did make money on day one, mainly thanks to putting on a GBP-USD trade that covered most of the losses from some of the other trades. When I used the trading signals 5 years ago, I also made money. Day 2 wasn't so good. On my way to an investor show, I gave back a few pennies but still ended up on top. But I have to admit my traders were calculated guesses rather than heavily researched positions.

I don't like holding positions overnight, as day trading reduces not only your margin requirements but also increases the amount of sleep you get because you don't wake up with cold sweats in the middle of the night worrying about Asian interest rates.

Overall would I recommend forex.com? Yes, if you are going to trade forex and don't know where to start, as it's a massive brand with global reach and owned by a listed brokerage with an institutional pedigree. As far as box-ticking is concerned, it ticks the lot. Or should I say pips the lot...

Capital.com has a user friendly and intuitive trading platform and app, that gives access to the most popular financial markets with competitive spreads with the ability to reduce risk by decreasing your leverage. Trading via the app has always been capital.com's forte, and in 202, it won our award for "best trading app" not in part due to the fact that the company CTO has extensive experience in building engaging apps like Candy Crush.

What makes Capital.com different? Thumbs up, literally

Do you know what one of the most impressive thing about Capital.com is? They put the buy and sell buttons at the bottom of the app.

I don't mean that in a facetious way, it's genuinely a brilliant feature.

This may not sound like much but it's a good example of how Capital.com has integrated decades of analytics, experience, feedback and customer data into creating a very easy-to-use intuitive trading app from scratch.

When Capital.com first became authorised by the FCA back in 2018, I visited their offices in London to have a chat about what they offer. The two main things we discussed were button placement and AI.

Trading App

But anyway, if you've updated your iPhone to the latest iOS you'll notice that Apple has started moving things to the bottom of the screen, the search bar for instance. This is because, phones are getting bigger, and your thumb can't reach the top of the screen if you are holding it with one hand. This is something that Capital.com figured out would make trading easier 5 years ago. I've just been through a bunch of other trading apps on my phone and still, amazingly enough, none of the other brokers have done this yet.

Capital.com was also the first to integrate artificial intelligence to help you improve your trading, they say, based on the Martingale theory. When I spoke to Chris Demetriou, the head of sales in the UK, he said that the system should give you prompts based on your previous trades. So for example, if you are about to do a trade that is similar to ones you have constantly lost on before, you should get a "are you sure you want to do this" notification.

Leverage Control

Everybody knows, that one of the main reasons people lose money when trading is overleverage. This could be either from not having enough free cash on account to give your position breathing space, or simply putting on trades that are too risky. One really good feature is that you can change your leverage based on asset class. The default leverage is the max that retail traders in the UK are permitted, but you can change this to 1:1 so you need to fully pay up for positions. A sensible thing to do if you are just getting started, which can help reduce excessive losses. As your experience grows you can increase your leverage accordingly.

Hedging

You can also set the platform to put on hedging positions, so you can be long and short the same thing at the same time. Why you ask? Well, it can help you run longer-term positions and short-term hedges. This in fact is the very point of CFDs. They were originally hedging tools, and still a good way to protect your long-term investment portfolio against short-term market corrections without having to close off your positions.

Customer Support

Customer support is pretty good too, you can get in touch via the chat widget on the platform, whatsapp or telegram. When I tested it I got a response within a minute and the issue I had was dealt with quickly (uploading ID to verify my account if you must know).

TradingView

You can't trade from the charts, but when you have open positions they are overlayed along with your stops and limits, which you can move by dragging and dropping. But, if charting is your thing, you can join the other 78,000 Capital.com customers using and trading from TradingView.

Proprietory Tech

One thing I quite like though is that instead of relying on third-party software, the Capital.com trading platform is built in-house, and if you want something you can ask for it. For example, previously on the app you could see where an asset is as a percentage relative to the daily range. But, a customer asked, if you could see it in points too. So, that was quickly integrated so that you can now toggle between percentages and points. A small thing, but indicative of a broker that can do things and does do things, rather than just logging a helpdesk ticket.

