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Trade derivatives on stocks and indices

Profit from price differences on 150 instruments

Index trading: the benefit of an all-in-one solution

When thinking about the stock market, people usually picture buying or selling the stocks of particular companies. The market price of such stocks can experience significant ups and downs on the news related to this company or on certain reports, either bringing profits or losses to involved traders, depending on their event forecast.

But the retail part of this market is not about owning shares in an industrial giant; it’s about earning money on these stocks’ market fluctuations with the lowest risks possible. Stock market indices express the average price movement of a bundle of stocks; they never bear the risks of a single company. These indices are easier to predict, and their volatility level is higher. Traders can track market insights directly via our website to be fully informed about indices’ possible price adjustments.

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Why trade stock market indices over individual stocks

Traders choose to trade stock market indices because, compared to traditional individual stocks, it’s easy, execution is rapid, and short selling and day trading approaches do not imply any restrictions.

Some other advantages of trading derivatives on indices include

Bigger profits

  • Higher Profit Potential. As derivatives allow for buying and selling indices without prior investment in stocks, you can benefit from both the falling and rising of the stock market if you predict the direction of its movement correctly.
  • Lower Costs and Spreads. Trading derivatives on indices is less costly than trading the underlying index, with similar scope for profits. Moreover, Octa provides the lowest spreads on indices in the industry.
  • Faster Execution Speeds. With market execution, orders can be executed without any delay, for faster and more efficient trading.
Learn about Octa tight spreads

Better margins and leverage

  • Margin Trading. You can allocate a small portion of your trading capital to open an index trade. Thanks to 1:50 leverage and micro lot trading, these positions can actually bring in a huge profit.
  • Same Margin Requirements. With derivatives, it does not matter if you buy or sell—margin requirements are the same.
  • Leverage. They offer low-cost entry into the financial markets. Traders need to invest a fraction of the total cost of a contract, while reserving the potential to gain larger returns. Leverage, however, also has the power to amplify losses.
Learn about Octa’s 50% bonus on each deposit

Secure market conditions

  • Greater Liquidity and Volatility. Indices are highly liquid and volatile. As they represent a wider market or sector, they are considered good financial health indicators for these industries.
  • Greater Exposure. Indices provide a large exposure to the overall market, without stock-specific risks. You get to track the movement of highly tradable stocks with good track records.
  • Diversification of Portfolio. A good risk management tool, as the value of the index is the average of all entities in the group. The risk of losses is also lower because the volatility level differs from traditional stock trading.
  • Both Long and Short Position Trading. Unlike some stocks, indices can be traded both long and short, providing more opportunities for profit.
Available stock indices

Your market of opportunities to build a fortune

The stock market is extremely news-sensitive. Whenever an important event happens somewhere in the world, or whenever a great new product blows up the consumer market, this immediately affects the related market or stock market index.

For instance, when Emmanuel Macron, the 25th president of France, was elected in 2017, France’s CAC index grew by 4%. Traders were able to benefit from simply knowing this fact. And with Octa, you can trade derivatives on this index via the MT5 platform.

In 2016, Trump’s election brought quite the opposite effect when the Dow’s index fell by 900 points right after the big news. It was an excellent opportunity for a big win for traders practising short selling. Octa has this index tradable on both MT4 and MT5 platforms.

Market news

Your access to retail indices and stock trading via derivatives

Classical investing in successful stock indices is attractive and requires patience to wait for significant returns, which can take several years. However, to profit from your investment, you need to invest a significant amount of money. Traders in the retail part of the market usually choose not to enter into trades of such volume and wait for possibly modest returns. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from stock price movements.

The Octa Trading platform offers access to stock index trading (a portfolio of shares issued by different companies or industries) through derivatives, which offer the opportunity to gain from price fluctuations on the most popular indices in minutes, rather than years.

