There are two main differences between buying shares and trading contracts for difference on a share.

First, when you buy a share, you’ll be taking ownership of a portion of a company – this will give you certain benefits, such as voting rights and dividend payments. However, when you trade on shares with CFDs, you won’t ever take ownership of the underlying shares – you’re just speculating on the future market price. One implication of this is that you can take advantage of leverage when trading CFDs; meaning you'll only need to put up a fraction of the full value of the trade - the 'margin' - to gain full exposure. This means both profits and losses are magnified, and that losses can exceed deposits for Professional Clients.

Second, when you buy a share you will only profit when the underlying market price rises. When you trade CFDs, you can go both long and short – meaning you’ll have the opportunity to profit whether the market rises or falls.

Yes, simply open an IG stock trading account and complete the relevant form.

There are no charges for transferring shares, and we aim to complete your transfer as quickly as possible however, this is dependent on your transferring broker and largely beyond our control. You may be out of the market for a period while the transfer takes place.

Once we receive a dividend payment on any of the shares you own, we will credit your account. It will appear as additional cash and you can choose whether to either reinvest it or withdraw it.

There’s a two or three-day settlement period once you’ve sold your shares until your funds are available to withdraw. In the meantime, the funds will appear as credit and can be used to trade.