City Index Review

Losses can exceed deposits

For investors looking to trade the world’s financial markets, one option is City Index (they offer both spread betting and CFDs).

City Index iPhone App
We have also added a couple of video guides from City Index:

City Index Review

Here we will focus mostly on the City Index spread betting account, which allows investors to take advantage of the many benefits that financial spread betting has to offer:

  • You can buy or sell stock markets indices, shares, forex, commodities, bitcoin, interest rates and bonds
  • No commission fees
  • No brokers fees
  • Tax-free investing, i.e. no capital gains, no income tax and no stamp duty (there are capital gains on CFDs)
  • A wide range of markets – eg see below – City Index markets

City Index Highlights

They highlight the following as key features of their spread betting service:

  • An innovative trading platform that offers a comprehensive research centre with the latest market news, company announcements and economic data
  • 12,000+ global markets
  • Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (UK)
  • Risk management tools to help limit your downside e.g. Guaranteed Stop Loss orders

And the “could do better” areas:

  • They say, “Competitive spreads and margins

  • We say, “Semi-competitive spreads, the spreads are OK. They are variable and so sometimes they get wide. On average, you can get better spreads with Financial Spreads, Core Spreads and a few other brokers. At the same time, the difference will be pretty immaterial to most investors

  • As of 2017, their platform is still “flash” based (not html5). Fine if you have flash… not so good if you’ve moved with the times

City Index Award Winning Mobile Trading App

The ‘City Trading’ mobile trading app has won a number of awards since it was launched in October 2009.

Of the more recent awards, the City Index mobile trading app was voted by Shares Magazine readers as ‘the industry’s best mobile/tablet trading app’ (November 2013).

The City Index mobile trading app is available for the iPhone as well as Android and BlackBerry devices.

The live charting package gives traders access to multiple technical indicators and live financial news from the Dow Jones Newswires.

The mobile app gives City Index clients full and secure access to their trading accounts. With an iPhone trading app, investors can:

  • Check the latest prices and market moves
  • Open and close trades
  • Access live charts
  • Set Stop and Limit orders as well as ‘If Done’ and ‘OCO’ orders
  • Amend existing orders
  • Look at their trade history and pending orders
  • Review and amend their Watchlists
  • Get the latest financial news from Dow Jones

City Index iPad App

City Index iPad App
Like the City Index mobile apps, the iPad trading app offers clients full and secure access to their City Index account.

This means City Index account holders can trade live prices, access charts, use the deal through charts, add and update trading orders, view and amend Watchlists, review their trading history etc.


City Index Awards

The City Index platform has won numerous awards over the years including:

  • 2014 – 2017 – sorry, City have won more awards, we really need to update this list
  • 2013 Shares Magazine award for Best Mobile/Tablet Trading Application
  • 2011 Shares Magazine award for Best Online Trading Application
  • 2011 Money AM award for Best Mobile Trading Platform
  • 2011 Money AM award for Best Online Spread Betting Service
  • 2010 Money AM award for Best Online CFD Provider
  • 2010 Money AM award for Best Mobile Trading Platform
  • 2010 Financial Times and Investors Chronicle award for Innovation of the Year (Mobile)
  • 2009 Money AM award for Best Online CFD Provider

User Ratings & Comments on City Index

Add Your View – if you have any comments or questions on City Index, feel free to add them here.




MT4 with City Index

City Index offer a MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading Account which is separate to their spread betting, CFD and forex account options.

Many investors consider the MT4 platform to be the benchmark retail FX platform. MT4 lets you:
  • Access Expert Advisors (EAs) i.e. automated trading strategies which you can apply to your own trades
  • Create your own Automated Trading System
  • Generate custom indicators which will analyse market movement & trends and then produce real-time trading signals
  • One-click dealing and a powerful charting package
If you are already familiar with MT4, note that City have added a few optional extras to their version:
  • Customisable Leverage: Up to 400:1
  • Price Tolerance: This feature controls slippage in volatile markets. You simply state how many points you are prepared to accept if the market slips. If you don’t want any slippage, just set the ‘Price Tolerance’ tool to zero
  • Access via other City Index Platforms: City Index MetaTrader 4 account holders can access their account through the other City Index platforms including the desktop, mobile and tablet platforms

City Index Account

Here we take a quick look at the City Index account.