Trading derivatives with Octa

An attractive alternative to traditional stock trading

Online stock trading with derivatives brings huge advantages to traders. Trading derivatives on stocks eliminates the restrictions associated with shorting, which usually require traditional stock traders to invest in the instrument before selling short, or there could be different margin requirements for short and long positions. Derivatives also offer additional benefits:

  • Robust platforms. Online stock trading platforms allow for automating trading with robots, which reduces guessing to minimum and removes factors of emotions and human errors.
  • Platform accessibility. Technologies stepped in to make these trading platforms robust and secure and available on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. More people can access stock trading with greater ease and monitor stock price movements on the go.
  • Extended hours. Traders can even set up trades when the markets are closed, which allows them to react promptly to corporate announcements and news even before the opening of the next sessions.
  • No paper documents. This means rapid transactions with simpler setup and execution of trades.
  • Best trading tools and applications. Through the wide range of technical indicators available on MT4/MT5, traders can make well-informed stock trading decisions.
How to start trading in 4 easy steps

Profit on index fluctuations through derivatives

Since stock indices are not physical assets, they can be traded via products that reflect their price movements via the Octa derivatives trading platform. Derivatives on stocks and on indices enable trading assets without actually owning them. The price of a derivative reflects the price of the underlying asset. Essentially, a derivative is a contract between a trader and a spread-betting company. Derivatives on indices cover all the major markets around the world.

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Reasons to trade derivatives on indices with Octa

Octa offers derivatives on 10 of the most popular indices, including Dow Jones, NASDAQ, Nikkei, and EuroStoxx.

  • MT4/MT5 platform. These are the leading online trading platforms today. Apart from offering a rich variety of features, they provide powerful trading tools, including automated trades, technical indicators, and advanced live charts.
  • Transparent prices. Gain access to real-time market prices and choose your assets wisely.
  • Leverage of 1:50. Leverage is one of the most powerful tools in derivatives trading. Maximise your portfolio’s potential by investing only a fraction of the value of a derivative.
  • No swaps or commissions. Enjoy the best trading conditions in the industry, with zero commission and swap fees. Octa doesn’t charge any volume-based commissions in order to provide you with cost-efficient trading conditions.
  • Bigger investments and profits. Invest in one of the most tradable indices in the world and increase your profit potential.
  • Quick trading feature. During volatile market conditions, you need to place orders and close them in the exact moment of time, as fast as you can. This feature reduces the whole process to clicking just two buttons—as easy as it gets.
  • Low spreads. You can cut your portfolio expenses by opening trades with derivatives on indices with the lowest spreads in the industry.
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$50 min deposit

Choose your stock trading account

Octa offers trading platforms for trading derivatives on stocks. Each is set up to meet the demands and expectations of different types of traders. Examine their core features in connection with stock trading:

  • OctaTrader

    • OctaTrader
    • 10 indices
    • $100 recommended deposit
    • 1:100 leverage
    Open OctaTrader

  • Octa MT5

    • MetaTrader 5
    • 10 indices
    • $100 recommended deposit
    • 1:50 leverage
    Open Octa MT5

  • Octa MT4

    • MetaTrader 4
    • 4 indices
    • $100 recommended deposit
    • 1:50 leverage
    Open Octa MT4

Outline of available stock indices

  • FTSE 100 (UK100): The top 100 blue chip companies on the London Stock Exchange. The index is said to map more than 80% of the total capitalisation in the United Kingdom.
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average (US30): This stock market index shows 30 of the largest publicly-owned companies in the US, and how they have traded in their standard trading sessions.
  • NASDAQ 100 Index (NAS100): The 100 largest companies listed on the NASDAQ exchange, including industries like retail, software, bio-tech, and telecommunications.
  • Nikkei 225 Index (JPN225): Japan’s top 225 companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, including Sony, Canon, and Toyota.
  • Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX500): Market capitalisation of the 500 largest companies in the US, with common stock listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE. The S&P 500 is considered one of the best indicators of the US stock market.
  • CAC 40 (FRA40): The top 40 stocks traded in the Euronext Paris stock market. As France represents a large portion of the European economy, it provides insight into where the European market is heading.
  • ASX 200 Index (AUS200): Measures the movement of various sectors on the Australian stock market. Prices are primarily affected by the movement of commodity prices.
  • Eurostoxx 50 Index (EUSTX50): The index covers 50 companies from 11 EU countries, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
  • DAX (GER40): The top 40 companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, including Bayer, Allianz, and BASF.
  • IBEX 35 (ESP35): This comprises the 35 most liquid Spanish stocks and is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid.
Track stock market quotes live on OctaTrader

Indices trading with the Octa demo account

Before trading with your real money, you can practise with our demo accounts. Derivatives on stocks are tradable on the MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 platforms. The demo account works like a real one and uses real market data, but you do not need to deposit your money. All profit or loss will also be virtual.

We recommend switching to real accounts after practising different trading strategies and techniques and getting steady profitable results.

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