Costs of trading FAQs

A spread is the difference between the buy and sell prices you'll see quoted for any market. It covers the cost you'll pay to open and close a leveraged trade. 

When a price for a market is quoted, you will see two prices. The first price, known as the bid, is the sell price and the second price is the buy price, known as the offer. The spread is the difference between the sell and buy price. The tighter the spread, the less the market needs to move before the trade moves into a positive position.

Learn more about spread betting and CFD trading. 

StoneX Trading offers both fixed and variable spreads, depending on the market you wish to trade. 

Fixed spreads don't change according to market conditions such as volatility or liquidity. They may either be offered for a defined period of the day, or throughout specific trading hours. Spreads may be wider in less popular (and therefore less liquid) trading hours.  

For example, the UK 100 has a fixed spread of 1 point between 8-4.30pm. Outside of these hours, the spread will widen to other fixed amounts. See Indices for details. 

Variable spreads may fluctuate throughout the day according to different factors such as underlying liquidity or market volatility. With variable spreads, when StoneX Trading lists a spread we will quote you the minimum spread it could be, plus an average spread for a defined historical period of time.

Learn more about the costs of spread betting.

When you open an order ticket on our Web Trader platform or mobile apps, you’ll see the current spread listed between the buy and sell prices. The product pages on our website also detail spreads for all of our popular instruments.  

StoneX Trading does not charge any additional commissions on spread bet markets.  

StoneX Trading also does not charge any commissions on CFD or FX markets, with the exception of equity CFDs – also referred to as share CFD.

Equity CFD commissions vary by market. For UK and most European equities the charge is 0.08% of the consideration and, for most US equities it is 1.8 cents per share. Our minimum commission rates are £10, $10 or €10 respectively.  

Details on the commission rates for each equity can be found within the Market Information sheets on the Web Trader platform or our mobile apps.  

Learn more about our share CFDs.

Spread betting is exempt from UK Capital Gains Tax. 

Note that tax laws depend on individual circumstances and are subject to change. We recommend that you seek independent investment advice. 

Spread betting is exempt from UK stamp duty.  

CFD trading is also exempt from UK stamp duty unless you are trading Irish stocks. There is a 1% stamp duty charge for these; however, this will be refunded if you hold the position for less than 30 days.  

Note that tax laws depend on individual circumstances and are subject to change. We recommend that you seek independent investment advice. 

Financing is a fee that you pay to hold a trading position overnight on most spread bet or CFD trades. Essentially, it is an interest payment to cover the cost of the leverage that you use overnight.  

Overnight financing charges are applied to positions that have no set expiry date, for both spread betting and CFDs. As with our low commissions and tight spreads, these charges are competitive to keep your trading costs low.  

You will not pay a finance charge on futures trades as they already have the cost of carry built into the price.  

There may be instances when a daily financing fee is charged to you on short positions, rather than paid to you. This may occur if the relevant rate benchmark is at an exceptionally low rate.   

The daily financing fee will be applied to your account each day that you hold an open position (including weekends).  

Financing is usually applied after 22:00 (GMT) for most markets. To see the exact time for a market, view its information sheet in the Web Trader platform. For details of the exact times for all our available markets, please view the market information sheet on the Web Trader platform.    

The financing rates are:

Financing charges for positions which remain open at our market close are calculated using the following formula:  

• Short Positions F = V × I / b  
• Long Positions F = V × I / b, where:  

F = Daily financing fee  

V = Value of equivalent (quantity x end of day closing price)  

I = Applicable financing rate  

b = Day basis for currency (365 for GBP, HKD, PLN, SGD and ZAR,360 for all the other currencies) 

The daily financing fee will be applied to your account each day that you hold an open position (including weekend days). The financing rates are set at benchmark regional interest rate +/- 3%. 

For example, say you are long £10 on the UK 100 and hold the position overnight. The UK 100 closes at 10,500, and the SONIA rate for that day is 0.33. 

F = V x I/b 

V = 10 (quantity) x 10,500 (end of day closing price ) = 105,000 

I = 0.33 + 3% = 3.33% 

V x I = 105,000 x 3.33% = 3496.5

F = 3496.5 / 365 = £9.58 (financing paid by you per day) 

If you have a hedged position open overnight, you will be charged overnight financing on both sides of the trade.

