CFD Review: CityIndex

Important Facts 
  • Regulation: Regulated by the FSA in the United Kingdom. 
  • Instruments: Indices, Shares, Sector CFD’s, Currencies, Commodities, Bonds, Option CFD’s and Interest Rates. 
  • Features: Wide array of instruments to trade including some more exotic instruments including Sector CFD’s, Option CFD’s, Bonds and Interest Rates.  
  • Leverage: Up to 100:1, some instruments limited to lower amounts of Leverage. 
  • Minimum Deposit: Initial Minimum Deposit of at least £100, further deposits from a £25 minimum. 
The Platform 
CityIndex operates primarily through an online based trading platform which allows you place trades on all of CityIndex’s different instruments online. The platform also supports charting techniques and allows you undertake different technical analysis. While the CityIndex platform is hardly ground breaking it does provide a good basic online platform for those who want to simply trade Contracts for Difference. However, there are no social trading or automated trading features available for use at CityIndex. CityIndex however supports a wide range of mobile platforms meaning that those who have a smartphone should be able to trade on the go with one of the provided platform. While these platforms aren’t the most advanced mobile trading platforms in the world they still provide you with decent access to a wide range of financial markets to trade through CFD’s.  

Special Features 
The main thing that will attract people to trading CFD’s at CityIndex is the wide range of instruments that one can trade on the CityIndex platform. For example at CityIndex you have the ability to trade Option CFD’s, Sector CFD’s, Bonds and Interest Rates, products which are not available one many trading platforms. Personally I feel that both Sector CFD’s and Option CFD’s offer some quite interesting opportunities. The platform won’t be really suited to automatic traders as CityIndex don’t provide functionality for such trading, but it will be great for those who want to access a wide range of markets.  

Spreads 
The Spreads on the CFD’s at CityIndex are very competitive, with a number of Major Indices having Spreads on offer as small as 1 point. The Spreads are equally as competitive across the board and would put a number of well known brokerages to shame. On Stock Contracts for Difference there are no spreads, allowing the trader to trade these markets without the cost of a spread. However, the trader has to pay a quite hefty minimum commission charge or 0.1% on trades were the commission from this would be greater than the minimum commission. This makes CityIndex a great place to trade Shares provided the trader is trading in sufficient size, smaller traders may want to stay away from trading stocks at CityIndex. The Spreads on the more exotic instruments are still pretty tight and do offer some potential for those who wish to trade the instrument. 

Customer Service 
Customer Service at CityIndex is pretty good and provide good live 24/5 support to their customers. CityIndex has a pretty good reputation regarding the level of customer service that it affords it’s clients and I would personally not have any worries regarding depositing money with the company due to the fact that I trust it’s staff looking after my account. All in all, when it comes to customer service I would say that CityIndex are a professional outfit who properly deal with customer complaints and problems when they arise. 

Regulation 
CityIndex is regulated by the FSA the British Financial Regulator. The FSA is considered to be one of Europe’s premier financial regulators and is part of MiFID allowing CityIndex to accept clients from throughout the European Union onto their Contract for difference platform. CityIndex is the trading name of CityIndex Ltd. who have one regulatory breach to their name when they were fined £490,000 for the improper reporting of financial transactions to the FSA. Failing to report an estimated 55,000 transactions at all and further failing to report an estimated 1,970,000 accurately. However since the 2011 breach for improper reporting of financial transaction CityIndex has not received any further disciplinary action and I believe better systems have been put in place for the reporting of transactions. 

Overall, CityIndex offers a good platform for those who are serious about trading Contracts for difference. The slight regulatory lapse in 2011 may give some a cause for concern.

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