Refinitiv

There are no trading signals on the platform or app, but you do get access to Refinitiv reports on US stocks, which give you a good overview of historic and potential future financial health. A good feature for those looking at slightly longer-term positions.

Overnight funding

Talking of long positions, or longer long positions, Capital.com also display quite clearly what your overnight financing rates are going to be on a daily basis. I'm sure this is a regulatory obligation anyway, but it's done in a way that you can actually see what the price is, rather than an opaque formula. It gives a bit more transparency about how much a position is going to cost you.

Investmate

If you are new to trading, they have a stand-alone app called Investmate, which puts you through a series of bitesize courses that explain the financial markets. Capital.com also own currency.com if you fancy a punt on crypto, and shares.com so we can expect to see more comprehensive physical investing options soon.

Yes, Plus500's trading platform has evolved nicely over the years from a simple interface to an intuitive execution venue for CFDs on the major markets and stocks.

1. Submit some documents to the company (identification, residence verification, etc.)
2. Read through several documents and complete a questionnaire
3. To be able to trade, you will need to fund your account (in the UK, the minimum initial deposit is £100).

Pricing: It's dynamic so moves with the market for minimum spreads.

Plus500 does not charge any trading commissions when you place a CFD trade. However, there are some fees you need to be aware of including:

• Overnight funding fees - This is either added to or subtracted from your account when holding a position after a certain time
• Currency conversion fee - There is a fee (0.7%) for all trades on instruments denominated in a currency different to the currency of your account
• Guaranteed stop-loss order fees - If you request a guaranteed stop loss on a trade, there will be a small fee
• Inactivity fees - If you do not log in to your trading account for three months, a fee of up to USD $10 per month will be applied to your account.

Withdrawals are free of charge no matter how many you make per month.

Deposits are also free of charge.

Market Access: Very good, Plus500 are always first to try new asset classes

With Plus500, you can trade CFDs on a range of assets and instruments including:

• Shares (e.g. Lloyds Bank, Tesla, Apple)
• Currencies/forex (e.g. GBP/USD)
• Commodities (e.g. gold, oil)
• Options (exchange-traded options)
• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
• Indices (e.g. FTSE 100, S&P 500, ESG indices)

Overall, there are over 2,800 assets you can trade with CFDs.

The maximum amount of leverage you can use with Plus500 varies depending on the asset class as shown in the table below. If you are trading forex, you can potentially borrow up to 30 times your own money. For shares, you can only borrow up to five times your own capital.

Plus500 margin rates:

• Shares - 1:5
• Forex - 1:30
• Commodities - 1:20
• Indices - 1:20
• Options - 1:5
• ETFs - 1:5

Platform & Apps: Basic execution, but it does the job well

Plus500 trading apps and platform also offers several tools to help traders manage risk including:

• Stop-loss orders - Traders can use these orders to automatically close out a losing position at a specific level
• Guaranteed stop-loss orders - A guaranteed stop-loss puts an absolute limit on your potential loss from a losing trade
• Trailing stop-loss orders - This type of stop loss moves upwards as the price of the security being traded rises
• Take profit orders - Traders can use these orders to automatically close out a winning position at a specific level.

Customer Service: Plus500 doesn't have a phone option, but its live chat is sufficient

Plus500's customer service options are limited to online chat, email and WhatsApp. So, you can’t contact the company by telephone. However, don’t let that put you off. We contacted the company via online chat and were very impressed with the service and support offered. 

It’s worth noting that support is available 24/7. This is a big plus – some other CFD providers only provide support during the week.

If you are a larger or professional trader you can get access to Plus500's Premium Service Package which includes:

• A dedicated premium service client manager.
• Periodic emails containing expert analysis of upcoming trading events.
• External trading webinars.
• A premium service customer support team.

The premium service is invitation only. To become a premium customer, you must have a real-money trading account.

However, if you want better margin rates but are not interested in the premium package you can upgrade to a professional account. The Plus500 professional account is an account designed for professional traders. With this account, you have access to higher levels of leverage (e.g. 1:20 for shares).

