XS Indices Trading

Trade indices with the best online trading platform

Welcome to the world of indices trading with XS. Participate in indices price movements both during a rise and a fall with XS, where you can trade CFDs on the world's leading stock indices with the best global broker. XS offers comprehensive trading terms, accurate quotes from multiple suppliers, and versatile analytics for indices trading. Understanding index behavior requires attention to corporate news of included companies and industry-wide events.

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Indices trading with XS: Contract specifications

XS offers access to a wide range of Stock indices, including Dow Jones Industrial Average (US30), NASDAQ or US Tech (US100), Standard & Poor's or S&P 500 (US500), Financial Times Stock Exchange or FTSE 100 Index (UK100), Australia's S&P/ASX 200 (AUS200), Germany Stock Market Index / Deutscher Aktien Index / DAX Index (DE40), France Stock Market Index / Cotation Assistée en Continu / CAC40 (F40), Spain Market Index / Iberia Index / IBEX (ES35), The EURO STOXX 50 (EU50), & Japan Nikkei 225 (JP225).

Plan your trades with confidence and optimize your indices trading experience by utilizing our detailed contract specifications. Explore our comprehensive contract specifications and gain a deeper understanding of our exceptional trading conditions including contract size, leverage, spreads, commissions, swaps, and more for different account types.

Indices trading with XS: Trading conditions

Normal trading hours

Normal trading hours refer to the regular trading sessions available for trading. The below shows the normal trading hours for stock indices available for trading with XS.
Seasonal and market factors may affect the below trading hours, so it is important to follow the latest updates on the Trading Hours page to stay up to date with the latest seasonal changes to trading hours. All timings are in server time (GMT+2).

AUS200 : Monday - Friday: 02:50 – 24:00
(Daily Break: 09:30 - 10:10) DE40 : Monday - Friday: 02:15 - 23:00 UK100 : Monday - Friday: 01:00 – 24:00 F40 : Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 23:00 EU50 : Monday - Friday: 01:00 – 24:00 ES35 : Monday - Friday: 10:00 - 21:00 JP225 : Monday - Friday: 01:00 - 23:59 US30, US100, & US500 : Monday - Friday: 01:00 - 24:00
(Daily Breaks: 23:15 - 23:30 & 00:00:01 – 00:59:59) RUSS2000 : Monday - Friday: 01:00 – 24:00
(Daily Break: 00:00:01 – 00:59:59)

Dividend adjustments

Dividends are paid by companies to shareholders as a means to distribute profits. After a share pays dividends, the price typically falls by the same amount.
Indices reflect the weighted average share price of a group of underlying shares. When one or more companies whose shares are part of an index pay dividends, the index price will also decrease by the weighted average value of the dividend(s).
Therefore, when trading CFD indices, dividend adjustments are applied to open indices positions when dividends are paid in the underlying market. It is important to follow the latest updates on Trading Notices pages to stay up to date with the upcoming Dividends adjustments.

Spreads

XS.com offers floating spreads on all indices for all account types. Hence the spreads in the contract specifications table are the average spread based on the previous trading day. For live spreads, please refer to the trading platform. Please note that spreads may widen when the markets experience lower liquidity, including rollover time.

Chart prices

XS.com offers a variety of trading accounts to suit each trader’s needs and preferences. We offer accounts with raw pricing on which additional commissions are charged. Other account types have no commission but instead have mark-ups incorporated in the prices. By default, the chart in the MetaTrader trading platforms will display the raw pricing, while the market watch will display the pricing of the account type that the client is trading on.

Swaps

Swap long is used for keeping buy positions open overnight, and Swap short is used for keeping sell positions open overnight. Swaps occur at 23:59 Server Time each day, excluding the weekend, until the position is closed. Triple swaps are charged on Wednesdays to cover financing costs incurred over the weekend.

Dynamic leverage

XS.com offers dynamic leverage on indices on most account types. The leverage values in the contract specifications table are the maximum leverage for each trading instrument. The maximum leverage will change based on your net open positions. For more details, please check the Dynamic Leverage page.

Fixed leverage

XS.com offers fixed leverage on some account types. In this case, the maximum leverage displayed in the contract specifications table will NOT change based on your net open positions. The fixed leverage applies to Cent & Mirco account types.

Higher margin requirements

We apply risk management measures to protect positions from possible high volatility during key events and specific time periods that impact the general volatility of the market.
Higher amounts of margin are required to open an order during these periods which are known as HMR (higher margin requirements) periods. The higher margin requirements will apply only to positions that are opened within these periods. The margin requirements of existing positions will not be affected.
Closing an open hedged position during HMR periods can fail if there is insufficient free margin to cover the higher margin requirements, specifically the higher margin requirements on the latter half of a hedged order at the time of closing. The HMR periods include:
Economic News Periods: All forex trading that happens from 15 minutes before major news releases until 10 minutes after will be subject to higher margin requirements.
Weekends & Holidays: All forex trading that happens from and 2 hours before markets closing on Friday and for 1 hour after market opening on Monday will be subject to higher margin requirements. The same rule applies to Trading Holidays.

Stop level

Stop level is the minimum distance (difference in pips) between the current market price and the pending order price. The stop level values in the contract specifications table are subject to change and may not be available for traders using certain high-frequency trading strategies or Expert Advisors.

FAQ

Stock indices serve as price indicators for a group of securities, representing a 'basket' of stocks with a common basis. Trading indices allows you to open positions on the performance of multiple stocks simultaneously.

Each index is formed from a specific set of stocks or bonds. The inclusion of these shares in the index calculation provides valuable information about their dynamics when trading CFD indices.

World indices act as powerful indicators for investors, offering insights into the direction of quotes within specific industries. Studying major indices helps understand how certain events impact securities' value.

It's important to remember that the market reaction to economic news may not always align with expectations and forecasts. For example, when oil prices rise, it's logical to expect an increase in shares of oil companies. However, individual stocks may grow at different speeds or not respond at all. In such cases, spot indices help traders understand the overall market trend within that segment without assessing each company's position. Observing and trading indices provide insights into sector comparisons within the economy.