Introduction to Trading IQ

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2 You have just taken the first step to understanding Financial Spread Betting and taking control of your trading. CMC Markets have developed Trading IQ to help you learn about all aspects of Financial Spread Betting and will enable you to: Place your first trade (Module 1) Understand the terms margin and exposure (Module 2) Understand our different order types (Module 3) Learn about the different financial markets you can trade using Financial Spread Betting (Module 4) Understand how to use fundamentals to trade (Module 5) Understand charting and some basic technical analysis (Module 6) Use some of our most popular trading indicators (Module 7) Develop your own personal trading plan based on elemental trading strategies (Module 8) Throughout Trading IQ, there will be hints and tips to help you with your trading. Remember our goal is to make you an educated trader. As well as the eight modules, Trading IQ includes a Trading Plan, a DVD presented by James Nesbitt which we recommend you watch prior to placing your first trade, and a glossary explaining common trading terminology (at the back of this module). You will also receive a full day s free training course, which you can book with the Education department by calling , or by clicking on the Trading IQ link at the top of the Marketmaker:Web trading platform.

3 What is Financial Spread Betting? The history of Spread Betting and why it has become so popular The advantages of Spread Betting How Spread Betting works the Bid/Offer concept The order ticket CMC Markets online trading platform Marketmaker:Web default page Placing your first Example 1 A spread bet on a UK share Placing an order on Marketmaker:Web Closing a trade Example 2 A spread bet on an index Your Watchlist (personalising your trading platform) Summary Test your knowledge Glossary Contact us

4 What is Financial Spread Betting? Financial Spread Betting offers the private investor a tax-free* alternative to trading on the world s financial markets. It is often used for speculation. A financial spread bet allows you to bet on whether the price quoted for a given financial instrument is likely to go up in value (strengthen) or go down in value (weaken). Your profit or loss is determined by the difference between the price you buy at and the price you sell at. Unlike traditional share dealing with a spread bet you don t actually own the physical share. Instead you bet on whether the price goes up or down. This gives you the opportunity to profit when the markets are rising or falling. Because Spread Betting is flexible and cost effective, it offers you a number of benefits over and above that of normal share trading. This first module covers the background, history and benefits of Spread Betting, coupled with a basic guide of how to navigate our trading platform with step by step instructions to placing your first market order.

5 The history of Spread Betting and why it has become so popular Financial Spread Betting has been around for just over 40 years and it has steadily increased in popularity over the last 10 years. The average investor is now much more sophisticated and knowledgeable about financial matters than they were 10 years ago. Most of our clients have taken up Spread Betting because of easy access to online trading tools and to take advantage of narrower spreads. It is estimated that there are now over 400,000 people spread betting in the UK alone. During this time there has been a growing awareness of the advantages that Spread Betting has to offer over traditional trading on the financial markets. These include: Tax free profits* The opportunity to make money from falling markets as well as rising markets People are also realising that Spread Betting opens up a whole new world of investments besides physical shares, property and unit trusts. There are literally thousands of different instruments you can trade through a spread bet including; Shares and indices on UK and overseas markets Sectors Foreign Exchange Commodities Treasuries and bonds With Spread Betting, liquidity (the ability to buy and sell easily) can be far better than in the underlying market. In 2001, CMC Markets was the first company to launch the revolutionary Daily Rolling Cash bet. This exclusive product has been designed for the more professional, short-medium term trader. The daily bet allows us to offer spreads that closely mirror the underlying daily cash price. This makes it much more attractive to investors, because prior to this, daily bets had to be closed off at the end of the day. With the Daily Rolling Cash bet, you can now automatically roll the open position into the following trading day, rather than being forced to close your position at the end of the day as was the case in the past. * Please be aware that tax laws are subject to change at any time. This immediately removes the additional cost of the spread you would have to pay if you wanted to keep the position for the next day. We also offer quarterly bets every three months (which expire in March, June, September and December) on most of our spread bet products. Let s look at a few other advantages of using Spread Betting over traditional share trading. 5

