Indices trading with low and stable spreads³

Trading indices derivatives is a great way to gain exposure to the stock indices market without needing to own the underlying asset.

Because you're speculating on the performance of an index rather than investing in it, you can capitalize on the movements of prices, whether they're going up or down.

You can also use leverage to access the global indices market with a fraction of the capital you would need if you were to invest in indices directly.

Not only does this open up the world of major indices to so many more traders, but it also provides unique trading opportunities over multiple time frames, especially when combined with solid index chart technical analysis.

Deciding when to enter or exit a trade in the global indices market should be based on your advanced trading strategy.

When trading indices, you should closely monitor a range of fundamental factors, including economic news releases, geopolitical events and macroeconomic developments.

You can also make use of a variety of technical analysis tools to analyze index charts. This could be anything from detecting patterns on a candlestick chart to using Fibonacci retracement, or looking at moving averages and paying attention to the volatility index.

Once you have tested your trading strategy, you then need to check the opening and closing times of the markets you are trading.

You can see the full timetable in the Trading Hours section on this page.

Fibonacci retracements are a popular technical analysis tool used to identify potential levels of support or resistance. To trade indices using this method, traders will typically look for reversals at Fibonacci retracement levels that coincide with other technical indicators, such as candlestick patterns or volume. Traders can then use the Fibonacci retracement levels to establish entry and exit points for trades or stop losses to manage risk. It's important to test your trading strategy with technical analysis tools such as Fibonacci retracements on a demo account before trading stock indices with real capital.

Stock indices are affected by a variety of factors. These include economic and political events, consumer confidence, supply and demand, corporate earnings, and market news.

Major global indices are also impacted by investor sentiment towards certain sectors or stocks.

It's important to keep up to date with the markets you are trading when trading stock indices.

Whether you are trading on MetaTrader 4 or 5 or on the AthenaAvo Terminal, the most popular indicators are available to use on your index chart.

This includes Fibonacci retracements, Bollinger bands, RSI, moving averages, and more.

If you are trading on the AthenaAvo Terminal, you can also enjoy increased trading functionality directly from your index chart.

This means you can close or modify orders and move take profits or stop losses by dragging and dropping your order on the chart to the price you want.

We introduced periods of increased margin and reduced leverage to protect you from potential adverse price action due to increased market volatility in indices trading. We also extended our trading sessions for indices, to give you greater opportunity to trade with the standard margin requirements.

The following rules apply when it comes to setting levels for pending orders:

• Pending orders along with SL and TP (for pending orders) must be set at a distance (at least the same as current spread or more) from the current market price.

• SL and TP in pending orders must be set at least the same distance from the order price as the current spread.

• For open positions, SL and TP must be set at a distance from the current market price which is at least the same as that of the current spread.

At AthenaAvo, we know how it feels when your pending order falls in a price gap, so it’s only fair that we guarantee no slippage for virtually all pending orders that are executed at least 3 hours after trading opens for an instrument. However, if your order meets any of the following criteria, it will be executed at the first market quote that follows the gap:

• If your pending order is executed in market conditions that are not normal, such as during a period of low liquidity or high volatility.

• If your pending order falls in a gap but the difference in pips between the first market quote (after the gap) and the requested price of the order is equal to or exceeds a certain number of pips (slippage-free range) for a particular instrument.

Slippage rule applies to specific trading instruments.