I only have been trading CFDs on T212 so far, but decided to try the investing side today, since CFDs are pretty much unusable.
I noticed that there seems to be a spread? I thought spreads are only on the CFD side.
Take the screenshot for example. It’s only a small position but over the day i have noticed a difference in my buy price, the stock price and the supposed gain vs the actual gain.
The difference in this example: Bought at ~ 4.567, stockprice is at 42.49 (the displayed price is lagging behind the price in the chart by 0.1 also btw). There is a difference of about ~ 1.923, which would be a gain of 5.769. Since i trade in Euro, my gain displayed is also in Euro. Converting 5.769 is 4,80 €. But T212 displays a 4.69 € gain. So they would pocket 0.11 of the gain, which obviously scales up bigger with bigger positions. And this is ignoring the displayed price lagging behind the actual stock price by 0.1
On the desktop platform both buy and sell prices are shown. On the phone app the buy price is shown, and then the sell price once you own a share to sell.
The spread differs by instrument, current volatility, time of day, and activity of market. Smallest spread is on popular US shares. Can be as small as $0.01 or $0.02 for APPL, whose price is $310, so less than 0.01%, Larger spread like 0.6% even 1% on instruments where there are only a few trades each day. The spread is determined by the prices offered by market makers on the exchanges, not by Trading 212. On some exchanges there is a financial transaction tax and this, rather than spread, is the main obstacle to frequent buy and sell. The lack of such a tax when buying US shares and ETFs contributes to their popularity.
Yes, of course there’s a spread, that how markets work. The difference is the cfd spread is largley or part a result of t212 algos etc, the spread on actual shares is the same for everyone globally for each share. you’ll have the same spread as a trader in Spain or a hedge fund manager in the US has on that share at that moment. ( they might have better fill/ access thou!)
@LeipzigTrading Without spread, people would be constantly buying and selling at the same price. It wouldn’t make any sense. In order for the market to go up or down, you need a difference (spread) between the bid (buy offer) and the ask (sell offer).
PS: don’t play around with CFDs if you don’t know what you’re doing
I have only just started using CFD’s after a year of learning/understanding investing on T212 ! and even now I take great care on positions in CFD’s, I don’t think it’s a sensible option to go straight into CFD’s on day 1 but I suppose everyone has their own risk appetite and outlook (just my opinion). I can see how things can turn against you very rapidly in CFD’s so again I am just building up my own experience & knowledge over time with T212 articles & community support. I want to be in the 24% winner statistics side of CFD’s!
@David who sets the spreads on Invest? Has went from a 2c spread difference to a now 17c spread on a $5.81 stock. Ive almost 400 of them and the spread is killing my out lol
lol it blows my mind someone can use CFD before ever using the invest side 