How to Trade on Indices

Trading Indices is a way to gain exposure to global, regional, or sector specific markets without having to analyse the performance of an individual company stock.

Plus500 offers CFDs on a variety of indices. Country indices, following the largest companies within a country’s economy, and sector indices which follow the top performers of a select industry. Plus500 also offers unique sector-specific indices.

Trading Index Futures

Plus500 offers CFD traders the option to trade future contracts on some of the most popular indices.

A futures contract is a commitment to buy a specific asset on a predetermined date for a predetermined price. CFDs allow individuals to place Buy and Sell orders depending on whether they believe that an index will gain or lose in value.

In order to execute an index CFD trade, a trader must consider their position.

• Buy - Executing a ‘Buy’ order means that you believe the instrument will increase in value. If the price of the instrument does indeed climb and you close your position, your profit is the difference between your ‘buy’ price and the closing price. On the other hand, if you close your position at a price that is lower than your ‘buy’ price, then your loss is the difference between your ‘buy’ and close price.
• Sell - Executing a ‘Sell’ order means that you believe the instrument will decrease in value. If the price of the instrument does indeed drop and you close your position, your profit is the difference between your ‘sell’ price and the closing price. On the other hand, if you close your position at a price that is higher than your ‘sell’ price, then your loss is the difference between your ‘sell’ and close price.

Plus500 offers traders an opportunity to trade based on the value of these contracts, in the form of Contracts For Difference (CFD) instruments.

Trading Index CFDs with Plus500

When you are ready to trade CFDs on Indices with Plus500, you can open the instrument and view the relevant instrument information such as charts, spread information, rollover details, and more.

Choose whether to open a ‘buy’ order if you believe the index will rise or a ‘sell’ order if you believe it will fall. Trading CFDs means you are not buying or selling the underlying asset but rather you are opening a contract on which direction you predict the market will move.

The Plus500 platform offers some trader-focused features to help you manage your trades. Some examples include an option to ‘close at profit’ which will automatically close your position at a specific level set by you in order to protect your profit, and ‘close at loss’ if you want to set a limit for the amount you are willing to lose.The ’close at profit’ and ‘close at loss’ features are free of charge, and do not guarantee your position will close at the exact price level you have specified.