City Index Services

Average User Rating 6.6
New Account OfferCity Index
24 Hour Trading City Index
Live ChartsCity Index Live Charts
iPhone AppCity Index iPhone App
iPad AppCity Index iPad App
Android AppsCity Index Android Apps
Web PlatformCity Index Web Platformne
Stop Loss Available City Index
Automatic Stop Loss City Index
Credit Account City Index
Deposit Account City Index
FCA Authorised and Regulated City Index

City Index CFDs

City Index Platform
Key features of the City Index CFD service include:

  • Risk management tools which help investors limit their downside

  • Competitive spreads and margins

  • Low margins to help ensure cost effective trading – this frees up your capital so you can use it elsewhere

  • A groundbreaking platform that includes a comprehensive research centre with the latest trading news, economic data and company announcements

  • A simple and intuitive trading platform that lets you buy and sell CFDs the instant you want to

  • The ability to speculate on the share price performance of thousands of European, North American and Far Eastern equities

  • You can also trade the price movements of the world’s leading indices, currencies, commodities and interest rates
  • A CFD account with instant access, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
For an overview of CFD trading, see the City Index video guide to CFDs below.


City Index and Price Transparency

One key feature for many spread bettors is City Index’s “commitment to price transparency that gives you a level of price and execution certainty that is invaluable in trading financial markets”. Put another way, City Index:

  • Stream tradeable prices through their online and mobile platforms. This lets you act on the latest price movements in real-time

  • Offer firm quotes up to “Our Size”. This provides certainty that for every spread betting and CFD market that City Index trade, they will deal at the quoted prices for any trade within that size

  • Accurately base their prices on the underlying financial instruments. This helps to ensure that your trades will result in the profit (or loss) that you would expect

City Index ‘All the Trading Tools You Need’

According to their website, City Index say they offer, “around-the-clock access to equity, index, currency and commodity markets all over the world through our innovative trading platform.

“Whatever and wherever you want to trade, our trading platform provides all the tools you need.

“Online and mobile trading services ensure that you are never more than a click or two away from your next trade, and a team of expert dealers and customer service specialists are constantly available to provide personal support”.


Markets on the City Index Platform

Below – you will find a sample of the markets offered by City Index along with their typical in-hours spread size and the minimum stake for that market. See City Index for full details.

Typical In-Hours Index Spread Sizes with City Index

FTSE 100 (UK 100) Daily1
Dow Jones (Wall St) Daily1
DAX 30 (Germany 30) Daily1
S&P 500 (SPX 500) Daily4
NASDAQ 100 (US Tech 100) Daily4-10
CAC 40 (France 40) Daily1
ASX 200 (Australia 200) Daily5
Japan 225 Daily8
Hong Kong Daily10
Stock market indices minimum stake£1
You can also trade many other indices like the Japan 225.


Typical In-Hours Forex Spread Sizes with City Index

EUR / USD Daily1
GBP / USD Daily1.5
EUR / GBP Daily1.3
USD / JPY Daily1
Forex minimum stake£1
Other currencies that you can trade include the Swiss franc, Canadian dollar and Australian dollar.

Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency Markets

As of December 2017, City started to offer Bitcoin, although like most firms, the spreads are very wide and margins are small.

If in doubt, don’t trade Bitcoin markets with any spread betting firm, Bitcoin looks designed to hurt investors.


Typical In-Hours Commodities Spread Sizes with City Index

Gold Daily3
Gold Futures6
Brent Crude Oil Daily7†
Brent Crude Oil Futures7
US Crude Oil Daily4†
US Crude Oil Futures4
Commodities minimum stake£1
They also offers spread bets on a range of other commodities markets including:
  • Metals: eg silver and palladium
  • Softs: eg wheat, coffee, soybeans and more

Typical In-Hours Interest Rate Spread Sizes with City Index

Euribor2
Euroswiss
Short Sterling2
Treasuries minimum stake£0.5


Typical In-Hours Bonds Spread Sizes with City Index

BOBL2
Bund2
Gilt3
Schatz2
US T Bond 10 Year4
US T Bond 30 Year2
Treasuries minimum stake£0.5
Also see Company notes and comments.


More City Markets

City Index also provides trading on other markets including UK equities sectors.


About City Index

City Index Android Trading App
As a group, City Index has more than 600 employees worldwide and offices in the UK, American, Australia, China, Poland and Singapore.

City Index transacts over 2 million trades every month across +50 countries.

According to the City Index website, they say:

We provide access to a wide range of instruments including financial spread betting and CFDs.

We constantly look to expand our range of services and improve the performance of the trading platforms.

The result is that our customers benefit from innovative trading tools with competitive spreads, transparent pricing and a high level of customer support.

In volatile markets we continue to offer fair prices. We continue to do everything we can to provide the market access you need to open / close positions when you want to.”


City Index Stability and UK Regulation

Losses can exceed deposits
City Index is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FSA Register Number: 113942.

City Index Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, number: 1761813. Registered office: Park House, 16 Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7EB.


City Index Video Guide to Spread Betting

Here, City Index offers a quick look into spread betting.

City Index Video Guide to CFD Trading

Another video guide from City Index, this one gives a quick overview of CFD trading.