To be eligible for a professional account, you must meet two of the following three criteria:

• You’ve performed an average of at least 10 transactions per quarter, of significant size, over the previous four quarters on the relevant market (with Plus500 and/or other providers)
• You have a portfolio worth more than €500,000 (including cash savings and financial instruments)
• You have worked in the financial sector for at least a year in a professional position that requires knowledge of the related transactions or services.

Research & Analysis: Some sentiment, but limited education and analysis. Plus500 offers a range of additional features designed to help traders make money, including:

• Charting tools - Plus500's platform offers charts with a wide range of indicators and drawing tools to help traders identify and capitalise on patterns and trends (there 13 charting tools and over 100 indicators)
• Market news - On its website, there is a section dedicated to news and market insights
• Alerts - With Plus500, you can set up real-time email, SMS, and push notifications for trade alerts (e.g. price alerts or % change alerts)
• An economic calendar - The economic calendar is designed to help traders prepare for important economic data (e.g. inflation data, retail sales data, job reports, PMI data)
• +Insights - This is a feature that allows Plus500 users learn more about market trends based on the company’s internal data (e.g. most bought stocks, most sold stocks)
• Watchlists - Users can manage multiple watchlists.
• Trading Academy - Plus500’s Trading Academy offers a range of educational products including eBooks, videos, and FAQs
• Webinars - Plus500 offers regular webinars to its professional clients
• A free unlimited demo account - With the demo account, novice traders can learn to trade CFDs without risking real money.

Overall, Pepperstone offers one of the better CFD trading packages for active traders, particularly those who want tight spreads, access to MT4/MT5, TradingView and cTrader, and the ability to run automated trading strategies.

When testing Pepperstone, I found its main proposition to be a combination of competitive pricing and platform choice. Its Standard account includes the trading fee within the spread on forex, commodities and indices, while the Razor account provides raw spreads alongside commission-based pricing.

MT4 and MT5 are particularly good for traders running automated strategies and Pepperstone provides additional indicators and trading tools. cTrader offers a more traditional trading experience with strong charting and order management, while TradingView is a good option for traders who want to combine its charts and community features with Pepperstone execution.

Pepperstone has also expanded its own web trading platform and mobile app, so you are no longer reliant on third-party trading software.

What CFDs can you trade with Pepperstone?

Pepperstone's CFD range has expanded considerably and now includes more than 90 currency pairs, 1,100 global share CFDs, 20+ major stock indices, 40+ commodities and 90+ ETF CFDs.

You can trade major markets including the UK 100, S&P 500, Nasdaq, gold and crude oil, alongside UK, US and international shares. Pepperstone also offers 24-hour trading on selected US share CFDs.

One of the most interesting recent additions is Pepperstone's range of perpetual CFDs.

Pepperstone Perpetual CFDs

Perpetual CFDs are similar to conventional CFDs in that they allow you to speculate on rising or falling prices without owning the underlying asset. However, rather than having an expiry date or referencing a futures contract that periodically needs to roll, Pepperstone's perpetual CFDs have no fixed expiry.

They can also be traded 24/7, making them particularly interesting for traders who want to react to news and market movements outside normal exchange opening hours.

Pepperstone currently offers perpetual CFDs on markets including the NASDAQ 100, S&P 500, WTI and Brent crude oil and gold, as well as individual stocks and private-market themes including SpaceX. The range also includes major technology stocks such as Nvidia, Tesla, Google and MicroStrategy.

Rather than the conventional overnight financing calculation used by standard CFDs, Pepperstone sets the funding rate for its perpetual CFDs weekly in advance and applies it daily. This gives you greater visibility over what it will cost to keep a position open.

Perpetual CFDs are available through the same Pepperstone account and can be traded through TradingView, MT5, cTrader and Pepperstone's own platform, so there is no need to open a separate account or use a crypto wallet.

The main drawback is that these are proprietary OTC products created and managed by Pepperstone rather than exchange-traded futures. The perpetual CFD range is also much smaller than Pepperstone's overall CFD market list.

