CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Excess volatility increases risk further. Be cautious. Past performance is not an indication of future results.
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One line, two quotes

The chart draws one price. An order is filled against two. · Taiwan

Everything about direction is on the picture. Almost everything about what a trade costs is somewhere else — and the confusion between the two is why an order can open showing a loss on a chart that never moved.

A chart plots one series of figures through time. The platform, at the same moment, is quoting two: the higher one an order buys at, the lower one it sells at. The line is drawn from one of them, so the other never appears on the picture and neither does the distance between them. Reading a chart for cost therefore means knowing which figures the drawing leaves out, and opening the two windows where those figures are actually written.

The missing half

Four figures the picture never contains

  • The second quote. One line, two live prices. The one not drawn is the one half of all orders are filled at.
  • The distance between them. It is a live figure that widens and tightens through the day, and no shape on the chart is drawn from it.
  • A commission, where the account states one separately. It belongs to the ticket, not to the market, so nothing on the picture moves when it is charged.
  • The overnight figure. A position carried past the daily rollover meets a swap line; a chart of the same instrument looks identical either side of it.

Together they explain the most common first surprise on a demo screen: the position appears already behind, while the drawing has not moved a step. Nothing broke — the trade opened at one quote and is being valued at the other. Where each charge is stated in writing sits in what a CFD is.

Three readings that mislead about cost

What you see, what to check, what follows

Each of these is an honest reading of the picture and a wrong reading of the price tag. The check in the middle costs seconds.

  1. «It touched that level, so I could have got in there»

    What you see: a thin line reaching down to a price on the drawn series. What to check: which of the two quotes the chart is drawn from, and what the other one was doing at that moment. Next step: treat a level on the picture as a landmark, not as a fill. An entry in the opposite direction meets the quote that was never drawn.

  2. «Nothing is happening, so this is a calm moment to trade»

    What you see: short bodies, closes near one another, a stretch that looks restful. What to check: the two quotes right now, at that same hour. Next step: a quiet picture and a tight quote are different things. Thin stretches are exactly where there is less to match an order against, and where the two figures can sit further apart than they did in the busy hours.

  3. «The price jumped over the weekend, so the chart is wrong»

    What you see: a break in the drawing where the week restarts. What to check: the last figure before the pause and the first one after it. Next step: nothing was quoted in between, so nothing could be filled in between either. A gap is a stretch with no prices, and the picture is describing it accurately.

Where the missing figures live

Two windows the picture cannot replace

The first is the quote list the platform keeps beside the chart. Both live figures stand there together, and the difference between them is the one number worth writing down with a clock beside it. Read once it describes a moment; read twice, hours apart, it starts describing the instrument.

The second is the specification behind an instrument, opened from that same list. It is where the fixed part of the arrangement is written — how large one contract is, which currency the result is counted in, the overnight figures, and the hours during which anything is quoted at all. None of it changes with the shape on the screen, and all of it can be read with no order open and nothing deposited.

Those two windows answer the cost question completely. The chart answers a different question, and answers it well — which is the reason to keep the two jobs apart rather than to distrust the picture.

The honest part: the picture is history, and the tag is arithmetic

  • Everything drawn has already happened. Rises, falls and quiet stretches can be described with confidence, because they are finished.
  • Nobody reliably knows the next stretch. Treat a confident promise about it as a sales line, not a reading.
  • Knowing the cost is not knowing the outcome. The tag says only how far behind a trade starts, not where the price goes.
  • Coloured lines drawn over the bars add nothing to the tag. They are arithmetic on figures already on the screen, and none of them contains the second quote.
  • Finish with an exit, or leave it alone. A stop-loss closes a trade automatically once the price moves against you by more than you chose — see risk basics.

This site is an independent guide, not a broker: it opens no accounts and holds no money. CFDs are complex instruments and trading them is risky.

Questions asked with the chart open

Which of the two quotes is the chart drawn from?

Usually the selling one, and the platform can be set either way. The point is to know which, because the other is the one a purchase is filled at.

Why did the position open in the red on a chart that had not moved?

It opened at one quote and is valued at the other, so it starts the distance between them behind. The picture shows one of the two figures and cannot show that.

Can the gap between the two prices be seen on the picture at all?

Not as a shape. It stands as a figure in the quote list beside the chart, and on the ticket when an order is being prepared.

The quiet hours look safest on the screen. Are they the cheapest?

Not necessarily, and the picture cannot say. Fewer participants means less to match an order against, and the two quotes can sit further apart at exactly those hours.

Nothing is drawn at all right now. Is the platform broken?

Probably not. Instruments have trading hours written into their specification, and outside them there is no quote to draw or to fill against.

Does the hour written along the bottom of the chart match my clock?

Not always — the times come from the platform. Cost readings are only comparable if your own clock time is written beside each one.

Two instruments moved the same distance on screen. Did they cost the same?

Rarely. Contract size differs, the distance between quotes differs, and the currency a result is counted in can differ — see the practice calculator.

Can any of this be checked without depositing?

All of it. A demo quotes the same live figures against virtual money, so both quotes, the gap and the specification can be read before anything is funded.

Where this carries on

Trading words

Spread, pip, lot and swap, defined once and used everywhere.

Open the list

Your first trade

What happens between the click and the price you are filled at.

Follow one order

Start here

Four stages that price one trade before it exists.

See the checks

Put the chart and the quote list side by side tonight.

A demo account carries virtual funds with no time limit, so the drawn line and the two live figures can be watched together before anything is deposited. The button opens the exness.com sign-up through a partner link.

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