A single company, long or short.
Individual names from the major listing venues, traded in either direction from the same balance. A share is a position on one business rather than on a market, which is the whole appeal of it and also the risk you are taking on.
Companies grouped by where they are listed. Sector labels, not a company list: which names are tradable, and what a position costs, is set out in the platform.
- US listings
- UK and European listings
- Asia-Pacific listings
What a share position is
An index smooths a market out. A share does not smooth anything: it is one set of results, one management team and one exchange's opening hours.
One company, not a market
A share position responds to that business: what it earned, what it guided towards, who runs it and what it just announced. The index it belongs to can have a good day while the name inside it has a bad one.
Long and short are both ordinary
A long position gains if the price rises and a short gains if it falls, and either is placed the same way. They are not mirror images, though: a price can only fall so far, and it can rise without a ceiling.
Corporate events reach your position
Results, dividends, splits and takeovers happen to the company on the company's timetable. They then happen to anyone holding it, whether or not the calendar was checked before the trade.
It trades when its exchange trades
A currency pair hands over from one financial centre to the next. A share has one home venue and a published session, so outside those hours there is a last price but nothing to act on.
How a share book is grouped
Grouped first by the market a company is listed in, then by what the company does. These are sector labels rather than company names, and there are no prices or costs anywhere on this page.
US listings
Companies listed in the United States, quoted in dollars and following the American calendar. A US market holiday closes them for the day while European venues carry on trading.
- Technology
- Semiconductors
- Banks
- Healthcare
- Consumer
- Energy
- Industrials
- Media
UK and European listings
Names quoted in sterling or euros, opening earlier in the day than the American session and closing before it ends. Holding one means holding the listing currency alongside the company.
- Banks
- Insurance
- Pharmaceuticals
- Energy
- Miners
- Telecoms
- Utilities
- Retail
Asia-Pacific listings
Companies whose trading day runs while Europe is still asleep. News about them is often priced in before a European trader has opened the platform, which shows up as a gap rather than a move.
- Electronics
- Semiconductors
- Banks
- Carmakers
- Shipping
- Property
- Retail
What surrounds a single name
None of the following is a strategy. It is the machinery around a listed company, and it applies to a position whether or not you were watching for it.
- 01
Why a single name and not the index
An index averages a market, which quietly averages away the thing a trader may actually have a view on: one company's results, one product decision, one change at the top. A share keeps that intact. It keeps the risk intact too, and several names from the same sector can add up to one position rather than four.
- 02
The exchange keeps the hours
A share is tradable while its venue is open, and many venues start and finish the day with an auction rather than continuous trading. Between one close and the next open there is no price to work against, so anything that happens overnight arrives as a gap at the open.
- 03
Results are the scheduled event
Reporting dates are published in advance, and the reaction is to the gap between the figures and what was expected, plus whatever the company says about the months ahead. Companies often report while the venue is shut. A stop is an instruction to exit, not a guaranteed exit price, and a gap is exactly the condition that shows the difference.
- 04
Dividends land on a date
When a company pays a dividend, the share usually opens lower on its ex-dividend date by something close to the amount being paid, because the payment is no longer attached to it. How that reaches an open position, and how the long side and the short side are each treated, is set out in the account terms. Read them before you carry a name through that date.
- 05
Splits and other corporate actions
A split multiplies the number of shares and divides the price, and a consolidation does the reverse; neither creates or destroys what you hold. Rights issues, takeovers, delistings and name changes are less tidy, and a position may be adjusted or, in some cases, closed. The account terms say which happens.
- 06
Two things move at once
A company listed abroad is quoted in the currency of that listing, so the position has a company view and a currency view whether you asked for the second one or not. Trading size also differs sharply from one name to the next, and a name that trades thinly moves further on a modest order and gaps wider between sessions.
Before your first share trade
If your question is not covered here, ask us before you place the trade rather than after.
Contact usCan I take a position against a company, not just for it?
Yes. A short is placed the same way as a long, and direction is the only decision that changes. Size it with the arithmetic in mind: the loss on a long is bounded by the price reaching zero, and the loss on a short is not bounded at all.
What happens to my position when the company reports?
It stays open through the announcement. Many companies report outside trading hours, so the first price you can act on is the one at the next open, and it may be some distance from the last one. That is the case for sizing a position so it survives a reporting date rather than depending on one.
Do I receive the dividend on a share I am holding?
The share price itself normally adjusts down on the ex-dividend date, since the payment has detached from it. Whether an adjustment is applied to your position, and on which side, is a matter for the account terms rather than something this page should decide for you. Check them before holding a name through that date.
What does a share split do to a position I already hold?
It changes the units, not the substance. The share count goes up and the price comes down in the same proportion, and an open position is normally adjusted so the mechanics of the split alone do not move its value. The account terms set out how each corporate action is handled, and the company's own performance still moves the position either way.
Why can I trade a currency pair overnight but not a share?
Because a currency is quoted between institutions across every time zone, while a share is traded at an exchange that opens and closes. When the exchange is shut the last price stands as a record, not as something to deal on, and the news carries on regardless.
The rest of the account
One balance and one set of margin rules sit behind all four, so moving between them does not mean moving money.
Know the company, then size the trade
A share position asks two things of you: a view you can state in a sentence, and a size that can survive the company's next announcement. Open the account when both are in place.