Pepperstone CFD pricing

Pepperstone offers two main CFD account types.

The Standard account charges no separate commission on forex, commodity and index CFDs, with Pepperstone's fee incorporated into the spread. Share CFDs are commission-based, with UK share CFD commissions starting from 0.1% per side.

The Razor account is aimed more at active traders and offers raw spreads from 0.0 pips on forex CFDs, with commission charged separately.

Standard CFDs held overnight can incur swap or rollover charges. Perpetual CFDs work differently, with a funding rate set weekly in advance and applied once per day.

I would say if you are in the UK it is better to spread bet with Spreadex rather than to trade CFDs. Pricing and market access is exactly the same and the only reason Spreadex started offering CFDs in 2017 was so that they could offer financial trading to non-UK customers.

Overall Spreadex is a good CFD broker for traders that want to trade on major and minor shares and put more of a focus on customer service than technology.

Spreadex has been providing trading since 1999, but only recently introduced CFD trading in 2017. The trading platform, whilst quite basic, does represent what Spreadex is good at, which is the major markets and customer service. Being a smaller CFD broker they have a bank of experienced dealers who can work orders for you and provide support for the CFD app and platform.

Recently Spreadex has become much more competently priced, offering UKX CFD trading with 1 pips spreads, 0.6 pips on EURUSD and 0.2% on UK shares. There is no minimum deposit and no inactivity fee.

Yes, IG is one of the best CFD trading platforms as they offer a huge range of markets to trade and DMA access for more sophisticated traders. Also, because IG offers CFDs globally (with the exception of the US) they have a huge amount of volume and liquidity meaning that sometimes you can place bigger orders via IG's order book than you could do on the underlying exchanges like the LSE or NYSE. Because of the sheer volume of CFD trades, IG is able to internally match up orders for quicker and larger fills.

CFD costs are included in the spread for retail traders, but you also have the option of trading with direct market access (DMA) on level-2 prices. This enables CFD traders to place orders within the bid/offer spread and get better prices. The commission is then charged post-trade. DMA CFD trading is often must more cost-effective for high-volume larger traders as fills are quicker and at better prices.

You can trade over 17,000 CFD markets with IG including 51 forex pairs, 38 commodities, 34 indices and over 10,000 stocks. You can also trade CFDs on IPO through their grey market. The CFD trading platform is constantly evolving due to customer feedback and IG has a wide range of news, sentiment and analysis that is based on the analytics from the platform on what traders are trading. So for example, if there is a lot of order flow around a particular stock or market, research is created to help traders better understand market moves.

The main thing though that makes IG stand out is it’s size and coverage. As a public company valued at over £3.5bn April 2022) they cater for new, experienced, professional as well as institutional CFD traders.

One key disadvantage of trading CFDs through IG is that you have to pay tax on profits. However, CFDs are not the only product that IG offer. You can also trade financial spread bets, where you do not have to pay capital gains tax on profits.

Overall, IG offers one of the best CFD trading platforms around and provides excellent educational guides and market access for every sort of trader.

Yes, CMC Markets is a CFD market marker in more ways than one. CMC operates a b-book dealing desk model where you are trading against them. CMC also provide liquidity as a market marker for smaller brokers to use their trading volumes.

Overall, CMC Markets is an excellent CFD trading platform with good market coverage and very competitive pricing. It’s most suited to short-term CFD traders speculating on the major markets.

One of the main features I like when trading through their platforms that makes CMC Markets stand out is how they present their CFD client sentiment indicators. Most brokers provide sentiment indicators based on what their clients are trading, but CMC enables CFD traders to break down what long and short positions their clients have by time frame and profitability. So you can filter in more profitable traders or longer-term positions.

CMC charges a bid-offer spread on CFDs on indices, commodities, FX and interest rates etc but charges a commission on CFDs over individual stocks and ETFs. Commissions start at 0.10% of the notional value of the trade for UK and European stocks, and at 2 cents per share for CFDs over US equities. Spreads vary by product and contract but are competitively priced relative to peers such as IG and Saxo Markets.

