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You'll find a selection of guides and tools in this section, to help you get to grips with CFDs and Spreadbetting. Should you have any further questions though, please call our Account management team.

Practice trading with £10,000 of fantasy money without risking a penny. It's the ideal way to learn how these products work and to see how they can play a part in your overall investment strategy.

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Stephen Barber talks CFDs and Spread Bets, what they are and how they are used. Includes an interview with Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index.

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See examples of trades using CFDs and Spread Betting. What are they? How do they work? And how do they compare?

Examples >

It's important to remember that these are 'Margin' trading services: you can, in effect, trade without having to pay the full price of the investment, as you would if trading in the underlying equities themselves. Because you only need to deposit a percentage of the value of your trade (typically 5%) you can buy more than you otherwise would, but, conversely your risk is higher. As your return is determined by the price movement on the total trade value, profits and losses can quickly exceed the initial deposit and you may need to make further deposits at short notice. Because you are effectively 'borrowing' to cover most of the cost of your trade, you'll also have a financing cost to cover. CFD and Spread Bet trading is not suitable for everyone: please ensure you understand the risks. We will ask you to complete an appropriateness assessment as part of the account application.