What Is the Nikkei 225?
The Nikkei 225 tracks 225 major Japanese companies weighted by share price, so a few high-priced stocks dominate. How it works, its cap and what moves it.
Research · Learn CFDs
Learn CFDs
CFD education by market group.
Latest
Why It Took the Nikkei 34 Years to Regain Its 1989 Peak
The Nikkei closed at 38,915.87 in December 1989, fell 82% by 2008 and only regained the peak in February 2024. What drove the bubble, slump and recovery.
Why Did Oil Prices Go Negative in April 2020?
On April 20, 2020, expiring May WTI fell from $17.73 to −$37.63 as Cushing storage ran out and holders paid others to take delivery. What happened and why.
What Is Negative Balance Protection?
Negative balance protection limits a retail trader's losses to the money in the account. Where it applies, how it works and what the 2015 franc shock showed.
Which Currency Pairs Are the Most Volatile?
Yen crosses such as GBP/JPY and exotics such as USD/TRY and USD/ZAR move the most. How volatility is measured and why it matters for risk and trading costs.
What Is Market Breadth?
Market breadth measures how many stocks take part in a move. How the advance-decline line and equal-weight comparisons work, and why narrow rallies are fragile.
What Happens in a Margin Call and a Stop-Out?
A margin call warns your account is near its limit; a stop-out is when positions are closed. Thresholds, a worked example and how to avoid both.
What Happened to Stock Markets in the March 2020 Crash?
The S&P 500 fell about 34% in 23 trading days in 2020, triggering circuit breakers four times, then bottomed on March 23 and recovered by August.
Major, Minor and Exotic Currency Pairs
Majors pair the US dollar with leading currencies; minors pair those currencies without the dollar; exotics add emerging-market currencies. How they differ.
What Happened in the 2022 LME Nickel Squeeze?
On March 8, 2022, LME nickel more than doubled above $100,000 a tonne as Tsingshan covered a short. The LME halted trading and canceled $3.9 billion of trades.
How Volatility Decay Erodes Leveraged ETF Returns
Leveraged ETFs reset daily, so in choppy markets they lose value even when the index ends flat. If an index goes +10% then −9.09%, a 3x ETF ends 5.5% down.
What Is Leverage in CFD Trading?
Leverage lets you control a larger CFD position with a smaller deposit, magnifying gains and losses. How leverage ratios work, an example and the limits.