Stock CFD Trading Platforms

Share CFD trading is a form of derivatives trading in which traders speculate on the price movements of individual company shares through contracts for difference (CFDs). This approach allows them to profit from price changes in either direction without owning the shares themselves. Our experts have reviewed several brokers regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that provide access to share CFDs for UK traders.

1Plus500

Score: ★ 4.2/5

81% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Top Rated

2Pepperstone

Score: ★ 4.4/5

74.1% of retail investor accounts lose money

3CMC Markets

Score: ★ 4.3/5

69% of retail investor accounts lose money

4eToro

Score: ★ 4.2/5

52% of retail investor accounts lose money

5Eightcap

Score: ★ 4/5

59.57% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

6FxPro

Score: ★ 3.2/5

74% of retail investor accounts lose money

Below, you can find more information about the best share CFD trading platforms in the UK:

1. Plus500, an FCA-regulated broker, offers hundreds of share CFDs on major companies from the US, Germany and the UK, enabling retail clients to increase their market exposure with leverage of up to 1:5.
2. Pepperstone, an FCA-authorised broker, provides a broad range of more than 1,100 shares for CFD trading and spread betting. Spreads and commissions on share CFDs are competitive, with commission of 0.1% per side for CFDs on UK shares.
3. CMC Markets serves UK clients under an FCA licence and offers a broad selection of over 10,000 shares for spread betting or CFD trading. The broker provides very fast order execution and quantitative stock market analysis from Morningstar.
4. Clients of eToro can access more than 6,200 shares through CFDs, with spreads from 0.15%. UK clients can also buy and hold shares outright without paying commission. The broker is authorised by the FCA.
5. Eightcap, another FCA-authorised broker, offers over 600 markets to UK traders, including hundreds of share CFDs on major companies such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Tesla. Share traders benefit from detailed market analysis available in the broker’s educational section, Eightcap Labs.
6. FxPro serves UK share traders under an FCA licence and offers a diverse selection of more than 1,800 shares in companies from the UK, US, Portugal, Germany, France, Switzerland and beyond. All major industries and sectors are well covered.

In this article, we will focus on share CFD trading in the UK, covering the following topics:

• What is share CFD trading and how does it work?
• Popular share CFD markets among UK traders
• How to begin trading share CFDs
• FCA leverage limits for share CFDs
• Strategies for successful share CFD trading
• A comparison of share CFD trading, spread betting and share dealing

By the end of this article, UK traders should have a comprehensive understanding of share CFD trading to help them make informed trading decisions.

Broker	Minimum Deposit FCA Licence Paypal Credit/Debit card Demo Account ECN Account Islamic Account Scalping Hedging Copy Trading	Minimum Deposit FCA Licence Paypal Credit/Debit card Demo Account ECN Account Islamic Account Scalping Hedging Copy Trading
Plus500	£100509909	£100509909
Pepperstone	£10684312	£10684312
CMC Markets	£0173730	£0173730
eToro	£50583263	£50583263
Eightcap	£100921296	£100921296
FxPro	£0509956	£0509956

What Is Share CFD Trading?

Share CFD trading involves speculating on share price movements without owning the underlying shares. CFDs, or contracts for difference, are agreements between two parties to exchange the difference in the value of a particular share between the time the contract is opened and the time it is closed. This type of trading allows UK traders to profit from both rising and falling markets, making it a popular choice for those looking to diversify their investment portfolios.

Popular Share CFD Markets Among UK Traders

The following share CFD markets are popular among UK traders, although their popularity can change with market conditions and news:

UK Equities:

1. FTSE 100 Companies: CFDs on major UK blue-chip companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) are very popular. Examples include:
   • BP plc
   • Barclays plc
   • Lloyds Banking Group plc
   • Vodafone Group
   • HSBC
   • Rolls-Royce Holdings
   • Tesco
   • Unilever
2. FTSE 250 Companies: Although traded less frequently than CFDs on FTSE 100 companies, CFDs on these mid-cap UK companies also attract interest:
   • Carnival Corporation & plc
   • Hargreaves Lansdown plc
   • Games Workshop Group plc
   • Polar Capital Technology Trust
   • Darktrace plc
   • LondonMetric Property plc
   • IG Group Holdings plc
   • Hiscox Ltd

