A CFD is a contract between you and your broker to exchange the difference in an asset's price from when you open the trade to when you close it. You never own the underlying asset. That single distinction shapes everything about how CFDs work, what they cost, and why regulators treat them differently from traditional investing.
The broker you choose determines the cost of every trade, the safety of your capital, the tools you have access to, and the markets you can reach. It is arguably the most consequential decision a trader makes before placing a single order.
Most traders have a strategy. Very few have a plan. The difference is the gap between knowing what to trade and knowing how to trade it consistently, day after day, without letting emotions rewrite the rules.
Every quarter, publicly traded companies publish earnings reports that reveal how much money they made, how much they spent, and what they expect going forward. For traders, these reports create the biggest single-day price moves of the year.
Every trade starts with an order. The type of order you choose determines your entry price, your exit price, and whether your risk management plan actually executes when it matters.
Moving averages are probably the most widely used indicator in trading. They appear on nearly every chart, in every asset class, across every timeframe. At their core, moving averages smooth out price data to reveal the underlying trend.
People have been trading oil, gold, wheat, and cattle for centuries. What has changed is how you access these markets. You no longer need a seat on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange or a warehouse full of soybeans.
A candlestick chart is the default view on almost every trading platform for a reason. Each candle packs four data points into a single visual shape that tells you what buyers and sellers did during that time period.
Most forex traders who blow their accounts do not fail because they picked the wrong strategy, but because they picked the wrong trading style. Scalping, day trading, and swing trading each demand different skills, schedules, and temperaments.
Stock options give you the right to buy or sell shares at a specific price before a specific date. They are contracts, not shares. That distinction changes everything about how they work, how they are priced, and how they can lose you money.
Support and resistance is the most fundamental concept in technical analysis. Every chart pattern, every indicator, every trading strategy ultimately comes back to the question: where is price likely to stall or reverse?
Most traders obsess over entries and exits. The ones who survive obsess over how much they risk per trade. Position sizing is the single most important skill in risk management, and the 1% rule is where it starts.