contracts for difference, page-8

I use CMC for CFD's and IB for futures and futures options. IB are excellent but watch your margins like a hawk or you'll be liquidated mercilessly.

I'm beginning to think CFD's are great for a bull market but since the market appears to be turning bearish it's a lot more difficult to make a profit. Most margins for stocks are 5%, I don't know of any other provider that provides that.Most are 10%.

I have learnt to have the telephone number of dealing desk handy and any concerns ring them immediately. Generally the service then is good even to the point of cancelling trades. They are market makers ie not exchange direct, having said that there prices for ASX nd FTSE stocks are the same as exchange. No so US stocks there appears to be a greater spread on US stocks.
They provide free charting service with their program the only big downer here is theres no volume information available for charting.

I agree you can lose bigtime on price gaps. You need to cover this risk closely. I don't use guranteed stop losses but it is probably a good idea. If your stop loss is gapped they will stop at the highest and closest price. Over 7 months of trading this has served me well enough. Once I was going to put guarantee stop losson BHP for a $16000 position. It was going to cost $50 but I couldn't because they don't allow during last hour of trading.

The above is not advice just my opinion.