Trading foundations
How markets and CFDs work, pips and lots, leverage and margin, costs, order types and sessions, and how to read a candlestick chart.
Start the courseHow CFDs work and which markets you can trade
See how a contract for difference (CFD) turns a price move into a gain or a loss, with worked numbers, and which markets you can trade on a simulated CMC Funded account.
Pips and lots: what a price move is worth in dollars
Learn what pips and pipettes measure, how standard, mini and micro lots set your size, and how to turn pip value into US dollars for any currency pair.
Leverage and margin: calculate the margin a trade needs
Learn what a leverage ratio such as 1:100 means, how to calculate the margin a trade needs at any leverage from 1:10 to 1:500, and why your loss limits stay the same whichever you choose.
Spreads and trading costs: price a trade before you place it
Learn how the spread, commission, markup and holding costs work, how to add them up in dollars and pips, and why they count towards your daily loss limit on CMC Funded.
Order types: how to get into and out of a trade
Learn what market, limit and stop orders do, how a stop loss and a take profit close a trade for you, and which order fits which plan.
Long and short: trading rising and falling prices
Learn what going long and going short mean, how each one gains or loses, and how to work out the result of a trade in either direction.
Trading sessions: when each market is busy
Learn the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York trading sessions in UK time, where they overlap, and how liquidity, volatility and spreads change through the day.
Reading candlestick charts: what each candle tells you
Learn how a candle shows the open, high, low and close, how to read its body and wicks, and how the timeframe changes what a single candle covers.
Trading foundations quiz
Check what you have learned. Each answer comes with the reasoning behind it.
Put your trading to the test.
Choose an account size and a route, then trade a simulated account against the programme's targets and limits.
Simulated trading environment only; no brokerage account is provided. Evaluation fees apply. Rewards are performance-based, not guaranteed, and subject to eligibility, verification and programme Terms and Conditions.