CFDs on Futures

Submitted by fxpros on Tue, 05/23/2023 - 09:28
CFDs on Futures

A Futures contract gives its holder the right to buy (or sell) a pre-determined quantity of a commodity at a pre-set price at a pre-determined time in the future.

Futures contracts were originally covering physical commodities like grain, cotton, and coffee, but today they are covering more asset classes and much more financial instruments such as currencies, bonds, and stock market indices.

Trading CFDs on Futures

Instead of trading directly a Futures contract, you can trade CFDs on Futures. Futures trading allows investors to speculate on the value of a financial instrument going either up or down. But Futures trading is also used by suppliers of commodities wishing to hedge against their market risk. This activity of speculating and hedging creates significant market volume and price volatility. CFDs offer investors the chance to speculate on the price volatility of Futures contracts. Here are the advantages of trading CFDs on Futures.

 

Advantages of CFDs on Futures

Trading futures via CFD contracts can be a more flexible option than trading direct Futures, this is why:

(1) CFD contracts mirror the exact market price movements of Futures contracts in tight spreads, without commissions.

(2) The holder of a Futures contract is obligated to fulfill the terms of his Futures agreement, the holder of a CFD position has no obligations other than his margin requirements.

(3) It is much easier and faster to open an online CFD account than a Futures Trading Account.

(4) You can open a CFD account with as little as $50 and fund it via several different methods, including internet wallets (Paypal, Skrill, Neteller, etc.).

(5) CFDs allow traders to apply automated trading strategies and trade Futures via Expert Advisors.

(6) CFDs on Futures can be traded on Metatrader-4. Mobile trading is also available.

(7) CFDs on Futures don't involve overnight rates (SWAPs) like common Cash CFDs. That is a big deal when trading Index CFDs or Commodities.

Chart: (US30) The pricing between a common Cash CFD is almost identical to a CFD on Futures

US30

 

What are Futures Contracts?

A Futures contract is a standardized Exchange-Traded contract that can trade any financial market up or down. Futures contracts can be traded between two parties other than the two initial parties to the contract.

Futures Contracts History

The first standardized 'Exchange-Traded' forward contract was introduced by the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in 1864 and it was based on Grain.

In 1972, the IMM (International Monetary Market) became the world's first financial Futures exchange. Initially, IMM launched currency futures. In 1976, IMM launched also US treasury bills interest rate futures. In 1982, IMM launched Stock Market Index Futures.

 

Trading Cost of CFDs on Futures

The cost when trading CFDs on Futures is limited to the price spread, as there are no trading commissions involved. The price spread is the difference between the buying price (bid) and the selling price (ask). That makes things considerably easy for CFD traders. In addition, CFDs on Futures don't involve overnight rates (SWAPs) like common Cash CFDs. That is a big deal when trading Index CFDs or Commodities.

(i) No trading commissions

(2) No Overnight financing (SWAPs)

(3) Paying only the spread

 

Mechanisms of CFDs on Index Futures

Two things matter when you decide to open a trade position using CFDs on Futures:

(1) The direction of the market you decide to trade (long or short)

(2) How many contracts will you buy to cover the required market exposure

Here is how you can determine the market exposure when trading CFDs on Index Futures.

Calculating the Value of an Index CFD

The value of an index CFD is very easy to be determined as each CFD contract is worth $1 per point in the index. Therefore, the overall dollar value of one (1) CFD contract is the current index value multiplied by $1.

For example:

  • If Dow Jones Industrial (DJIA) trades at 15,000 points, and you buy (1) CFD contract on Dow, then your overall exposure will be $15,000 ($1 x 15,000 points).
  • To define how many contracts you need to buy or sell on a particular Index you just need to do the following:
  • -Divide the total market exposure you need by the dollar value of the CFD contract.
  • In our previous example, the dollar value of a DJIA is $15,000. Therefore, if you need market exposure of $150,000, you simply need to buy ten (10) contracts (10 x $15,000).

Margin Requirements

As you can probably understand from all the above, the more points the Index CFD asset the bigger the margin requirements. In other words, trading the DJIA at 15,000 points has triple margin requirements than trading Nasdaq at 5,000 points.

Your exact margin requirements will be determined by your CFD broker. Usually, to buy 1 contract from Dow Jones Industrial, you need $150. Therefore, to gain $150,000 market exposure on US30 you need to have at least $1,500 in your trading account.

 

Compare CFD Brokers and Their Accounts

These are three regulated Forex/CFD brokers offering CFD accounts:

Table: Compare the Accounts and the Asset Index of popular Forex/CFD brokers

FOREX/CFD BROKER

IC MARKETS

DUKASCOPY

ACCOUNTS INFO

 
  • Minimum Account
  • $200 for a standard account
  • $1,000 for Dukascopy Bank
  • Fund Methods
  • Bank Wire
  • Credit/Debit Cards
  • MoneyBookers Skrill
  • Neteller
  • WebMoney
  • and more methods
  • Bank Wire
  • Bank Guarantees

 

  • Promotions
  • Free VPS Hosting
  • 10% Equity Bonus
  • 30% rebate on all commissions for the 1st month (automatic rebate link below)
  • Trading Contests

ASSET INDEX

 
  • INDICES
  • Australia S&P ASX 200 Index
  • CHINA50
  • FTSE
  • China A50 Index
  • Germany 30 Index
  • Spain 35 Index
  • France 40 Index
  • Hong Kong 50 Index
  • Italy 40 Index
  • Japan 225 Index
  • EU Stocks 50 Index
  • US Small Cap 2000 Index
  • US Wall Street 30 Index
  • US SPX 500 Index
  • US Tech 100 Index
  • ICE Dollar Index™
  • CBOE VIX Index™ Futures
  • US30, US100, US500 (Cash CFDs)
  • EU50, DAX30, UK100, CAC40, Swiss20, Spain Stock Index
  • Hong Kong Index (Cash CFDs), AUS200 (Cash CFDs)
  • SHARES
  • Hundreds of different stocks:

    • NYSE STOCKS CFDs
    • NASDAQ STOCKS CFDs
    • ASX STOCKS CFDs
  • Thirty-four (34) German Shares (Cash CFDs)
  • No shares from other Countries
  • METALS
  • Gold and Silver (Cash CFDs)
  • Gold and Silver (Cash CFDs)
  • ENERGY ASSETS
  • Brent and WTI
  • Crude Futures, Brent Futures
  • Natural Gas Futures
  • SOFT COMMODITIES
  • Corn, Soybeans, Sugar, Cocoa, Coffee, and Wheat
  • No Soft Commodities
  »  Open an Account with IC Markets »  Open an Account with Dukascopy Bank

 

CFDs on Futures

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Comments

The best way to trade commodities and stock indices is by using CFDs on Futures... common CFD positions can become very expensive when you maintain these positions for many days or weeks