Learn

The CFD Learning Path

25 modules in a fixed order. Each one builds on the last, so the path works best read front to back — start with what a contract for difference actually costs you, finish with a validated strategy running without discretion.

Start at step 01

Next up: What a CFD Actually Is

Modules

Stages

Interactive tools

The route

Start here

Before you begin: No prerequisites. Start here if you have never opened a CFD position.

Checkpoint

Before Intermediate: You can size a position from a stop distance and state your risk in currency before you enter.

Checkpoint

Before Advanced: You can state your expectancy in numbers, and sit through a normal losing run without changing method.

Foundation

How a CFD actually works

0/8

Step 01

What a CFD Actually Is

A CFD is a contract between you and your broker, not ownership of an asset. You trade the price movement and inherit leverage, financing costs, and counterparty risk along with it.

Mistake

Treating a CFD on a stock as if you owned the stock. Dividends arrive as contract adjustments, not as income you control.

Read

Step 02

Going Long and Going Short

CFDs make shorting as easy as buying. Understanding both directions, and what margin each one consumes, is the first real skill.

Mistake

Assuming shorting is free because you did not pay anything up front. Financing accrues every night the position stays open.

Read

Step 03

Leverage and Margin

Leverage lets you control a large position with a small deposit. It amplifies losses at exactly the same rate it amplifies gains.

Mistake

Sizing a position by how much margin it requires instead of by how much you are willing to lose.

Margin Calculator

Read

Step 04

Pips, Points, Lots and Contract Size

Every instrument has its own contract size and tick value. Getting this wrong makes every risk calculation that follows wrong too.

Mistake

Assuming one pip is worth the same amount across every pair and every instrument.

Pip Value Calculator

Read

Step 05

The Three Costs: Spread, Commission and Swap

Your strategy has to clear three separate costs before it earns anything. Most beginners only ever see the spread.

Mistake

Holding a long-term CFD position for weeks without accounting for daily financing costs.

Read

Step 06

Order Types and Slippage

The order type you choose decides whether you control your price or your fill. You rarely get both.

Mistake

Using a market order into a major news release and then blaming the broker for the fill price.

Read

Step 07

Stop Loss, Take Profit and the R Multiple

A stop loss is not an opinion about where price will go. It is a pre-agreed definition of how much you are wrong by.

Mistake

Moving a stop loss further away because the trade is currently losing.

Risk Calculator

Read

Step 08

Position Sizing: The Rule That Keeps You Alive

Two traders running an identical strategy can end up with completely different outcomes purely because of position size.

Mistake

Increasing size after a winning streak, then meeting a normal losing streak at the larger size.

Risk Calculator VaR Calculator

Read

Intermediate

From placing trades to running a process

0/8

Step 09

Market Structure: Trend, Range and Reversal

Before indicators, learn to read the shape of price. Structure tells you where a trade idea is valid and exactly where it is invalidated.

Mistake

Applying a trend-following method inside a range and concluding the strategy stopped working.

Read

Step 10

Support, Resistance and Liquidity

Levels are not thin lines. They are zones where orders have historically clustered, and where stops tend to sit.

Mistake

Drawing a level to the exact tick and expecting price to respect it to the pip.

Read

Step 11

Indicators Without Illusions

Every standard indicator is derived from price and therefore lags it. Their value is in standardising your decisions, not in predicting.

Mistake

Adding a third indicator to resolve a disagreement between the first two.

Indicator Library

Read

Step 12

Volatility and ATR-Based Stops

A fixed 20-pip stop is far too tight on one instrument and far too wide on another. Volatility should set the distance.

Mistake

Using one fixed stop distance across every instrument you trade.

Indicator Library

Read

Step 13

Expectancy: The Number That Decides Everything

Expectancy combines win rate and reward-to-risk into the average amount you make per trade. It is the metric that predicts survival.

Mistake

Chasing a higher win rate by cutting winners short, which lowers expectancy.

Read

Step 14

Drawdown and the Mathematics of Recovery

Losses and gains are not symmetric. The deeper the drawdown, the harder the climb back becomes.

Mistake

Sizing risk as a percentage of peak equity instead of current equity during a drawdown.

