GO Markets can offer you:

 -   Thousands of CFDs available from 19 exchanges including ASX, NASDAQ, NYSE, LSE 
 -   Direct market access (DMA) CFDs. 
 -   Margins from 5% 
 -   1750+ CFDs at no more than 10% 
 -   Low transaction costs maximum 0.10% 
 -   Use up to 60% of Share holdings as CFD collateral
 -   Participate in pre and post market trading
 -   Free trailing Stop and Limit orders
 -   Live news feeds and in depth technical analysis with strategies

What is a CFD? 
In simple terms a Contract for Difference (CFD) is an agreement between two parties to exchange, at the close of the contract, the difference between the opening and closing price of the contract, multiplied by the number of shares specified within the contract.

There are always two parties in a CFD transaction, the long party and the short party. A client who opens a position by buying a CFD is the long party and a client who opens a contract by selling a CFD is the short party.

How are CFDs traded?
A CFD, allows you to take a position in a stock without buying or selling the stock itself. The contract value is defined as the number of shares multiplied by the unit price. The performance of the CFD is determined by the performance of the underlying share.

When you close out the position, your profit/loss comes from the difference between the opening and closing contract values, hence "Contract for Difference".

As you do not buy or sell the underlying stock you are not obliged to acquire or deliver the physical shares.

Why trade CFDs rather than physical shares?

Margin flexibility: CFDs are traded on margin which means you can take positions in the market 10 times greater than you would with a cash trade and deposit only 10% of the contract value.

Long or Short: CFDs give you the ability to buy the stock if you are bullish about the market or sell the stock if you feel the market will move downwards.

Risk Management: The ability to "go short" means that you can fully, or partially hedge your cash stock positions thus, reducing your overall stock market risk.

No Value Date: The contract has no settlement date and becomes effective from the date the order is placed.

How do CFDs work in practice?
You put down a deposit with your broker in a client segregated account and this is used as collateral to allow you to trade. The maximum "gearing" you can apply to the margin is 20 times so if you wish to execute a $100,000 trade, a margin of $5000 is required.

The trade is executed in the same way as for stocks. The account is valued "real" time and when the position is closed, the profit or loss is returned along with the initial margin.

Other costs
Every trade will accrue a commission charge. As your broker is funding on average 90% of the contract value, long positions will attract a funding charge calculated on a spread over LIBOR and short positions will earn interest calculated on a spread under LIBID.

Dividends
Despite the fact that you do not take physical delivery of the stock, dividends are still applicable. On long positions you will receive 100% of the dividend and on short positions you will pay out 100% of the dividend.

Direct Market Access (DMA)
If you are looking to trade or scalp the market aggressively, it is essential to have direct access to the Order Book. GO Markets DMA gives you direct market access to 11 international exchanges allowing you to interact directly with the Order Book. Other features of DMA trading are:

Ø Trade at the current yellow strip price or better using limit orders
Ø Trade inside the spread
Ø Work orders in less liquid stocks
Ø Join the current yellow strip price to buy at the Bid price or sell at the Offer price using limit orders

GO Markets offers CFDs on all major indices with Hong Kong soon to be added. For further details, click here to contact us.

* Due to limited liquidity in the exchange order book, market orders are not supported on this exchange as the fill price can vary considerably from the indicated market price. However, you can use Limit Orders to guarantee the minimum price for your order.

CFD Margins
For stock CFDs, you must maintain a minimum margin of 5% of the investment value.  A Margin of 10% is the average with a range from 5%-25%.

Exchange fees 
To receive live streaming ASX data the exchange charges fees of $37.50 for non-professional and $45 for professional users. GOMarkets may cover these fees for actively traded accounts and arrange a rebate at our discretion. Please consult us to determine whether you are deemed as professional or non and also to discuss subscriber fees for international exchanges.

Conversion of profits and losses
Currency conversions of profits and losses from trading activities are done using the close rate at New York (5pm New York time) plus/minus 0.5%.

Short Selling CFDs
When short selling a CFD directly on an exchange you will be affected by the rules for the stock market in that country. For example:
For US CFDs, an up-tick rule applies where you can only short sell on an up-tick.
When short selling CFDs, you can experience forced closure of a position if your CFDs get recalled. The risk is particularly high if the stock becomes hard to borrow due to take overs, dividends, rights offerings (and other merger and acquisition activities) or increased hedge fund selling of the stock.

Partial Fills
Partial fills may occur on limit orders and the remaining amount stays in the market as a limit order and may be filled within the order duration. Where market orders are filled at numerous levels, the price paid will be the volume weighted average price of all the fills.
The commission and margin rates referred to above may vary from time to time especially for very active or inactive customers. GOMarkets Pty Ltd reserves the right to amend the commission rates, brokerage fees, margin rates and interest rates referred to, according to the customer agreement covering the client relationship between GOMarkets and the Client.

Click on the national flag below to see current¹ CFD margin requirements. All margin requirements are also available through your trading platform. Go to the Account menu, then Trading Conditions. GOMarkets offers CFDs on 16 global exchanges. For margin lists for other exchanges, please contact us.

¹Current as of 17th April 2008 on the day trader margin profile. All margins are subject to change.

Track entire stock markets with index-tracking CFDs with low entry prices.
Index CFDs are available that track 16 indices.

Trading CFDs needn't cost a fortune. Trade with GOMarkets for 0.10% with $6 minimum fee on ASX Direct Market Access (DMA) CFDs.

All other markets are charged at 0.1%¹ with reduced rates for regular traders.

Trading Volume	Commission Rate
<$1,000,000	0.10%
$1m - $2m	0.09%
>$2,000,000	0.075%2

Example of monthly commission rebate: In one month your trading volume is $3,000,000. The total commission charged will be: 3,000,000 x 0.09% = $2,700. 3,000,000 x 0.075% = $2,250. Rebate = 2700 - 2250 = $450.

For further details and for information of trading conditions for global markets click here to contact a representative.

¹Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong excluded. US CFDs are typically charged on a cents-per-share basis. Some small trades will incur a minimum ticket fee. For details of ticket fees, contact us.
²Reduced rate from 0.09% to 0.075% will be credited as a monthly rebate within 5 working days of the next month.