Trading for beginners

Your Beginner’s Guide to Trading

Trading can feel like a lot at first. This guide walks you through what trading means, the words you’ll see, the markets you can explore, and the steps to prepare for your first trade.

  • Beginner guide
  • 10 min read

Trading explained in plain English

Trading means taking a view on whether the price of a financial market may rise or fall. With products such as CFDs, you can follow the price movement of an underlying asset without owning that asset directly. If the market moves in the direction you expected, the position may gain value; if it moves against you, you can lose money.

A CFD is a derivative, which means its value follows the price of something else, such as a share, currency pair, index or commodity. For example, if an underlying price moves from $100 to $105, the CFD price generally moves with that change. Your result depends on the difference between the opening and closing price, your trade size and applicable costs.

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Practise the process first

Practise Trading Before Going Live

Use a demo account to practise placing trades, managing risk and following a plan before deciding whether live trading is right for you.

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