If you hold a short position in an underlying equity where there are additional charges to borrow stock in the external market, we will reflect these charges in an overnight debit on your account. These charges will fluctuate depending on market conditions and the scarcity of the stock concerned. Any such charges will be clearly highlighted on your account statements and visible on your account history.

Your positions will also be subject to any applicable corporate actions or dividends. For more information please view the corporate actions section in trading orders and positions.

We generally do not charge fees to deposit funds or make standard withdrawals. However, you are responsible for any third-party bank charges, intermediary fees, or wire costs that your bank may incur while transferring your money.

No, we do not make charges to withdraw money to your credit, debit card or a bank transfer using BACS.

Back to base currency conversion is a process that automatically changes any profit and loss (P&L) and other charges that are denominated in another currency into the base currency of your account before applying them. 

With CFD trading accounts, the P&L and any other charges will be denominated in the currency of the instrument. When trading a host of international instruments, you'd end up with costs in multiple currencies. Back to base allows you to see all your charges in one currency for ease of understanding. 

For example, you may have GBP as your base currency for your CFD account, but if you trade the Wall Street index the P&L for that trade will be in USD. StoneX Trading’s back to base automatically converts it back to GBP. 

We will always apply commercially reasonable rates for back to base currency conversions (which may be up to and including +/- 0.5% away from our quoted prices or rates from time to time). Conversions and the rates applied will be disclosed on your contract notes and statements. 

Spread betting accounts are not affected because all trades take place in one base currency, usually sterling. 

If there has been no trading activity within 12 months, we do charge an inactivity fee of £12 per month until we do see trading activity or there are no funds in the account. 

If the account has a balance less than £12, the remaining balance will be charged as the inactivity fee, not the full £12. No additional fees will be charged if the account has no funds. 

Retail accounts will automatically be suspended if there has been no trading activity for 36 months. For professional accounts, it will automatically be suspended if there has been no trading activity for 12 months. However, after the account is suspended, inactivity fees will still be charged. 

To avoid being charged inactivity fees, you can withdraw your funds if you do not plan on using your trading account; otherwise, placing a trade will reset your inactivity period. 

Activity like platform logins, orders, deposits, and withdrawals will not count as ‘trading activity’, for the purpose of making a client exempt from inactivity fees.

After the account is suspended, please contact our Customer Support Team.

Exchange data is the data that is fed into the trading platforms from exchanges or licensed distributors and is used to display market prices and movements. We do not charge our clients anything in return for this exchange data, and StoneX Trading clients also benefit from our price matching feature where we strive to match or improve upon the underlying exchange price.

There are no charges for placing standard orders such as stops and limits.  

There is a charge for placing guaranteed stop loss orders upon execution. GSLOs are not available on all markets, and information on charges and available markets can be found within the markets information sheets on your platform.  

Learn more about our risk management tools.  

StoneX Trading complies with Italian law and we apply the Italian Financial Transaction Tax to all CFD trades on Italian indices and Italian equities where relevant. For more information on how this could affect your trading, please contact our customer support team.

Non-expiring commodity markets are subject to overnight financing on positions held overnight. See our pricing pages for further information.

Overnight FX financing charges are calculated using swap points. We run an end-of-day process where all positions held open during that time will be debited/credited. Clients who hold long positions will be credited/debited by –1 x notional amount x swap point in unit quote currency, while short positions will be debited/credited by notional amount x swap points in unit quote currency. 

Example: EUR/USD with swap rates of 0.817 / 1.28 

If you hold a long position of €10,000: 

–1 x 10000 (notional amount) x 0.000128 (swap points) = –$1.28  

You would be charged $1.28 to hold the position overnight. 

If you hold a short position of €10,000: 

10000 x 0.0000817 = $0.82  

You would receive $0.82 overnight. 

These amounts are then converted back into your account's base currency. 

If you hold a position overnight, there will be an overnight financing adjustment. Please note that on positions held overnight on Wednesdays, three days are charged to cover financing over the weekend.

Price discovery is the process conducted between buyers and sellers of setting the price of any asset that is being traded. With external factors such as supply and demand and the overall economic and geopolitical environment included. Our price discovery technology enables us to reflect the available size in an underlying market and adjust our price accordingly, enabling greater liquidity at the point of trade.

When trading in larger size, the price on the deal ticket could be adjusted to reflect factors such as supply and demand, enabling us to transparently reflect increased liquidity.

An info icon will appear stating ' Price adjusted for trade quantity'.