US Equities:

1. Major US Technology Shares: These are often highly volatile and attract significant trading volumes:
   • Apple (AAPL)
   • Amazon (AMZN)
   • Tesla (TSLA)
   • NVIDIA (NVDA)
   • Alphabet (GOOGL/GOOG)
   • Meta Platforms (META)
2. Other Large-Cap US Shares: Well-Known Companies Across Various Sectors:
   • Microsoft (MSFT)
   • Bank of America (BAC)
   • Coca-Cola (KO)
   • Exxon Mobil (XOM)

European Equities:

• German Shares (DAX): Companies such as Adidas, Deutsche Bank and BMW.
• French Shares (CAC 40): Companies such as TotalEnergies and LVMH.

Other International Equities:

Depending on global trends and news, certain Asian shares (e.g. Alibaba) can also experience periods of high trading volumes.

How to Begin Trading Share CFDs

UK traders can begin trading share CFDs by following a series of steps. Here is a detailed guide:

• Choose a suitable broker: UK traders need to choose a broker that offers share CFD trading and is regulated by the UK financial regulator, the FCA. It is essential to research and compare different brokers to find the one that best suits their needs.
• Open an account: Once they have chosen a broker, traders must open an account. This typically involves providing personal and financial information.
• Verify your identity: As part of the account-opening process, traders will need to verify their identity. This is a standard procedure to prevent money laundering and confirm that the trader is who they claim to be.
• Deposit funds: Traders must deposit funds into their accounts to start trading. Minimum deposit requirements vary between brokers, typically ranging from £0 to £100. Traders should ensure they understand the deposit and withdrawal procedures before funding their accounts.
• Conduct analysis: Before opening a trade, traders should analyse the market. This involves using technical and fundamental analysis to identify potential trading opportunities and make informed decisions.
• Open a share CFD trade: Once they have identified a trading opportunity, traders can open a share CFD trade. This involves specifying the amount they want to trade, the leverage they want to use and the stop-loss and take-profit levels.
• Monitor and close the trade: Once a trade is open, traders need to monitor it and close it when their trading objectives are met or when they want to limit their losses. They can do this by clicking the ‘close’ button, and the trade will be settled at the current market price.
• Set stop-loss and take-profit levels: To manage risk and secure profits, traders should set stop-loss and take-profit levels. These levels can be adjusted as needed and help traders limit potential losses and realise profits.

By following these steps, UK traders can begin trading share CFDs and speculating on share price movements. Trading carries risks, and traders should always use appropriate risk-management techniques to protect their capital.

Using Leverage to Trade Share CFDs in the UK

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has introduced leverage limits for contracts for difference (CFDs) sold to retail clients, capping leverage at between 1:30 and 1:2, depending on the volatility of the underlying asset. For share CFDs, which are generally more volatile than major currency pairs, the leverage cap is typically set at 1:5. This means retail traders must provide a margin of at least 20% of the position’s value when trading share CFDs.

Strategies for Share CFD Trading

Share CFD trading lends itself to a variety of strategies because it uses leverage and allows traders to take both long and short positions. Here are some popular strategies used by traders:

