How to trade or invest in the Dow Jones

You can spread bet on the current price of the Wall Street index with the cash (spot) price.

This is how many choose to trade Wall Street with us, as it has tight spreads, no commission charges and mirrors the real-time index price more closely than futures pricing does.

Because spot trading incurs overnight funding charges if you leave a position open after 10pm (UK time), it’s best suited to short to medium-term trading strategies (you can read more on perfecting your trading strategy below.)

Our cash prices for the Wall Street index are based on our future’s price, with a fair value adjustment to get to a spot price as close to the real-time price of the index as possible. Spot trading (known as cash trading on our platform) is best done during the Dow Jones index’s normal market hours. The hours are based on the New York Stock Exchange’s regular hours, which are 2.30pm to 9pm, Monday to Friday (UK time).

However, good trading opportunities don’t always wait for 9am Monday – which is why we offer weekend Wall Street trading hours, too. This means you can trade Wall Street from 8am Saturday to 10.40pm Sunday. Bear in mind, though, that the index is priced on client sentiment, news and underlying market conditions like volatility during this time, not on the index price, as markets are closed.

To open a position:

1. Go to the spread betting platform
2. Navigate to the Wall Street index under ‘Indices’
3. Select ‘Cash’ instead of ‘Futures’ to trade
4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
5. Choose the size of your position per point
6. Set yours stops and limits
7. Click ‘place deal’ to open the position

While spread betting cash indices can work well for short-term traders, you can also trade on Wall Street via index futures.

The way that futures work is that you’ll agree to trade the Wall Street index at a specific price on a specific date in the future. This is often attractive for medium to longer-term trading strategies because you won’t incur any overnight fees. Plus, until the contract’s expiry date comes around, you can leave your position open as long as you want, albeit with wider spreads.

You’ll never have to pay any commission charges when spread betting on Wall Street futures, as we charge just our spread for index futures.

To open a Wall Street futures position:

1. Go to the spread betting platform
2. Select the Wall Street index under ‘Indices’
3. Choose ‘Futures’ instead of ‘Cash’ to trade and select your preferred date range
4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
5. Choose the size of your position per point
6. Set yours stops and limits
7. Click ‘place deal’ to open the position

With us you can also trade the Wall Street index via options, which give you the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the options contract before a set expiry date in the future.

When you trade options by spread betting on our platform, you’ll be speculating on the Dow Jones’s price and if the index price will move beyond a certain point, before your expiry date is reached.

Bear in mind when spread betting options that, when buying options, you’ll only risk as much as the premium you pay when opening your trade. However, there is potentially unlimited risk when selling options, as there’s no limit to how much market prices can rise. For this reason, options trading is often only recommended for experienced traders.

To open an options position with spread betting:

1. Go to the spread betting platform
2. Click on Options’ instead of ‘Indices’
3. Choose ‘Indices’ as your asset class and select ‘Wall Street’
4. Decide on your preferred maturity date range – daily, weekly or monthly
5. Select a call or put option, and whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
6. Choose the size of your position
7. Set yours stops and limits
8. Click ‘place deal’ to open the position

Want to gain broad exposure to the Wall Street index with a single trade? You can also spread bet on exchange traded funds (ETFs), instruments that track the performance of a range of Dow Jones-listed stocks or even the index itself.

With spread betting, you can get high liquidity and lower spreads than trading with CFDs, even from as little as 0.1%. There’s no commission charge, only the spread, plus overnight funding fees if you leave your position open after 10pm (UK time) on the day it’s created.

ETFs are available to trade with a cash (spot price) market. This means you cannot trade Dow Jones-related ETF futures.

To open a Dow Jones-tracking ETF position:

1. Go to the spread betting platform
2. Select ‘ETFs’ instead of ‘Indices’
3. Click on an ETF, for example the iShares Dow Jones U.S. ETF
4. Choose whether you want to trade ETFs on the spot (cash) or using forwards
5. Decide whether to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
6. Choose the size of your position per point
7. Set yours stops and limits
8. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position

If you want to target a specific Dow Jones-listed stock with us, you can spread bet directly on all its constituent companies’ prices with us.

Because you’re trading on share prices, rather than owning those shares outright, you can speculate on whether the share price will rise or fall. Depending on whether your prediction is correct, this means you can make a profit (or loss) whether the market’s dropping or climbing.

As spread betting is leveraged, this also means you pay an upfront deposit a fraction of the cost you’d to buy the company shares if investing. Instead, you’ll pay your deposit (called margin) to open a larger position. Bear in mind, though, that profits and losses will be calculated based on your total position size, which could easily outweigh your margin amount.

Spread betting also means you don’t have to pay any commission charges, with spreads from just 2.4 points and additional overnight funding charges if you leave your position open longer than one day (and are trading on cash, not futures).

Of course, you can also invest in companies listed on the Dow, owning shares rather than speculating on the share price. Read on to find out how.

To open a shares position:

1. Go to the spread betting platform
2. Select ‘Shares’ instead of 'Indices' or 'ETFs'
3. Click on your chosen stock, for example Apple
4. Choose whether you want to trade with Cash or Forwards
5. Decide whether to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
6. Choose the size of your position per point
7. Set yours stops and limits
8. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position

You can trade CFDs on the Wall Street index using the spot trading (known as cash in our platform), which is derived from future’s price with a fair value adjustment to get as close to the real-time cash price of the index as possible.

