The United States is home to many of the world’s largest companies and the two largest stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. Many traders are interested in trading or investing in US-listed companies.

With a Traze trading account, you can trade shares in US companies using contracts-for-difference (CFDs) with leverage on the MetaTrader 4 platform.

Traze is not a stockbroker, so we do not buy or sell shares. We are a CFD broker, so we offer the ability to enter positions using shares as the underlying asset. When you close a position, it is settled in cash.

CFDs are better for short term speculation and day trading strategies, whereas buying shares is more appropriate if you’re planning to own them for several months or years.

What’s the difference between trading CFDs and buying shares?

The main difference between investing in shares and trading shares using CFDs are:

• Using leverage, you can trade more with less money. Using leverage to open larger positions enables you to amplify your profits and losses.
• With CFDs, you can go long or short, meaning you can speculate on the price going up or down. When you invest in shares, you can only profit from the share price increasing.
• Profits from trading CFDs are settled instantly, whereas if you buy shares from the stock market, it can take a couple of days until funds are available to withdraw.
• Buying shares can be more expensive because of brokerage commissions and fees for market data, clearing, and custodians.