CFD trading uses leverage and can result in rapid losses. Make sure you understand the risks before you trade.

Trading conditions

Account types

Every account trades the same seven markets on MetaTrader 5. What changes between them is how you pay, how much margin you are given, and how positions behave overnight.

How you pay: spread or commission

Accounts generally split along one line — whether the cost of trading is built into the spread, or charged separately as commission on a rawer spread. Neither is automatically cheaper. A spread-only account is simpler to read and usually better for small positions; a raw-spread-plus-commission account tends to win at size, because the commission is fixed per lot and does not widen when the market moves.

The practical difference is predictability. Commission is the one component of your cost you can calculate exactly before you open a position. Spread is not — it moves with liquidity.

How much leverage you are given

Leverage caps how large a position you can hold against your margin. It is a limit, not a target, and a higher cap does not make a position safer — it allows a larger one, which magnifies the loss exactly as readily as the gain. Leverage also varies by instrument within the same account: a major currency pair and a single share are not treated alike, because they do not move alike.

Whether positions carry financing

A standard account pays or receives a swap on any position held past the daily rollover. A swap-free account does not, which matters if you hold for weeks rather than hours, or if overnight interest is unacceptable to you for religious reasons. Swap-free provision is normally subject to conditions and to the instruments involved.

Where the figures are

The account options currently offered, their minimum opening balance, leverage caps and commission are shown when you open an account and in your client portal, and the terms that apply to you are set out in your client agreement. Per-instrument margin requirements, lot sizes, tick value and stop levels are in MetaTrader 5 — Market Watch, right-click a symbol, Specification. That is the authoritative source, because it is the same configuration your orders are executed against.