First CFD Trade

My account was approved this morning and I got some money into my account - using a credit card it was there right away - more is on the way from Adelaide Bank via AnyPay. I got up to speed on the City Index interface and terminology. For anyone who's traded with a U.S. broker like Ameritrade or Interactive Brokers it won't take long to familiarize yourself. For those who've only placed simple market buys or sells on a broker like ComSec the learning curve will be much steeper. Futures traders will find CFDs simple to understand, maybe a little tougher if you've only traded shares before. The interface is pretty nice - not a lot different to Interactive Brokers. There are live streaming charts with some technicals- something ComSec charges an astronomical monthly fee for and requires you to down load software - though I'll probably stick with my IB charts for trading the Australian Index probably, but this could be very useful for other markets where I'm not willing to pay IB the fees (e.g. Australian stocks, European indices).

I successfully placed my first trade (my first attempt failed but City Index quickly fixed the problem by properly activating my account) - buying one ASX 200 index - the value is $1 * index so this is a $5747 position, which is totally anxiety free. I'm down $8 on my trade as I write including the initial 2 point spread. I put a stop at 5675 - which you enter together with the initial order. You can also use stop type orders to enter positions, but here the terminology is a little confusing. Just enter an "order" to buy at a price above the current market price to create a stop buy entry. If you put in an order to buy below the current market price that is the equivalent of a traditional futures limit order. You can't do a traditional limit order for a price above the current price and there would be no point in doing so. You can buy as much as you like up to the position limit at the price City Index is offering.

So far, my experience of City Index is very positive.