With the increase in popularity of share trading by Australian investors, it isn’t surprising that more sophisticated trading platforms and products are being actively used by experienced investors searching for additional trading opportunities. Contracts for differences, or CFDs, are a increasing in popularity in the Australian market. CFDs are derivative products whose main attraction is the high amount of leverage they offer. Those with a good knowledge of financial markets are attracted to CFDs, for their ease of use and simplicity. Often CFD traders are retail clients, institutional investors, hedge funds, day traders or the more sophisticated investors. CFDs, however, are not for the inexperienced trader or investor.
With astute traders conscious of expenses and their impact on bottom-line profits, the question arises as to which CFD provider offers better value. Yearly Cannex Canstar analyses products from CFD providers in Australia to compile its detailed analysis on CFD trading. CFD providers are assessed based on part-time traders and full-time traders utilizing the Market Maker and Direct Market Access trading models. Cannex Canstar does not include beginner investors in their assessment, as they don’t consider this product is appropriate for this type of investor.
When assessing the CFD providers in Australia, consideration is given based on their pricing for Australian share CFDs, this comprises of brokerage and financing charges. Cannex Canstar also takes into account the features and versatility of using their services, risk management tools, along with their margin requirements. The Cannex Canstar methodology comprises of 200 pieces of information, making the scope of their CFD trading star ratings way more than the majority of traders could hope to compare by themselves. Their evaluation is dependent on CFD trading of ASX share CFDs. Cannex Canstar also provides extra points for providing investors with access to indices and other markets.
The Cannex Canstar rating considers the trading platform and services offered by CFD providers, incorporating order fulfillment, charting capabilities, client support, education, account administration, information, variety of tradeable securities, commission, financing costs, etc. It isn’t a score of estimated returns from use of these services and by no means implies that an investor should have an expectation of positive returns. CFD trading is mostly a self-managed activity and return of profits or losses depends upon the individual investor’s judgments and behavior.
Historical winners of the Cannex Canstar awards which are broken down into two different types being Direct Market Access (DMA) and Market Maker have been First Prudential Markets and IG Markets for their Direct Market Access (DMA) package and GFT and IG Markets for their Market Maker CFD product. The latest challenger in the CFD market, International Capital Markets (IC Markets) is poised to take out the Cannex Canstar CFD awards this year with its inexpensive Direct Market Access CFD package for full-time traders on the webiress trading platform.