6 The advantages of Spread Betting Speed The speed that a spread bet can be carried out can be far quicker than the services typically offered through a traditional stockbroker. Most spread bets are usually executed within just a few seconds. Smaller deal sizes When you buy shares through a stockbroker, more often than not you have to pay a dealing commission fee plus taxes. With Spread Betting you can trade very small positions cost-effectively because we can accept bet sizes far smaller than the minimum sizes on many underlying markets. Our minimum bet size is just 1 per point (or 1 per point for Ireland clients). We must stress that although Spread Betting is extremely useful for most of your trading, it is best suited for short to medium term trading. If you are looking for longer term investments (for example: over a year) you should seek independent financial advice. 24-hour dealing We are open 24 hours a day from when the markets in New Zealand and the Far East start trading (Sunday 9pm, London time) to when the New York Stock Exchange closes (Friday 9pm, London time). You can trade on a wide range of markets, including the FTSE 100, US markets such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P500 and NASDAQ 100 as well as most Foreign Exchange (FX) prices. On some instruments we offer extended hours or even 24 hour dealing, so you can trade even if the particular market or exchange it trades on is closed. On selected UK shares we can offer extended trading hours * Please be aware that tax laws are subject to change at anytime. until 9pm every day, Monday to Friday, where we make the price based on US American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). You can also place stop and limit orders 24 hours a day to protect yourself against losses. Tax-free profits All profits made from Spread Betting are free from Capital Gains Tax.* No stamp duty Unlike traditional share dealing there is no stamp duty to pay on a spread bet.*

7 How Spread Betting works the Bid/Offer concept Spread Betting involves betting on the price movements of a particular share, index or commodity. You can bet on the price moving up or down. We quote you levels (prices) at which you can buy (if you think the market will rise) or sell (if you think the market will fall). These levels are based on the actual levels in the market. For example, if Vodafone s share price goes up by 10 pence, our spread bet price will also show this movement. The sell and buy prices (they are always quoted in this order) are called the bid (SELL) and offer (BUY) prices. In effect it is just like buying and selling shares, you sell at the bid price or you buy at the offer price. The difference between the two is the size of the spread, which is where the term spread bet comes from. So, if the bid price is and the offer price is , the spread is five points. SELL (bid) ( ) You sell if you expect the price to drop When you sell you pay the bid price, which will be the lower price on the screen BUY (offer) ( ) You buy if you expect the price to rise When you buy you pay the offer price, which will be the higher price on the screen 7

8 The order ticket If you choose to place a bet, you need to consider the bet size. This is the amount of money you want to bet on each individual point the price moves up or down. The bet size is always given in pounds ( ) for each point, unless you are an Ireland client in which case it will be in Euros ( ). For every point the price moves up or down, you make a profit or a loss dependent on your bet size. For example, if your bet size is 5 and the price rises by 10 points, your gain is 50 ( 5 x 10). The smallest bet size that you can trade is 1 a point (or 1 a point for Ireland clients). For example, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) has just forecast a record profit so you decide to buy (go long) at 1 a point. It moves from to , which is 40 points and equals 40 x 1 = 40 profit. However, the price could have just as easily gone down from to In this example you would have made a loss of 40. Remember that you can buy (go long) if you expect prices to rise or sell (go short) if you think prices will go down. This is just one of the factors that makes Spread Betting very attractive to our clients. 8

9 CMC Markets online trading platform Over the last 12 years we have invested over 60 million in our unique Marketmaker trading technology. Marketmaker is one of the most advanced trading platforms available in the industry, and can be customised to meet your needs. There are three different versions of our trading platform to choose from. 1. Marketmaker:Web Our web-based trading platform. This guide covers how to make the most of Marketmaker:Web, which we believe is the best platform for beginners. 2. Marketmaker:Desktop One of the most advanced and customisable trading platforms on the market, Marketmaker:Desktop can be downloaded from our website and installed on your PC. 3. Marketmaker:Mobile The trading platform for your mobile phone. So what can I trade? There are over 3000 different financial instruments available to trade such as: Global shares All the major global indices Various sectors such as mining, pharmaceutical and banking Over 70 different Foreign Exchange currency pairs (e.g. GBP/USD) Commodities such as oil and gold or soft commodities such as coffee and sugar Treasuries and bonds like Gilts and T-bonds 9