Compound Calculator

Read

Step 15

Correlation: Why Five Trades Can Be One Trade

Trading five highly correlated instruments at full size is a single oversized bet wearing five different costumes.

Mistake

Believing you are diversified because you are holding five different symbols.

Correlation Matrix

Read

Step 16

CFD Mechanics Most Traders Learn Late

CFDs carry contract mechanics that do not exist in spot markets. They quietly change your profit and loss.

Mistake

Backtesting on spot data, trading a futures-based index CFD, then blaming the broker for the difference.

Read

Advanced

Systematising and automating an edge

0/9

Step 17

Execution Quality: Slippage, Latency and Fill Logic

At scale, the distance between your intended price and your filled price is a primary cost, not a rounding error.

Mistake

Optimising strategy parameters while ignoring the execution cost the strategy depends on.

Broker Research

Read

Step 18

ECN, STP and Market Maker: What Your Broker Is

Your broker's execution model determines who is actually on the other side of your trade.

Mistake

Comparing brokers only on leverage and bonus offers instead of execution structure.

Broker Research

Read

Step 19

Turning an Idea Into a Testable Strategy

A strategy is not a feeling about the market. It is a set of rules precise enough that two people would trade it identically.

Mistake

Fitting rules to the chart currently on screen, then calling the result a strategy.

Strategy Builder

Read

Step 20

Backtesting Without Fooling Yourself

Backtests are easy to make look good and easy to be wrong about. Their real purpose is to reject bad ideas, not to promise profit.

Mistake

Reporting a backtest that excludes costs and then being surprised by live results.

Strategy Builder System Review

Read

Step 21

Walk-Forward and Out-of-Sample Validation

A result that only exists in the data you optimised on is a description of the past, not a forecast of the future.

Mistake

Repeatedly tweaking parameters against out-of-sample data until it is no longer out-of-sample.

System Review

Read

Step 22

Metrics That Actually Matter

Net profit is the least informative number on a backtest report.

Mistake

Celebrating an excellent profit factor built on fewer than thirty trades.

System Review VaR Calculator

Read

Step 23

Monte Carlo, Variance and Risk of Ruin

Your backtest is one path. Monte Carlo shows the range of paths your edge could realistically produce.

Mistake

Sizing for the backtest's best run instead of its worst plausible one.

VaR Calculator Monte Carlo Simulation

Read

Step 24

Portfolios of Strategies and Capital Allocation

One strategy is a bet on a single edge. A portfolio is a bet on that diversification being real.

Mistake

Running five variants of the same idea and believing you have five strategies.

Correlation Matrix Strategy Library

Read

Step 25

Automation: From Rules to Running Code

Automation removes discretion and emotion from execution, and replaces them with infrastructure risk.

Mistake

Automating a strategy that was never validated, and calling the losses a software bug.

Algo Strategies Strategy Library

Read

Outcome

What you'll walk away with

Three stages, three concrete capabilities. Not a list of topics covered — but what you can actually do once each one is finished.

Foundation

How a CFD actually works

You will be able to open a position knowing exactly what it costs, what you risk, and what has to happen for you to be wrong.

Start here if

New to CFDs, or trading without a clear reason for position size.

8 modulesOpen stage

0/8

Intermediate

From placing trades to running a process

You will be able to describe your edge in numbers, size it correctly, and know whether a losing month is variance or a broken method.

Start here if

You can place a trade, but you do not yet have a repeatable process.

8 modulesOpen stage

0/8

Advanced

Systematising and automating an edge

You will be able to separate a real edge from a fitted backtest, and know what has to be true before you automate it.

Start here if

You have a strategy and want it tested, validated, and running without discretion.

9 modulesOpen stage

0/9

After all three: you can take a trading idea, express it as explicit rules, size it against real costs, validate it against data, and tell a genuine edge apart from a backtest fitted to noise — then let it run without discretion.

Reading is not verification

Everything on this page is theory until you build it and test it. Turn a concept into explicit rules, run it against real data, and see whether the edge survives — then take it live: compare where to execute, or start from a strategy other traders are already running.

Build a strategy Read the blog Compare brokers Browse strategies