Trading Wall Street CFDs on the spot (cash) price means you don’t pay any commission charges, and spreads are lower than the futures price, although overnight funding fees apply (unlike with futures). This means cash or spot prices are often best suited to short-term trading strategies, which won’t require leaving a position open for longer than one day.

To open a Wall Street spot position:

1. Go to the CFD trading platform
2. Select the 'Wall Street index' under 'Indices'
3. Choose 'Cash' instead of 'Futures' to trade and select your preferred date range
4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
5. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
6. Set yours stops and limits
7. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position

You can also trade Wall Street CFD futures with us, which don’t attract the same overnight funding charges that cash (spot) trading does.

Trading index futures via CFDs means you’re agreeing to trade the Wall Street index at a specific price on a specific date in the future.

This is commission-free, with slightly wider spreads than you’ll find on cash markets.

To open a Wall Street futures position:

1. Go to the CFD trading platform
2. Select the 'Wall Street index' under 'Indices'
3. Choose 'Futures' instead of 'Cash' to trade and select your preferred date range
4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
5. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
6. Set yours stops and limits
7. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position

As we’ve said earlier, with options you have the right, but not the obligation, to exercise the contract on or before its expiry date. When you trade options via CFDs, you’ll pay an initial deposit (called premium) to open a larger position. You’ll then speculate on the option’s premium for a profit or loss – with both able to significantly outweigh your deposit amount as profits and losses are calculated on the full position size.

Buying options is limited risk as you’ll only risk as much as the premium you pay, but selling options is technically unlimited risk, as there’s no restriction to how much a market’s price can rise.

To open a CFD options position on the Wall Street index:

1. Go to the spread betting platform
2. Click on 'Options' instead of 'Indices'
3. Choose ‘Indices’ as your asset class and select ‘Wall Street’
4. Decide on your preferred maturity date range – daily, weekly or monthly
5. Select a call or put option, and whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
6. Choose the size of your position
7. Set yours stops and limits
8. Click ‘place deal’ to open the position

If you’d like to trade CFDs but would like broad exposure to a variety of different Dow Jones constituent stocks all in one trade, then you could trade ETFs with us. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are investment instruments that track the performance of a basket of Dow Jones-listed stocks.

ETFs attract low commissions – just 0.10% on each side of every CFD trade, with a minimum fee of £10 for online orders. Just remember, because you’ll be trading on the cash (spot) price, you’ll incur overnight fees if your position is left open longer than a day.

To open a Dow Jones-tracking ETF position:

1. Go to the CFD platform
2. Select ‘ETFs’ instead of 'Indices'
3. Click on a Dow Jones-related ETF, for example the iShares Dow Jones Industrial Average UCITS ETF
4. Choose whether you want to trade on the spot (cash) or using forwards
5. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
6. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
7. Set yours stops and limits
8. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position

If you’d like to trade certain Dow Jones-listed stocks instead, without owning assets outright, you could trade shares using CFDs.

CFD share trades are leveraged, meaning you’ll put down a small deposit (called margin) to open a larger position and speculate on a company’s share price, rather than buying the shares outright, paying the full share price upfront.

In this way, your initial CFD share trade margin costs a fraction of what it would to buy shares. Just remember that profits and losses are calculated based on the total position size, not your margin amount, and can outweigh your margin significantly.

When you choose CFD share trading, you can enjoy very low spreads. CFD trades on US shares also attract a minimum commission charge of $15 online. You’ll also be trading on the spot (cash) price with share CFDs, so remember that you’ll incur overnight funding charges if your position is left open for longer than a day.

To open a Dow Jones constituent shares position:

1. Go to the CFD trading platform
2. Select ‘Shares’ instead of ‘Indices’ or ‘ETFs’
3. Click on your chosen company, for example Apple
4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
5. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
6. Set yours stops and limits
7. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position

One of the things you can buy on our share dealing platform is Dow Jones-tracking ETFs. As we’ve mentioned previously, ETFs track the performance of a range of Dow Jones-related companies or track the Dow Jones index’s performance itself.

On our share dealing platform, you’re buying ETFs outright, rather than speculating on ETF prices as you would with trading. This means many investors have a ‘buy and hold’ approach to ETFs, most suitable to long-term trading strategies.

Even better, investing in US ETFs means you can pay no commission charges (£0 per trade) if you open three or more positions in the previous month,¹ with a standard rate otherwise of £10.2 If you want to invest in a UK-listed ETF that tracks the Dow instead, you’ll pay £3 commission per trade if you open three or more positions in the prior month,1 with a standard rate of £8 per trade for less.

Of course, you can also buy Dow Jones constituents’ shares with us. This allows you to pick the right company for your particular strategy with a laser focus unlike the broad strokes of ETFs. If you’ve ever dreamed about actually owning Apple shares, or some other company of that stature, investing in Dow Jones-listed shares could be the right choice for you.

Just like with ETFs, investing in US shares means you can pay zero commission per trade if you open three or more positions in the month prior,1 with a standard rate otherwise of £10.²

If you’d rather hand over the reins of your investing to a professional, we also offer managed portfolios, called IG Smart Portfolios.

Here, you’ll get a bespoke bouquet of Dow Jones-listed stocks and funds chosen according to your unique investment goals and desires. A managed portfolio invests on your behalf, including into Dow Jones constituents if you wish, and takes care of the details so you don’t have to.

Often, many people assume that costs for something as exclusive as a managed portfolio must be sky-high. But with us, you’ll pay a fee of just 0.72% on your first £50,000 and a 0.22% fee after that.