10 Marketmaker:Web default page When you log onto Marketmaker:Web you will see the default screen. As shown on page What s Hot This gives you a visual representation of which stocks are having unusual trading activity on the day and could be worth researching further. 2. Research Centre This opens up our Research Centre which gives you access to important information about the financial markets and your chosen instruments. 3. Search This opens up the search function which allows you to find instruments to trade. 4. Order Ticket When you select an instrument to trade, this order ticket is populated with the current live price we offer. This is also used to set up pending orders. 5. Positions This allows you to view all your current positions as well as your profit and loss for the day. 6. Client Position Keeping This gives you live details of your account, including an energy bar giving you an indication of how much of your total balance is being used in existing positions. 7. Compare This function allows you to overlay multiple charts together. 8. Live Ticker Tape This live ticker tape shows you a selection of the larger trades that are currently going through our trading platform. 9. Blotters Blotters give you details of your pending orders and access to other useful trading information. 10. Trading IQ This icon gives you access to the entire Trading IQ programme online. 11. Watchlist The watchlist icon lets you build up a list of your favourite instruments, this is covered in more detail on page Hotness Indicator This gives you another visual representation, only available through the Watchlist, of which stocks are having unusual trading activity on the day. 10

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12 Placing your first trade Example 1 A spread bet on a UK share You can place bets online or, if you prefer, over the phone by contacting one of our experienced team of dealers, who can also answer any questions you may have. However, these days, most clients are choosing to deal online. Statistics show that over 98% of our trades are transacted online, with clients taking advantage of the many benefits it offers such as: Bets being executed almost instantly Access to thousands of live prices Access to product information Access to a vast selection of trading tools and indicators Remember, we offer an execution only service and are not qualified to give you advice when it comes to making actual trading decisions. Let s look at some examples of trading using Spread Betting Imagine there are rumours that Standard Life (SL) might issue a profits warning due to a rise in insurance claims following an unexpected UK hurricane. You think this will be bad for the share price and want to profit from any share price drop. So you decide to go online and check what prices we are making on Standard Life. First of all you will need to access the live price for Standard Life. There are two ways to do this, you can choose to use the Filter Instruments function or the Find Instruments filter. 1. Using Find Instruments Using the Find Instruments function is simple, just type in part or all of the name you are looking for in the search box and the results will be displayed. 12

13 2. Using Filter Instruments As Standard Life is an equity, you click on the Share Bets directory Standard Life is a UK share so you then expand the UK Share Bets directory Then you select the Financial Share Bets directory which covers the finance stocks Now, depending on how long you want to keep the position open, you have the choice of selecting the Daily Rolling Cash bet or the quarterly spread bets. The Daily Rolling Cash bets are best for short-term trades and the quarterly spread bets are best for all others. In this example we will look at the Daily Rolling Cash bet. Click the Daily Rolling Cash bets. Click on Get Instruments, then Standard Life Plc Cash Bet and the order ticket will be populated on the top right of the screen. 13

14 Placing an order on Marketmaker:Web Remember that these prices are real time and constantly update. This means you can watch the price in the order ticket, waiting for the right price to place your trade. The bid price of and the offer price of appear above the SELL and BUY boxes In this example you decide to sell (go short) at 2 per point, so you enter 2 in the Amount section. Every point it goes down, you will make 2. When you have made up your mind that you are happy to deal at the price that is shown, simply click SELL. You are then given a chance to confirm your bet in an Order Summary window. If you want to go ahead, click PLACE. You will receive a message that confirms the bet you have just placed. If your spread bet position is larger than market liquidity or the price moves as you place the order, you could in fact get another price quoted to you before the trade is executed, but again you have the choice to accept or decline this new price. However, we have developed price improvement technology to give clients prices as close to the market as possible even offering better prices if the market moves in your favour whilst placing the trade. Your order ticket will then turn yellow, which means that the dealers have received your request to trade. 14

15 4. Your trade will now be displayed in your Positions tab. You can use this tab to monitor your trade and the profit or loss you are making. Marketmaker:Web Icons Your order ticket will change to green when the order has been executed. If you wish to place another order click New. The whole process is usually completed within a few seconds. Add Instrument to Watchlist Dealing Ticket Charting Function Show News for Instrument Instrument Overview Remove Instrument from Watchlist Close Instrument Position Help 15