There are some excellent other features as well like thematic indices, share baskets, a wide range of order types, and the ability to enter, work and move orders direct from the charts.

Overall, XTB, is a well-established CFD trading platform with some nice added value that is suitable for most traders.

When I tested XTBs CFD brokerage I found what sets them apart is some of the platform features.

There are also some nice close-off features, so you can close all your CFD positions in one go, or if you want to cut your losses, just close the losers, or if you want to lock in profits you can just close your winning trades.

There is a lot of educational content on how to trade from various independent “experts” such as Tom Hougaard, Lee Stanford. As well as different courses on how to understand specific aspects of trading like technical analysis and trading psychology.

You also have a comprehensive suite of CFD trader tools like constantly updating market analysis including stock screeners, heatmaps and ETF scanners to help you pick out new trades. There is also an integrated news feed and economic calendar so you can check for upcoming events or news flow that may affect your open positions.

Is XTB CFD trading real DMA or OTC?

When you trade CFDs with XTB you are not buying or selling real shares, instead, you are entering into a contract for the difference between the opening and closing prices of your position with the broker. However, if you would rather not trade on fake prices you can buy real shares with XTB's investing plans.

XTB’s CFD trading platform offers access to a well over 2,000 CFD markets including 57 forex pairs, 22 commodities and 25 indices as well as UK, US and international stocks.

XTB News, Analysis & Trading Ideas

All brokers have news, technical analysis, economic announcements and fundamental data. Most even have RanSquark (where your computer shouts at you every time there is a market figure), but XTB also has an integrated dealing ticket so you can trade quickly from the analysis. You can see below in their recent Gold analysis. You can either place a market order to go long or short at your saved standard lot size or bring up a dealing ticket to work a limit.

Post-Trade Analysis

See a breakdown of what markets and trades you make or lose money.

XTB was one of the first brokers to introduce post-trade analysis, and this sits nicely alongside their ethos of trading to educate their clients rather than churn and burn them. You can see a recap of your previous trades in your account settings. This gives a very visual representation of which trades you make and lose money on. This is a really interesting feature because, as we all know, it’s hard to make money trading. But oddly enough it’s not that hard to pick winners.

Picking on Josh again, we highlighted an article he wrote (The truth about whether trading is actually winnable) way back in 2014, showing that the profitable trades were around 60%. It’s just that the losses were larger than the profits. This suggests that it is a post-trading strategy that is the issue. Not picking trades. So, by using this section to evaluate which trades you most frequently win on you should be able to improve your overall trading strategy.

Account Base Currencies

You can change your base currency in XTB by setting up different sub accounts.

This may not seem like a big deal on the surface, but it’s actually a really nice feature. One thing traders never really take into account when trading international markets is currency exposure.

Even when trading Forex, traders tend to just look at what is happening on the chart and not the overall economic climate. Trading profits are hugely affected by currency exposure and in some cases can wipe out profits. Also, as tight as deliverable foreign exchange rates are becoming they are still always never below 0.5%.

So if you are in the UK with GBP on account and trading US products your P&L will be in USD. This will then have to be converted into GBP before you can withdraw (unless you want to be at the mercy of your banks tourists rates (which you don’t)). But, if you go to your 'My Accounts' page you can open up sub accounts in GBP, USD, or EUR. So, if you have a strategy that mainly relies on non-local currencies you can reduce your FX fees and currency exposure.

You can also change the currency in the dealing ticket, between local and base currency, which can give you more control over your position exposure. This is particularly helpful, when FX markets are volatile.

Chart Grids

You can get an instant macro market overview in XTB with grid charts.

When I first started off as a stockbroker many decades ago we used this pricing system called QTS. It’s long gone now, but it had this great feature where you could get a grid view of a market with a single click. It was a great default view so you can instantly see what was going up or down without having to have multiple screens up.

