An index aims to track the performance of a basket of assets. This could be a particular industry, area of the economy, specific stock market, or even an entire geographical location. Different indices can have different methods for weighing their constituents, such as based on the size of their market capitalisation. As such, trading an index allows traders to gain exposure to the performance of groups of assets or entire markets.

Trading indices CFDs gives traders the opportunity to speculate on various global market movements, rather than individual stocks. Trading indices CFDs also offers greater diversification, compared to trading individual shares. For example, you can gain exposure to blue chip companies via an index CFD like the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (FTSE 100), Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and more.