16 Closing a trade To close out of one of your positions, click the red x icon (pictured) on the far right in the Positions tab. A message will remind you that this will not cancel any stop or limit orders you might have placed on your chosen instrument. We will cover those in Module 3. 16

17 To close the trade, click the highlighted button, in this case BUY. Once the order ticket turns green the trade has been confirmed and closed out. So that s a spread bet on a share. Let s look at an index, which is just as easy. A large percentage of our clients trade the indices in particular because there is a lot of focus in the media about their performance. 17

18 Example 2 A spread bet on an index It is approaching Christmas and you think that the UK100 index will increase in value due to successes in the retail sector. Buying the UK100 index bet will allow you to profit if the rise occurs. So you decide to go online and check what prices we are making on the UK100. We do not call the indices by their familiar names. Below is a list of some of the major indices and what we call them. FTSE 100 Dow Jones CAC 40 UK100 US30 FRENCH40 Positions Tab Search Total Equity Order Ticket You first need to access the live price for the UK100 and once again you can choose to use the filter or the search function. For this example, we will use the search function which is the easiest and fastest way. Using the search function is simple, just type in all or part of the instrument s name. DAX 30 S&P 500 NASDAQ 100 Nikkei 225 GERMAN30 SPX500 NDAQ100 JAPAN225 Then double click the UK100 Cash bet. 18

19 This will fill the order ticket on the top right of the platform. The order ticket gives you the current price and allows you to enter the details of the bet you would like to place. The bid (6150) and the offer (6152) of the current price appears above the SELL and BUY boxes. To place a bet, you need to specify a bet size for each point by entering a quantity in the Amount section. In this example, you have decided to buy the UK100 cash index bet and wager 5 a point: you therefore enter 5 in the Amount section. For every point the UK100 goes up or down in value you will make or lose 5. When you have made up your mind that you are happy to deal at the price that is showing, simply click BUY. You are then given a chance to confirm your bet in an order summary window. If you want to go ahead, click PLACE. When the ticket turns green, you will receive a message that confirms the bet you have placed has been executed. That s how easy it is to place an index bet. 19

20 Your Watchlist (personalising your trading platform) Rather than searching for your favourite instruments all the time, you can build up your own personal Watchlists. This is a list of your own choice of instrument that gives you quick and easy access to your most popular trades. If you want to add to your watch list, click on this icon: Add instrument to Watchlists 20

21 You can even buy and sell an instrument directly from your Watchlists. You can add as many instruments to your Watchlists as you like. You can easily access your full list by clicking on the Watchlists tab. 21

22 Now you should: P PP P P Understand how Spread Betting works Know the main advantages of Spread Betting Know that you are able to trade most financial instruments on our Spread Betting platform Be able to set up a Watchlist Be able to place your first trade 22

23 Test your knowledge 1. Using the search function on the Marketmaker:Web look up the quotes to buy and sell for RBS, Anglo American and GlaxoSmithKline. 2. Using the Filter Instrument, look for the different US indices that you can trade through our platform. You are entitled to a day of risk free trading!!! 3. Set up the following stocks in a Watchlist: BHP Billiton, Standard Life and RBS. Once you have finished, remove one stock and add another one of your choice. As a new client, you are entitled to one day of risk free trading using the special Trading IQ index based on the UK100. On these trades, any losses you make are null and void, but any profits you make are yours to keep. Terms and conditions apply. For the free trade, select the TIQ UK100 folder and open an order ticket as usual. You can buy and sell as many times as you like during the day as long as your maximum position size never exceeds 2 per point ( 2 per point in Ireland). If you are ever holding a position greater than 2 ( 2) per point, CMC Markets will not credit any profits made. Your risk free trading day runs from 8.00am until 4.30pm UK time on your first day of trading only. Call the Education department for more information on

