What Are Indices
Stock indices give you a chance to invest an opinion of an economy without having to pick individual stocks. CFD investment is one of the most popular products to invest.
Market Index: A Collection of Stocks
Historically, investors needed a way to analyse the overall performance of the market. After all, you could never make a statement on the US economy by only looking at, say, Apple Inc.'s stock. Due to this need the stock indices emerged representing the weighted average value of selected top-performing stocks and aiming to provide a quick glance at the market as a whole.
An index is a good way to look at particular markets, but for investors, it offers a way to gauge the performance of their individual portfolios, so underperforming specific investments can be adjusted to be more in line with the general trend of the market.
Indices can have a variety of variables. For starters, the number of stocks in any particular index can vary wildly, from a few dozen companies to thousands. The price of an index is found through weighing. Price-weighted indices are averaged based on the price of each component stock. Capitalization-weighted indices adjust the calculation based on the size of the companies included. Many other factors are represented depending on the stock index in question.
These days, there are hundreds of stock indices globally, representing companies nationally, regionally, globally, and even by industry.
Stock Index CFD: Invest on Margin
Investing in stocks has a wide appeal globally, but the barrier to entry can often be high. Say you want to invest in an economy through an index to attempt to mirror the performance of that economy. You could simply buy shares in all the stocks on the index, but that could get costly, especially in light of broker's fees for transactions. Some turn to the futures market, investing the index through an ETF. The ETF is a fund that has shares in all the stocks in the index. With ETFs, you generally have 100% margin, meaning you have to put up the full value of the index to participate.
- Exas Capital's index products, however, are invested as contracts for difference (CFDs). With CFDs, you can place invests on margin. You put up a fraction of the capital and still get the full value of the invest. But that's not all.
- investing indices as CFDs removes the barrier to investing. When you invest on the futures market, you have settlement periods. Short selling is typically impossible without a significant account balance. Plus the fees for each transaction are significant.
- Index CFDs, on the other hand, have no settlement periods, short selling is available, and you only pay the spread. With CFDs, you can scalp the market much more easily, decrease your risk exposure and be able to enter the market with lower capital requirements in your account.
How an Index CFD investment Works
Unlike forex, when you invest in index, you simply buy or sell based on your opinion of how that index will perform. With Exas Capital, you pay only the spread to open an investment. We do not impose stop restrictions for most of our products—you can scalp major indices. Plus, our smaller contract sizes mean you can minimise your exposure in the market.
Invest Your Opinion of Global Stock Markets
Want an ideal environment to invest US, European, Asian and Australian stock markets? We offer scalpers, news and EA investors with enhanced execution on index CFDs, which we believe can be considered as one of the most unique offerings in the industry.
Why Invest Indices with Exas Capital?
No Minimum Stop Distance
Exas Capital's Enhanced CFD Execution means you invest without minimum stop distances on most products, including US30, NAS100 and the GER30. Most strategies welcome.
Lower Transaction Costs
invest commission free with no exchange fees—your transaction cost is the spread.
invest on Margin
Set aside a fraction of the total investment size for global indices.
invest Sizes - Micro CFDs
Micro-contract sizes give you the flexibility to risk less per invest.
With Exas Capital's index products, you can also invest in bear markets with more ease than in the stock market. Think a market will fall? Sell it just as easily as you can buy rising markets.
Index CFD Symbols
With Exas Capital, investing a stock index CFD is similar to investing forex. All you need to know is the symbol and the contract size.
Check out the Index Product Guide.
Index CFDs are financial derivatives that allow you to gain broad exposure to various markets, but is important to note that margin Index CFDs investing can not only amplify your profits, but dramatically increase your losses. Index CFDs can be a valuable asset to your investing strategy as you can speculate on the price fluctuations of the underlying assets. Review the Index CFD symbols below to see a list of available products:
Indices investing Details
The markets are always moving, so ensure to review your investing strategy for the latest market updates.
Index Pricing
With all Exas Capital account types, you pay only the spread to invest indices. With our enhanced execution, you can receive low spreads on indices and no stop and limit investing restrictions.
