Share CFD trading product details

North America

We offer all the constituent shares of the S&P 500 index and the NASDAQ 100 index, as well as sufficiently liquid US shares with a market capitalisation greater than $250 million.

These contracts are denominated in US dollars, and US dollar interest rates apply. We also offer CFD share trading on the component shares of the TSX60 in Canada; for these shares, trades are denominated in Canadian dollar and Canadian dollar interest rates apply.

Product details and notes

To determine whether a charge applies, call our dealers in advance of trading. The borrowing charge, and your ability to go short, can be changed at short notice.

Commission charges

Commission charges for CFDs are calculated as a percentage of the transaction value for most markets and as cents per share for the US and Canada. See our charges page (or the table above) for further details. Please note that if the size of your deal is such that it attracts our minimum charge on opening, you will also be required to pay a minimum charge for that deal on closing, even if you close the deal in a bundle with other deals where the aggregate size is above our minimum. Where we offer a CFD on an equity that is dual-listed and fully fungible for settlement on both exchanges, the commission charges applicable to that CFD will be the charges relevant to the country where primary listing is held.

Clients will be informed in writing of the commission rates and financing rates which apply to their account at the time the account is opened.

When you open a share CFD position with us, it will be aggregated with other IG clients' positions in the same market. We do this to keep our hedging costs down, and to provide you with competitive commission rates. IG’s brokers may also aggregate IG client positions with their other clients’ positions where it is a regulatory requirement for them to so (in the US for example).

By IG aggregating its client positions, you may be able to ‘go short’ even when there’s no borrowable stock available in the underlying market. This does, however, mean that when your order interacts with the underlying market, its treatment by brokers and/or exchanges will be based on the net aggregate position (ie the aggregate of all client and hedged positions) rather than your own. This also applies in the case where our brokers aggregate IG client positions with their other clients’ positions for regulatory reasons.

In certain situations this may have an impact on the outcome of an order. For example, if the net aggregate position is short in a specific market and you’re closing a long position in the same market, we’ll treat your order as a short-sell. In cases like this, your order will be subject to exchange rules on naked short-selling, uptick rules and short-sale restrictions – please refer to our ‘notes’ section for more information.

Notes:

Naked short-selling occurs when a trader attempts to short without first securing borrowable stock. We generally don’t allow clients to go short when borrowable stock is difficult to obtain. All short positions do, however, carry a risk of recall should borrowable stock later become unavailable

Uptick rules prevent rapid sell-offs, and stipulate that short-selling may only occur once the price of a particular market has ‘ticked up’

Short-sale restrictions promote market stability by prohibiting the short-selling of stocks which have declined by a certain percentage in a trading session

Guaranteed stop transactions

Guaranteed stop transactions are available on certain shares at our discretion.

The guaranteed stop premium for each individual share is given in our share CFDs list (PDF, 500KB) (including UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Singapore and other world shares). The guaranteed stop premium for South African and IOB shares is 1.0%. For all other shares the premium for a guaranteed stop transaction is normally 0.3% or 0.7%. (Please note that theguaranteed stop premium for all shares may increase depending on market conditions and the volatility of the particular share.)

The guaranteed stop premium is charged when your stop is triggered.

Margin percentage

The Margin Percentage for any particular CFD is calculated as a percentage of the current valuation of the transaction. Please see the share CFDs list (PDF, 500KB) for Margin Percentages of specific shares.

The Margin Percentage for major UK shares, and key constituents of US and European indices, is 5% on a Trader Account. The Margin Percentage for all other shares will be 10% or higher according to volatility and market conditions.

The Margin Percentage for a guaranteed stop CFD transaction is equal to the amount which would be lost if the Stop were triggered. If the this amount is smaller than the margin requirement on a position of without a guaranteed stop, the larger of the two amounts is to be deposited as margin.

Please note that Tiered Margining applies; this means that higher margins may be required for large positions. Please see our charges and fees page for details.

We reserve the right to alter the Margin Percentage at any time.

Subject to risk reviews, the margin rates may differ for individual clients.

Minimum opening value

There is no minimum opening contract value for CFDs on individual shares.

Dealing hours

Dealing hours are as follows:

• UK Shares (LSE): 08.00-16.30 (London time)

• American Shares: 04.00 to 20.00 Monday to Thursday, and 04.00 to 17.00 on Fridays (EST) on Amazon.com Inc, American International Group Inc, Apple Inc, AT&T Inc, Bank of America Corp, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Caterpillar Inc, Chevron Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, Citigroup Inc, Coca-Cola Co, eBay Inc, Exxon Mobil Corp, Facebook Inc, Ford Motor Co, General Electric Co, Gilead Sciences Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Google Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Intel Corp, International Business Machine, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase & Co, McDonald's Corp, Microsoft Corp, Netflix Inc, Oracle Corp, Pfizer Inc, Procter & Gamble Co, Tesla Motors Inc, Twitter Inc, Verizon Communications Inc, Yahoo! Inc and SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust; 9.30-16.00 (EST) on all other American shares.

• European Shares: Market hours for the relevant Exchange. Please ask for current details.

• All other shares: Market hours for the relevant Exchange. Please ask for current details.

Funding

For CFDs on individual shares, adjustments to reflect the effect of interest and dividends are calculated daily and posted to the client's account daily.

i) A daily interest adjustment is calculated, as follows, for any position that is kept open through the official close of business:

D = n x C x i / 365

Where:

D = daily interest adjustment
n = number of shares
C = official closing share price
i = applicable annual interest rate

Note: The formula uses a 365-day divisor for UK, Singapore and South African shares and a 360-day divisor for shares in other markets.

The applicable annual interest rate is based on prevailing interest rates and our funding adjustment, usually 2.5% per annum. Interest in respect of long positions is debited from a client's account, and interest in respect of short positions is credited to the client's account. Please note however, the inverse may be true if the interest rate is negative.

ii) A dividend adjustment is applied when a share passes its ex-dividend date (including the ex-date of any special dividend) in the underlying stock market. In the case of long positions, the dividend adjustment is credited to the client's account. In the case of short positions, the dividend adjustment is debited from the client's account. In the case of UK shares, the dividend adjustment is equal to the amount of the net dividend. The dividend adjustment for shares in other markets varies depending on local tax arrangements; please ask our dealers for current details.

For CFDs, a cash adjustment may be made to the client's account to reflect the effect of a bonus share issue, scrip or rights issue affecting the underlying share. For Share CFDs in a company which is under offer in a takeover situation, IG may not be able to communicate any wish to subscribe to the takeover offer (i.e. 'assent stock').

Where you open a short share CFD position, you will incur a borrow charge. The borrow charge will be accounted for in a daily cash adjustment applied to the account. The charge varies according to the share, is notified to us by our brokers or agents and includes a 0.5% administration fee. The borrow charge, and the ability to hold a short position, can be changed at short notice. To determine whether a borrow charge applies and if so, what the charge is, call our dealers in advance of trading.