1. Day Trading:
   • Concept: Opening and closing positions within the same trading day to profit from intraday price fluctuations.
   • Techniques: Often involves using short-term charts (e.g. 1-minute, 5-minute and 15-minute charts), technical indicators (e.g. moving averages, RSI, MACD and Bollinger Bands) and frequent trading.
   • Focus: Capturing small price movements and avoiding overnight financing charges. Requires a significant time commitment and quick decision-making.
2. Scalping:
   • Concept: A very short-term strategy that aims to make numerous small profits from tiny price changes.
   • Techniques: Trading over extremely short timeframes (seconds to minutes) and placing trades frequently, often with a focus on exploiting the bid-offer spread or very short-term momentum.
   • Focus: Accumulating small gains that add up over time. Requires fast execution and tight spreads.
3. Swing Trading:
   • Concept: Holding positions for several days to weeks to profit from larger price ‘swings’.
   • Techniques: Analysing daily and weekly charts, looking for patterns and support and resistance levels, and using technical indicators to identify potential price movements.
   • Focus: Capturing medium-term trends, with less constant monitoring required than for day trading.
4. Trend Following:
   • Concept: Identifying and trading in the direction of an established trend.
   • Techniques: Using longer-term charts and indicators (e.g. moving averages and trendlines) to confirm the direction of the trend and entering positions accordingly.
   • Focus: Following significant price movements and potentially holding positions for weeks or months.
5. Breakout Trading:
   • Concept: Entering a trade when the price breaks through a significant level of support or resistance.
   • Techniques: Identifying key price levels and setting entry orders just above resistance (for long positions) or below support (for short positions). Often combined with volume analysis to confirm the strength of the breakout.
   • Focus: Capitalising on the potential for significant price movement following a breakout.
6. Range Trading:
   • Concept: Identifying shares trading within a defined price range, then buying at the support level and selling at the resistance level.
   • Techniques: Drawing horizontal lines to identify the upper and lower boundaries of the range and using oscillators (e.g. RSI and the stochastic oscillator) to identify potential overbought or oversold conditions.
   • Focus: Profiting from sideways price movements.
7. News Trading:
   • Concept: Trading based on the immediate price reaction to significant economic or company-specific news releases.
   • Techniques: Monitoring economic calendars and news sources, understanding the potential impact of different news events and reacting quickly to price movements after a release.
   • Focus: Capturing short-term volatility and price spikes. Requires an understanding of market sentiment and potential overreactions.
8. Technical Analysis Strategies:
   • Chart Patterns: Identifying and trading based on formations such as triangles, flags and head and shoulders patterns, among others, which are believed to indicate future price movements.
   • Indicator-Based Strategies: Combining multiple technical indicators to generate buy or sell signals. For example, using moving-average crossovers with RSI confirmation.
   • Fibonacci Retracement and Extension: Using Fibonacci levels to identify potential support, resistance and target price levels.
9. Fundamental Analysis (Applied to CFD Trading):
   • While CFDs do not represent ownership, understanding the underlying company’s fundamentals (financial health, earnings reports and industry trends) can inform a longer-term view of price direction and help identify potentially undervalued or overvalued shares for swing or trend-following strategies.

Important Considerations for Share CFD Trading Strategies:

• Leverage Management: Crucial because leverage amplifies risk. Always use appropriate stop-loss orders and manage position sizes carefully.
• Risk Management: Use strategies to limit potential losses, such as setting stop-loss and take-profit orders.
• Understanding Market Volatility: Share prices can be highly volatile, especially around news events. Be aware of the potential for rapid price swings.
• Choosing the Right Broker and Platform: Ensure your broker offers the tools, charting capabilities and execution speed required for your chosen strategy.
• Continuous Learning and Adaptation: The stock market is dynamic. Regularly analyse your trades, learn from your mistakes and adapt your strategies as market conditions change.
• Backtesting: Before using a strategy with real money, it is advisable to backtest it using historical data to see how it would have performed.

No trading strategy guarantees profits, and all trading involves risk. It is essential to develop a thorough understanding of share CFD trading and practise on a demo account before trading with real money.

Other Ways to Trade Shares

In addition to share CFDs, UK traders can choose between:

• Buying shares outright (long-term investment)
• Spread betting (a tax-efficient way to trade, available through UK-based brokers)
• Options trading and futures trading

We will briefly compare share CFD trading, spread betting and share dealing to give UK traders a comprehensive understanding of the ways to trade this popular asset class.