24 Glossary A Annualised - a rate of return based on a period of one year. For example, a return of 3% over six months has an annualised return of 6%. American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) - represents ownership in the shares of a foreign company trading on US financial markets. The stock of many non-us companies trades on US exchanges through the use of ADRs. ADRs enable US investors to buy shares in foreign companies without undertaking cross-border transactions. B Bearish, bear - expecting prices to fall. A bear market is one which is falling. Bid price - this is the price at which you can sell. Your broker will always quote you a two-way price which includes the offer price (the price you can buy at) and the bid price (the price you can sell at). Bonds - these can be issued by private companies or governments. They must pay anyone who holds their bonds (the bondholder) the principal (the original amount of the loan) plus interest. Bollinger Bands - A band plotted two standard deviations away from a simple moving average. Bounce - to drop to a low price and recover. Bullish, bull - expecting prices to rise. A bull market is one which is rising. Buying - betting on prices you expect to rise. C CAC 40 (French 40) -an index of the top 40 listed shares on the Paris Stock Exchange. Charting - using information about prices to create a chart showing how they have moved. Commodities - products such as food and metals, whose prices are affected by public demand. D Daily Rolling Cash bet - when you hold a position overnight they roll from one day to the next. You have to pay a small financing charge on this type of bet. DAX 30 (German 30) -an index of the top 30 listed shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Diversification - spreading capital across different investments to reduce risk. 24

25 Dow (US 30) - the Dow Jones index which compiles daily prices quoted on the New York Stock Exchange. E EMA (exponential moving average) -this is a type of moving average that gives more weight to recent values than to older values. Equity - a share. Execution - carrying out a contract. Exponential - increasing or reducing at a faster and faster rate. Exposure - the full financial amount you could lose when you trade on margin. F Financial instrument - financial assets such as stocks, bonds shares or currencies. Foreign Exchange - the market on which currencies are bought and sold. FOREX - see Foreign Exchange (Module 4). Forward rate bet - this spread bet runs for one month and rolls over until you close it out. This has the financing charge built into the price on this type of bet. (See also Daily Rolling Cash bet and quarterly bet). Free equity - the money you have on deposit with CMC Markets which you aren t currently using (also known as your variation margin). FTSE100 (UK100) - the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 (the Footsie ) is an index of the top 100 listed shares on the London Stock Exchange. Futures - a contract to buy and sell something at an agreed price on a specific date in the future. FX - see Foreign Exchange (Module 4). Gapping (slippage) - price gapping is the variation in the price when you closed out a deal and the money you actually receive, due to conditions between the time the markets closed and re-opened. G GDP - stands for Gross Domestic Product which is the value of goods and services produced by an economy over a particular period of time. Gearing (leverage) -using a small amount of money to bet on price movements of a large trade. You can make or lose a lot of money compared with your original bet. Gilts - (1) bonds issued by the Government. (2) investments such as government stocks where there is the right to receive interest or dividends from the investment. 25

26 Go long - if you go long (buy), you spread bet on an instrument such as shares because you think the price will increase. Go short - if you go short (sell), you spread bet on an instrument such as shares because you think the price will drop. Good for the day an order which if not filled during the day will no longer be valid. Good till cancelled an order which will remain valid until you cancel it. Guaranteed stop loss orders (GSOs) orders which stop you losing money through slippage. Index an index consists of a basket of securities prices which are used to show how a particular market is performing. Indices see index. Initial margin the money which is taken out of your account with CMC Markets to fund your trading on margin. Instrument - something that has financial value such as stocks, bonds shares or currencies. Instrument Filter a menu showing the different financial instruments you can choose to bet on. H Hedging offsetting the risk of an adverse price movement by taking the opposing position. For example, if you own a stock which you expect to fall, you could sell it in a futures contract for a price set now. I If-done orders these orders are very useful if you want to place a pending order to open a brand new position when an instrument reaches a price you have chosen, and you want to have a stop loss or a limit added automatically. L Leverage The use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital, such as margin, to increase the potential return of an investment. Limit order an order to buy at no more than a set price or sell no lower than a set price to take profits. Liquid market a market where it is easy to buy and sell. Liquidity the ability to buy and sell easily. Live price the up-to-date price. Long if you go long, you bet on an instrument such as shares because you think the price will increase. 26

