Indices trading

An index in stocks is an aggregate of publicly traded companies in a specific region, or on a specific exchange. These stock indices that are tied to specific nations can have a defining impact on each nation’s economy, and is typically an indicator of the nation’s overall economic health. These indices also provide an opportunity for traders to profit from the natural price fluctuations across the market. Different factors can affect the value of stock indices, including the strength of each nation’s economy, the strength of its currency, its political leadership, and the performance of the companies listed in each index. Stock indices allow investors to gain exposure to large markets all at once, rather than making investments only in individual stocks. Swift Expert Trade offers exposure to the world’s most popular indices via contracts for differences.

The S&P 500 or the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, is an index of the top 500 largest United States-based stocks, weighted by market capitalization. The index is often considered an indicator of the health of the US economy and consists of companies like Apple, Amazon, General Electric, and ExxonMobile.

NASDAQ 100

The NASDAQ 100 is an index of the top 100 most actively traded stocks on the NASDAQ stock exchange, and the companies are from the retail, biotechnology, industrial, technology, health care sectors.

DAX (GER30)

The GER 30, also known as DAX or DAX 30, is an aggregate of the 30 biggest companies traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Company stocks include Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, Volkswagen, and Adidas, among other major European brands.

Hang Seng

The Hang Seng Index, maintained by a subsidiary of the Hang Seng Bank since 1969, is a market cap-weighted basket of companies that trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Companies include HSBC Holdings and Tencent.

Japan NIKKEI

Nikkei, also known as Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average is a price-weighted index of 225 of Japan’s top publicly traded companies, including the likes of Toyota, and Sony.

FTSE 100

The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the UK100, is a popular European index focusing on the top 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange, including companies such as Barclays, BP, Burberry, or AstraZeneca.

ASX 200

The AUS 200, also called the ASX 200, is an index of the top 200 companies traded on the Australian Securities Exchange and is maintained by Standard and Poor’s much like the S&P 500.

Investing in stock indices requires tons of red tape and typically large deposits. Instead, investors can become exposed to major stock indices via trading CFDs on Swift Expert Trade.

The most popular major stock indices are the S&P 500, the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, for the United States. Globally, the most dominant stock indices include the FTSE, Nikkei, DAX, and more.

CFDs are better suited for stock index trading due to their extreme volatility. Traders can instead take long and short positions and profit whichever way these indices turn.

It takes only a few minutes and just 0.001 BTC to get started trading stock indices with Swift Expert Trade. Swift Expert Trade is an award-winning Bitcoin-based margin trading platform offering CFDs on all major stock indices.