Share CFDs and Spread Betting

Both CFDs (contracts for difference) and spread betting are leveraged derivative products that allow UK traders to speculate on the price movements of various financial instruments without owning the underlying asset. However, they have distinct characteristics:

1. How the Trade Is Priced and Sized:
   • CFDs: You trade contracts that represent a specific quantity of the underlying asset. Profit or loss is calculated as the difference between the opening and closing prices, multiplied by the number of contracts. CFDs are typically quoted at or very close to the underlying market price.
   • Spread betting: You bet a specific amount of money per point of price movement in the underlying asset. The broker quotes two prices: a slightly higher buying price and a slightly lower selling price, with the difference known as the spread. Your profit or loss is your stake per point multiplied by the number of points the price moves in your favour or against you. The broker’s profit is primarily built into this spread.
2. Taxation (UK):
   • CFDs: Profits from CFD trading are subject to capital gains tax (CGT) in the UK. You must report gains above the annual CGT allowance (currently £3,000 for 2025/26) and pay CGT accordingly. However, losses from CFD trading can be offset against other capital gains to reduce your CGT liability.
   • Spread betting: Profits from spread betting are generally exempt from capital gains tax in the UK, as it is legally classified as a form of gambling. However, losses from spread betting cannot be offset against capital gains.
3. Commission and Charges:
   • CFDs: Brokers often charge commission on CFD trades, particularly for shares, in addition to the spread. For other markets such as Forex and commodities, the cost is usually included mainly in the spread.
   • Spread betting: There is typically no commission on spread bets. The broker’s fee is incorporated into the wider spread offered.
4. Contract Structure and Expiry:
   • CFDs: Most CFDs do not have a fixed expiry date, allowing traders to keep positions open indefinitely (though overnight financing charges may apply). Some CFDs on futures contracts do have expiry dates.
   • Spread betting: Spread bets often have fixed expiry dates, ranging from short-term to longer-term ‘forward’ bets.
5. Trading Units:
   • CFDs: Trades are typically made in specific contract sizes or the equivalent number of shares.
   • Spread betting: Trades are made by choosing a stake per point (e.g. £1 per point).
6. Market Access and Regulation:
   • CFDs: Available globally and generally treated as financial instruments, subject to financial regulations such as MiFID II in Europe and the UK’s onshored version.
   • Spread betting: More popular in the UK and Ireland and, while regulated by the FCA, has a distinct legal status due to its classification as betting.

Both products offer leveraged speculation on price movements without ownership. CFDs are treated as financial instruments with potential capital gains tax implications and often involve commission, whereas spread betting profits in the UK are generally exempt from capital gains tax, with the broker’s charge mainly included in the spread. The way trade size is determined also differs: contracts for CFDs and a stake per point for spread betting.

Share CFD Trading vs Share Dealing

Share CFD (contract for difference) trading and share dealing offer UK traders different ways to participate in the stock market. Their key differences are outlined below:

Share CFD Trading:

• No Ownership: You do not own the underlying shares. Instead, you trade a contract with your broker to exchange the difference in the share’s price between opening and closing the position.
• Leverage: Typically available, allowing you to control a larger position with a smaller amount of capital (margin). This can amplify both profits and losses.
• Going Short: Straightforward, allowing you to potentially profit from falling share prices.
• Lower Capital Outlay: Generally requires less initial capital due to leverage.
• Transaction Costs: Usually involves a spread (the difference between the buying and selling prices) and potentially commission. Overnight financing charges may apply. No stamp duty is payable in the UK.
• Dividends: Typically reflected as an adjustment to your account rather than direct dividend payments.
• No Voting Rights: As you do not own the shares, you have no shareholder voting rights.
• Regulation (UK): Regulated by the FCA as a derivative product.
• Suitability: Often favoured for short-term speculation and hedging.

Share Dealing:

• Ownership: You buy and own shares in the company, becoming a shareholder.
• No Direct Leverage (Typically): Requires the full purchase price of the shares upfront. Margin accounts are a separate arrangement.
• Going Short: Possible but more complex (short selling).
• Higher Capital Outlay: Requires the full value of the shares plus transaction costs.
• Transaction Costs: Primarily dealing commissions. Stamp duty reserve tax (SDRT) of 0.5% applies to most UK share purchases.
• Dividends: You are entitled to receive any dividends declared by the company.
• Voting Rights: You may have shareholder voting rights depending on the share class.
• Regulation (UK): Regulated by the FCA under rules for securities trading.
• Suitability: Typically favoured for longer-term investment and potential dividend income.

Share CFDs are leveraged derivative products that may suit short-term trading and speculation without the responsibilities of ownership. Share dealing involves direct ownership, making it more suitable for long-term investment and providing shareholder benefits.

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