MELBOURNE, Australia, January 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
- IG clients have more of a trading advantage this US reporting season
- Share CFDs give traders access to global markets that aren't easily accessible
The US earnings season kicked off earlier this month, and IG has responded by extending its trading hours for key US companies which will be reporting.
IG now quotes major US stocks, including (but not limited to) Google Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Microsoft Corp and Facebook Inc from 8pm to 12pm Monday to Thursday, and 8pm Friday to 9am Saturday (AEDT), which allows IG's Australian clients to trade these markets during their evenings and up until midday for the first time.
Head of IG Asia Pacific Tamas Szabo says it improves our service by accommodating trading of major US stocks around their earnings announcements outside of normal market hours.
"The US earnings season is a major driver of global markets and generally sees an uptick in share trading," Mr Szabo said.
"As we always look to improve our service, we have responded by extending trading hours for some of the major players in the US stock market.
"We hope that these new market opening hours give our clients who trade share CFDs an advantage this earnings season."
IG also offers clients an economic calendar which is updated with earnings results and other key economic releases as they happen.
Share CFDs allow traders to gain exposure to major global stocks
Typically, traditional share trading with a broker is considerably expensive. Share CFDs provide traders with an alternative way of gaining exposure to some of the world's top stocks without having to use large amounts of capital.
CFDs are traded on margin, and an IG client can trade over 6500 global share CFDs, with margin rates starting from just 5%.
This provides an advantage when trading stocks like Google Inc. which has a current share price of over $1000 in the underlying market. However, even though only a relatively small amount of capital is required to open a position, the profit or loss is based on the full value of the position. Therefore the profit or loss could be relatively large compared to the initial outlay.
The other key advantage of trading share CFDs is the ability to go long or short (buy or sell), to potentially profit from rising and falling stocks.
This could be especially true this earnings season, with US stocks falling following exceptional gains in 2013, and Goldman Sachs and Citigroup not meeting earnings' expectations.
About IG
IG specialises in financial derivatives, principally CFD trading on over 6000 global share CFDs, indices, forex, commodities, options, binaries and more. IG is a part of IG Group, a FTSE 250 company established in 1974 which now employs over 1000 staff in 14 countries.
A CFD (or Contract for Difference) is an agreement to exchange the difference in value of a particular asset between the time at which a contract is opened and the time at which it is closed.
IG advises that trading CFDs may not be suitable for everyone, since CFDs are a geared product and can result in losses that exceed an initial deposit, and that product disclosure statements are available from http://www.ig.com/au
IG Markets Limited ABN 84 099 019 851, AFSL 220440
ISSUED FOR: IG (http://www.ig.com/au)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Mr Evan Lucas, Market Strategist
Tel: +61-(03)-9860-1748 or +61-(03)-9860-1711
SOURCE IG Australia
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