Symbol Average Spreads
Decimalized Pricing
To give tighter spreads and more transparent pricing, we quote out to more decimal places. For example:
ours
theirs
9,790.05
on GER30
9,790.1
on GER30
Spread Costs
When you invest with Exas Capital, your spread costs are automatically calculated on your platform, so you see real-time spreads and pip costs when you invest. To calculate the spread cost in the currency of your account:
Spread
x Pip Cost
x Number of Contracts
=
Total Transaction Cost
Index Symbol Information
US2000
The US2000's underlying instrument is the E-Mini Russell 2000 Future, The Russel 2000 Index measures the performance of 2000 small-cap companies from within the Russel 3000 Index and is the most widely quoted benchmark to track the performance of small- cap stocks in the United States.
US30
The US30's underlying instrument is the DJIA (the Dow Jones) MINI e-CBOT. The Dow Jones Consists of 30 major American companies: AMEX, Boeing, Chevron, Coca-Cola, DuPont, GE, Goldman Sachs, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Nike and more.
SPX500
The SPX500's underlying instrument is the S&P 500 stock market index, maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, which comprises 500 large-cap American companies covering about 75% of the American equity market by capitalization, such as Delta, eBay, Halliburton and Yum! Brands. The S&P 500 was developed and continues to be maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, a joint venture majority-owned by McGraw Hill Financial that publishes many stock market indices such as the S&P Midcap 400, the S&P Small Cap 600 and the S&P Composite 1500.
NAS100
The NAS100's underlying instrument is the NASDAQ100 stock market index. This index includes 100 companies from a broad range of industries with the exception of those that operate in the financial industry, such as banks and investment companies. Companies include Apple, Adobe Systems, Amazon, Cisco Systems, Google, Intel, Facebook and others.
UK100
The UK100's underlying instrument is the FTSE 100 index future. This is an index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization. In the FTSE indices, share prices are weighted by market capitalization, so that the larger companies make more of a difference to the index than smaller companies. Companies include GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC and Royal Dutch Shell.
GER30
The GER30's underlying instrument is the DAX index future. The DAX is a blue-chip stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies investing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: BASF, SAP, Bayer, Allianz and others.
ESP35
The ESP35's underlying instrument is the IBEX35 index future. This is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain's principal stock exchange. This index includes 35 companies from a broad range of industries: Banco Popular, Acciona, Bankia, Bankinter, Santander, Repsol, Gas Natural, Telefonica and more.
FRA40
The FRA40's underlying instrument is the CAC40 index future. This is the benchmark stock market index of the Euronext Paris: Airbus, Alcatel-Lucent, AXA, BNP Paribas, L'Oreal, Orange, Vivendi, Societe Generale, Renault, Michelin, Solvay and more.
HKG33
The HKG33's underlying instrument is the Mini-Hang Seng future. This is the benchmark stock market index of Hong Kong. Four sub-indices were established in order to make the index clearer and to classify constituent stocks into four distinct sectors. There are 50 HSI constituent stocks in total, including: Hang Seng Finance Sub-index, Hang Seng Utilities Sub-index, Hang Seng Properties Sub-index, Hang Seng Commerce & Industry Sub-index.
JPN225
The JPN225's underlying instrument is the Nikkei 225 Mini future. This is the benchmark stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).
AUS200
The AUS200's underlying instrument is the S&P/ASX 200, which measures the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the Australian Stock Exchange by float-adjusted market capitalization.
EUSTX50
The EUSTX50's underlying instrument is the Euro Stoxx 50 Future. The Euro Stoxx 50 is an index of European listed shares is a stock index of Eurozone stocks designed by Stoxx Ltd, an index provider owned by Deutsche Börse and SIX Group and contains the largest companies in Europe—Allianz, Deutsche Bank, Inditex, Repsol, Unilever and more—and is used as a gage for the state of Europe's economy.
CHN50
The CHN50 has the FTSE China A50 Index as its underlying reference. The FTSE China A50 Index is a real-time tradable index comprising the largest 50 'A' Share companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is the benchmark index for investors looking to access and invest the performance of the China domestic market.