27 M Margin the amount of money you need to fund a position. Usually you only need between 5% and 20% of the nominal value of an instrument. Margin requirement the amount of money you must have access to when you are trading on margin. Market sentiment experience (and intuition) which can help us to forecast the expected movement of the stock market. Moving average this shows the average value of an instrument over a period of time. N NASDAQ 100 (NDAQ100) an index of the top 100 listed shares on the NASDAQ. Nominal value the face value of a share (the price when it was issued). Notional trading margin a fixed trading margin for bets that are not on shares. Notional trading requirement (NTR) a fixed number which dictates how much money you need access to before you can use a spread bet. O Offer price this is the price at which you can buy. Your broker will always quote you a two-way price which includes the offer price (the price you can buy at) and the bid price (the price you can sell at). One cancels the other orders (OCOs) with normal stop or limit orders, cancelling one doesn t automatically cancel the other. An OCO order includes both stop and limit so when one is activated, the other automatically gets cancelled. Overbought this describes markets or stock that have risen rapidly so that a decline is likely in the near future. Oversold this describes markets or stocks which have fallen too quickly and too steeply so that a rise is likely. P Pairs Trading - Pairs trading using spread bets is simply two transactions where one share is bought and another share, usually in the same sector, is sold short. Pip - the last decimal point in the quote for an exchange rate. 27

28 Point A single movement up or down on a chosen instrument. Pounds per point the amount of money earned or lost by your bet for each point of movement in the price. Price gapping this is the variation in the price when you closed out a deal and the money you actually receive, due to conditions between the time the markets closed and re-opened. Price movements changes in prices. Q Quarterly bet this spread bet runs for three months and rolls over until you close it out. Financing is already built into the price thus no further daily charges on this bet are made. (See also forward rate bet and Daily Rolling Cash bet). R Range-bound instrument this is an instrument that has traded between the support level and the resistance level for a specific period of time. Real time a computer system which updates constantly and shows an up to date picture is operating in real time. Rebound this occurs when the price of an instrument starts to recover. Reduced spreads smaller differences between selling and buying prices. Relative Strength Index (RSI) this is an indicator that compares the days that a stock finishes up against when it finishes lower. It doesn t compare the relative strength of different securities as the name suggests, it shows the performance of just one security. Resistance level the price level that stock has not exceeded in the past. Retail sales purchases of goods and services by consumers. Risk reward ratio - how much you are willing to risk for the chance of a good profit. It may be worth risking 50 points to make 100 points, but it may not be worth risking 50 points to make 30 points. S S&P500 Index (SPX500) - Standard and Poor s American stock market index. Selling betting on prices you expect to drop. Short - if you go short, you spread bet on an instrument such as shares because you think the price will drop. Slippage occurs in volatile markets when your stop loss order could be activated at your chosen level but, because of the speed of the changes, it gets filled at a lower price. 28

29 Speculation gambling on the change in the price of a security. Speculative gambling carries a higher risk of loss but the profits can also be higher. Spread the difference between the buying price and the selling price. Stop order an order to buy at no more than a set price or sell no lower than a set price to protect you from further loss. Support level the price level that stock has not fallen below in the past. T T-bonds Treasury bonds which have a maturity date of more than five years. U Underlying market the market you are betting on. Unit trust a trust people invest their money in. V Variation margin the money you have on deposit with CMC Markets which you aren t currently using (also known as your free equity). TIQ UK100 special Trading IQ index based on the UK100. Two-way price - your broker will always quote you a two-way price which includes the offer price (the price you can buy at) and the bid price (the price you can sell at). Trading on margin applies to Spread Betting on shares, indices and Foreign Exchange. You need to have access to a smaller amount of money than the notional trading requirement (NTR) you need for other spread bet products. Treasuries see treasury bonds. Treasury bonds Government bonds. 29

30 Contact Payments London CONTACT US CMC Markets 66 Prescot Street London E1 8HG United Kingdom Edinburgh CMC Markets 40 Princes Street Edingburgh EH2 2BY Dublin CMC Markets T: +44(0) United Kingdom 1 Upper Hatch Street Dublin 2 Contact Helpdesk T: +44(0) Ireland E: helpdesk@cmcmarkets.co.uk T: +44(0) F: +44(0) T: +353(0) Contact Education E: education@cmcmarkets.co.uk T: (UK only) E: helpdesk@cmcmarkets.co.uk T: +44(0) F: +44(0) Contact Spreadbet Dealing Desk E: spreadbetdealers@ cmcmarkets.co.uk T: +44(0)

31 Risk Warning Remember Spread Betting is a leveraged product and carries a high level of risk to your capital. It is possible to incur losses in excess of your initial stake. Spread Betting may not be suitable for everyone, so ensure that you understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.

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