1. Losing more than the money in your account:
CFDs are leveraged meaning you only need to put up a fraction of your trade’s value to open it. So you could lose – or gain – much more than your initial deposit.
You can mitigate risk and lock in profits by setting an automatic stop or limit, to define the level you’d like your trade closed at.
2. Having your positions closed unexpectedly, resulting in you losing money.
You need a certain amount of money in your account to keep your trades open. This is called margin, and if your account balance doesn’t cover our margin requirements we may close your positions for you. Please read the PDS for further information regarding this.
Keep an eye on your always-visible running balances in our platform or app and add more funds if they’re needed.
3. Sudden or larger-than-expected losses (or gains).
Markets can be volatile, moving very quickly and unexpectedly in reaction to announcements, events or trader behaviour.
As well as setting stops, you can also be notified of significant movement by setting a price or distance alert, giving you the choice of whether or not to react.
4. Having an order (an instruction you give us, to open or close a trade for you when the market hits a certain level) filled at a different level to the one you requested.
When a market moves a long way in an instant – or ‘gaps’ – any orders you have placed may be filled at a worse level than the one you requested. This is called slippage.
Check our Risk Management page for more details.