Trading costs
What is the spread? The cost you pay before a trade can be flat
The gap between bid and ask, paid on entry. What sets it, when it widens, raw-plus-commission versus all-in pricing, and how to measure the spread you pay.
9 min read
Tagged “CFD basics”
Trading costs
How a price is made: the bid, the ask and the book behind the quote
A quote is two prices, not one, and each is the front of a queue of orders. What the bid and ask are, why the spread exists, and what the book behind the quote decides about every fill.
8 min read
CFD basics
How a CFD price is formed: liquidity providers, aggregation and last look
There is no exchange behind a CFD quote. The price on the ticket is assembled from several liquidity providers' streams, and the provider that wins the trade can still decline it. What that means for a fill.
8 min read
Trading costs
Market, limit and stop orders: which queue you join, and what it costs
Every order is a choice between certainty of fill and certainty of price. Market orders take what the book offers, limit orders wait to be taken, stop orders become market orders at a trigger.
8 min read
CFD basics
What is CFD trading? How online CFDs work, in plain English
A CFD tracks a market's price without owning the underlying. How the contract works, what leverage does to it, what it costs, and the risks that define the product.
7 min read
Position sizing
What is a pip in forex? Pip value and 20-pip examples
Pip value changes with the pair, the lot size and the account currency. Getting it wrong is the most common reason a trader's actual risk differs from their intended risk.
5 min read
Trading costs
Spreads, swaps and the real cost of holding a position
The spread is the cost everyone sees. For anything held longer than a session, financing is usually the larger number — and it compounds quietly.
6 min read
Related subjects
Trading costsBeginnerMarket structurePlatformsStop-lossLeverageMarginPosition sizing