The S&P 500 index, called the US 500 with us, tracks the 500 largest companies in the USA. Learn the different ways to trade the S&P 500 here.
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1. Decide how you’d like to trade the index
There are a few ways to get exposure to the S&P 500. These include trading ETFs and shares, or trading on the index’s value.
2. Formulate a trading plan
Before opening a position on the S&P 500, you'll decide whether you're a short-term or long-term trader and how you're going to manage your risk.
3. Open a live account
Create and fund your CFD trading account – start by filling in our application form.
To help you decide how to trade in the US 500, we explain each method in detail below.
There are three main ways to trade in the US 500 (the S&P 500) with us:
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Trading the S&P 500 directly |
Trading in a S&P 500 ETF |
Trading in S&P 500 shares |
Account types |
CFD trading account |
CFD trading account |
CFD trading account |
Market hours |
24 hours a day, Monday to Friday and until 6am Saturday (UTC+8) |
Trade in US-listed S&P 500 ETFs when the New York Stock Exchange is open – 10.30pm to 5am Monday to Thursday and 10.30pm on Friday to 5am on Saturday (UTC+8).
Markets for all sessions stocks are available from 4pm to 8am, Monday to Thursday and 4pm Friday to 5am Saturday (UTC+8).
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When the US stock market is open, from 10.30pm to 5am, Monday to Thursday and 10.30pm on Friday to 5am on Saturday (UTC+8).
Markets for all sessions stocks are available from 4pm to 8am Monday to Thursday and 4pm Friday to 5am Saturday (UTC+8).
See our after-hours times to trade out of hours on top US shares. |
Timeframe |
Short to medium term |
Short to medium term |
Short to medium term |
Liquidity and execution |
0,0107 second execution speed and unique deep liquidity1 |
Higher liquidity offered by trading the index directly |
Higher liquidity offered by trading the index directly |
Costs |
Commission-free.
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CFD cash (spot) ETF trades incur overnight fees and have a minimum commission of $15.
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CFD cash (spot) trading incurs overnight fees and have a minimum commission of $15.
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If you're ready to start trading the S&P 500 (called the US 500 with us), follow these five steps:
With us, you can open a CFD trading account to begin trading in the S&P 500.
How you’ll do this depends on the type of trade you’ve decided to open:
With contracts for difference (CFDs), you’re entering into a contract to speculate on the price of the S&P 500 or the share price of a company listed on the index. You’re agreeing to exchange the difference between the price of the index or shares when you open your position versus when you close it, for either profit or loss.
Trading CFDs on the S&P 500: cash indices
One of the most direct ways to trade the S&P 500 using CFDs is on the spot (cash) price of the index itself.
Trading the spot price means you get closer to the real time S&P 500 pricing than you would with futures, as prices are based off our future’s price with a fair value adjustment to get as close to the real- time cash price as possible, plus low spreads and no commission on indices.
As spot trading does come with overnight funding fees if you leave a position open overnight, this form of trading is best suited to short- and medium-term strategies.
Trading CFDs on S&P 500: index futures
Trading index futures via CFDs means you’re agreeing to trade the S&P 500 at a specific price on a specific date in the future.
When you trade S&P 500 futures with us, you won’t pay additional overnight funding charges or commission, as the cost is built into the spread. This is why futures have wider spreads than spot positions.
Trading CFDs on S&P 500: options
CFD options give you the right, but not the obligation, to exercise the contract on or before its expiry date. When you trade options via CFDs, you’ll pay an initial deposit (called premium) to open a larger position. You’ll then speculate on the option’s premium for a profit or loss – but note that both can significantly outweigh your deposit amount.
This is because profits and losses are calculated on the full position size, not the premium amount, so ensure you manage your risk wisely.
Remember, buying options is limited risk as you’ll only risk as much as your premium paid, but selling options is technically unlimited risk, as there’s no restriction to how much a market’s price can rise.
Trading CFDs on S&P 500: ETFs
If you want to gain exposure to a basket of S&P 500 shares all in one place, you can trade ETFs. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are investment instruments that track the performance of a range of S&P 500 stocks, to give you variety with lower commissions.
ETF commissions start from just 2 cents per share, with a minimum fee of $15 for online orders. Just bear in mind that you’ll be trading on the cash (spot) price with ETFs, so there are funding charges you could incur if you leave your position open overnight.
Trading CFDs on S&P 500: shares
With CFD share trading, you won’t own company shares outright. Unlike owning company shares, which means you can only make a profit if the share price goes up, you can go long or short when trading.
While owning shares means paying the full share price upfront, CFD trading is leveraged. This means you’ll pay only a small deposit amount (called margin) to open a larger position.
However, as profits and losses will be calculated based on your total position size, these can substantially outweigh your margin amount, so ensure you always trade within your means and manage your risk.
CFD share trading has a minimum commission charge of $15.
The key to making a profit when trading the S&P 500 is to have a good understanding of the index – including what drives the index’s price up or down. These include:
Ultimately, if the above cause rises in S&P 500-listed companies share prices – particularly larger companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla or Apple – the index’s price will climb. If the companies’ share prices by and large fall, so will the S&P 500.
Once you have enough knowledge of the S&P 500, have created your trading account and are ready to open positions, it’s time to perfect your strategy.
Here are six things you can do to up your chances of success trading with the S&P 500:
There are still many things to learn about an index as complex and as popular as the S&P 500. Here are just a few more answers to common questions:
The normal market hours for the S&P 500 are the same as other US indices. These are 9.30am to 4pm EST (Eastern Standard Time), which is 10.30pm to 5am (UTC+8). However, with us you can trade 24/5, to best take advantage of significant market events that may not keep office hours, like earnings season.
The S&P 500’s price is calculated mainly by its constituent companies’ latest share prices. It’s a market capitalisation-weighted index, which means that the larger a company is by market capitalisation, the more ‘weighting’ it will have compared to smaller companies and the more materially it will affect the S&P 500 price.
The market capitalisation is determined by the number of publicly traded shares each company has. To determine the index price, all these public S&P 500 stocks are divided by a proprietary index divisor.
What are the ways you can trade the S&P 500?
There are a few ways you can trade the S&P 500 with us. Open a CFD trading account to trade the S&P 500 index, S&P 500 stocks or an S&P 500-tracking ETF. You can also trade the index via options and trade on the cash (spot) price or futures.
What are the stocks on the S&P 500?
The S&P 500 is comprised of the 500 biggest corporations on any exchange in the United States. These include household names like Google’s Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla.
The S&P 500 stocks are not chosen automatically, but are instead chosen by an index committee within the S&P 500. The committee sometimes elects new stocks or nixes other ones. This can happen once every few years or even several times in a year or two – although the latter is very uncommon.
How do companies join the S&P 500?
Companies join the S&P 500 by being agreed on by the S&P’s index committee. Companies cannot ‘lobby’ to join the S&P 500 but must instead be chosen.
However, there are also a few characteristics companies need to have to be eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500. They need to be a US company with the majority of their shares public, be of a certain size (a market cap of at least $11.8 billion) and have a sizable public float.
1 Average speed calculated from 1 to 28 February 2022.