Behind the ticket

A CFD, found on the trading screen (Nigeria)

Three letters that never appear on a button — a contract for difference, followed through the windows that actually hold it.

A CFD copies a price and settles the difference between opening and close. On screen it has no button of its own — only an instrument name, two prices and a ticket. The contract is written out in one window, opened on purpose or never.

Why the word is missing from the screen

The first thing on a platform is a list of instruments — gold, a currency pair, a stock index. Every line looks like a thing; none is. Each is a price the platform copies into a contract, and that copy is all a trade holds.

The screen shows a price, never a possession: the chart draws where it has been, the ticket copies it forward, and the difference reaches the balance.

The window that has to be opened on purpose

Each instrument carries a details window, opened from its name in the list, not from the chart — the nearest thing on screen to the contract’s text:

Line in that window	What it fixes about the contract	Where it turns up later
The instrument name	which price is copied, nothing beyond it	the chart, drawing that one price over time
Two prices, one to buy and one to sell	the gap between them — the spread	taken at the opening: the trade starts that far behind
The overnight charge, or swap	what one night costs while the trade stays open	added again for every further night it stays open
A buying side and a selling side	the contract runs in either direction	two buttons on the ticket, not a field to type in

Both charges stand there before anything is sent: the trap is not that they hide, it is that the window stays shut.

Direction is a pair of buttons, not a field

The ticket never asks which way a price will go — it offers two buttons, each taking its own side of the price pair. One buys, and the position follows the price upward; the other sells first, and follows it down. Neither is marked as the careful one, because neither is: same spread at the opening, same charge overnight, either side. The words behind the buttons sit on the trading words page.

Leverage has no slider beside the size

Almost every one of these contracts is traded with leverage, yet nothing beside the size field carries that name. The word means only this: the position runs bigger than the money behind it.

It shows itself on the account line instead: part of the balance set aside while the position runs, and beside it a figure that moves further, on the same tick, than the typed size suggests. It moves as far the other way when the price turns — the whole of the danger, and no panel labels it. The practice calculator turns a size into what one move costs.

What no panel on this screen shows

The asset has no window. No delivery notice, no ownership line: the contract copies a price and settles the difference.
Nothing asks how long. No field takes how many nights a trade should stay open — the thing the overnight charge prices.
Pace has no indicator. No panel counts how many trades went out today, or how new the hand sending them is — and rushing is what does the damage.
The word «complex» is not on the screen. It travels with the product, beside a line saying many people who trade these lose money.

This site is an independent guide, not a broker: it opens no accounts and holds no money.

Where all of this opens for nothing

A demo account runs the same contracts on the same screen, with virtual money behind them. One session is enough: open an instrument’s details window, read the four lines, then place one small trade each way overnight. Then the basic safety rules.

Questions about the contract on screen

Where do the three letters actually appear on screen?

Rarely in the trading area — it names instruments and prices, not products.

Which window has to be opened on purpose?

The instrument details, opened from its name in the list.

Is there a panel that shows the gold itself?

No. The panel holds a price line and a ticket; the metal is never in it.

Does the chart know it is drawing a contract?

It draws the price being copied; the ticket turns that into a position.

Which control picks the direction?

The two buttons on the ticket — one buys, the other sells first.

Is there a leverage control next to the size box?

No. The size is typed in; the leverage shows on the account line.

Does closing the window close the trade?

No. A running contract is ended from the list of open trades.

If the screen is shut at night, is the charge still added?

Yes. It follows the trade, not the screen, and repeats every night.

Which panel marks one direction as the safer one?

None — neither is safer. Both sides carry the same charges.

Does a practice account hold the same contracts?

Yes: same instruments, same windows, same charges. Only the money is virtual.

Windows to open next

What is forex?

The prices this list copies most often.

What is forex

The ticket, used once

The same contract, buttons through to closing.

Walk through it

What beginners repeat

The errors a leveraged contract punishes hardest.

Read the list

Open the window and look

A free demo puts these panels on screen with virtual money: pick one instrument, read its details window, trade one small position each way.

Open a free demo at Exness