I know you can set this up manually on most other brokers, but other than CMC, I don’t think it’s that easy anywhere else. XTB, have a really nice feature where you can see all your open charts as a grid. A very handy visual overview of what is going on.

Plus, if you’ve got a pending order you can see the levels on the chart. When I took the below screenshot I had a working stop entry in US500 (top right).

Trade From The Charts

You can add market orders, stops entries, limits and stop losses by clicking directly on the charts.

A lot of other brokers let you trade from the charts, which is an almost essential feature. Because let’s face it, you either place stops at support and resistance levels or base them on how much you want to win or lose. So it’s quite nice to set your P&L limits then move your orders based on what the chart looks like.

However, what is unique to XTB (as far as I know) is the ability to place stop entries, stop losses and limits straight onto the chart.

The first click is where you want to buy, second your stop loss and third your limit. You basically draw your trade on the chart and it is created in the dealing ticket.

Closing Off Positions

You can close all, profitable or losing trades in one go

This is a nice feature to end off our XTB review. When you are done for the day, or popping off to the shops, you can select what trades you want to close.

It’s really annoying when you have to click on twenty different trades to close them out when you want to be flat. So on the XTB 'Open Positions' tab you can choose to close either all your trades or just the duds that are losing. Or, you can bank your profits by closing all the winners and leave your losers to either get stopped or reverse. But I shall leave it to you to decide if that is a sensible trading strategy.

Yes, you can trade CFDs or contracts for difference with Interactive Brokers, but you have to go through some quite arduous suitability tests to ensure that you understand the risks involved.

But once you are in, I found Interactive Brokers to be one of the best CFD brokers, most appropriate for experienced and sophisticated CFD traders. However, it also has lighter versions of its Workstation downloadable trading platform on the portal for newer traders who may want to stick with one platform as they become more experienced.

Trading Platforms: There are two different platforms, which I tested by short-selling Travis Perkins as a CFD. We discussed TPK in our podcast, and the general consensus in the comments on TikTok was that everyone hates them and that it's too expensive. You can see below examples of both trading platforms and how different they look.

The downloadable platform Workstation lets you trade CFDs with the most types of order execution with IBKR, for instance, VWAP, pairs trading, time and price-sensitive order entry. These tools are most suited to professional and very high-volume traders, or hedge funds that are working very large orders and don’t want to scare the market. Most retail CFD traders will have no need for them, but it is representative of IBKRs overall service in that it provides an exceptional institutional-grade CFD platform to retail clients.

There is also an excellent pairs trading feature where you can simultaneously trade one CFD stock against another as a percentage. IBKR is the only CFD broker that lets you do this. With other trading platforms you have to do two separate orders.

As you can see from when I shorted TPK on the Portal web-based version it is much simpler. But you still get some good order execution types, but it's very much for retail CFD traders compared to IBKR Workstation which is for professionals.

Market Access: Whilst Interactive Brokers does not offer the most CFD markets, they do offer one of the best ways to trade them. With IBKR CFDs you can trade with direct market access (DMA) on the exchange so you can place your orders directly on the order book at better prices than the bid/offer.

In reality, CFD brokers with the most markets are those that offer access to small or illiquid stocks which are probably not suitable for CFD trading anyway. But, IBKR offers access to the majority of stocks and markets most traders could need.

CFD Fees: The commission is charged post-trade so you get clean prices with no mark-up and IBKRs commission rates (added post trade) are the best around. Commission on UK stocks is 0.02% and 0.003% on US stocks.

Out-of-hours Trading: IBKR lets you trade CFDs on US stocks, indices, commodities and currencies overnight and on some parts of the weekend. Overnight trading starts from 8pm US ET time on Sundays and for those with US stock trading permission you get access to free overnight data.

CFDs on restricted ETFs: You can also trade ETFs as a CFD that you otherwise would not be able to invest in if based in the UK. One of the major drawbacks of ETFs listed in the US is they do not provide a Key Information Document (which tells you what is in them and how risky they are), so the UK regulators won't let UK investors buy them as they are not transparent. However, with IBKR you can trade these as a CFD (which is an OTC product).