How it works
How Libertex works
Libertex is a CFD broker — you trade derivative contracts whose value tracks an underlying market, not the underlying asset itself. This page walks through what happens from the moment you click 'buy' to when the position closes, plus the mechanics behind the scenes.
Registration opens on libertex.org
Trade lifecycle
What happens when you open a position
Five steps from instrument selection to closed trade. Each one looks instant from your side, but a small set of mechanics decides what your cost and risk actually are. Worth understanding before the first live order.
Pick an instrument and a direction
SecondsChoose from forex, crypto, stocks, indices, commodities, ETFs or bonds. Click buy if you think the price will rise; sell if you think it will fall. Short-selling on Libertex doesn't require borrowing the underlying — the CFD structure makes it symmetric with buying.
Set position size and multiplier
SecondsPosition size is the notional value you're exposed to. Multiplier (leverage) controls how much margin the broker reserves: a 1:30 multiplier on a $3,000 position reserves $100 of margin. Higher multipliers mean smaller margin — and amplified moves in both directions.
Confirm the order ticket
InstantThe ticket shows entry price, spread (broker's bid-ask gap, paid immediately), commission (if any, per category), required margin, and your stop-loss / take-profit levels. The spread is the dominant cost on short-held trades; commission and overnight financing dominate on longer ones.
Position lives on the broker's books
Until you close itWhile the position is open, its mark-to-market value updates in real time. If you hold past end-of-day, an overnight financing charge (positive or negative, depending on direction and asset) is applied. If margin used + losses reaches your free margin, a margin call closes positions automatically.
Close to realise profit or loss
SecondsClose manually, or trigger stop-loss / take-profit. The settlement is cash: the difference between entry and exit prices, multiplied by position size, minus costs (spread on close, commission, any overnight charges). No underlying asset changes hands — that's the CFD model.
Behind the scenes
Mechanics worth knowing
Six facts about how the broker model actually works. None of these are hidden — they're standard CFD broker mechanics — but new traders often miss them because nothing in the order ticket forces you to think about them.
- You don't own the underlying
- A CFD is a contract whose value mirrors an asset. Buying 100 Tesla CFDs is not the same as owning 100 Tesla shares — no voting rights, no dividend (or a CFD-specific dividend adjustment instead), no asset transfer.
- Broker is your counterparty
- Libertex sits on the other side of every trade. Sometimes the broker hedges your position in the underlying market; sometimes it nets your trade against other clients' opposite positions. From your side the price you get is the price they quoted.
- Where Libertex earns
- Spread (bid-ask difference, paid implicitly on every trade), commission (per-category, sometimes zero on certain plans), overnight financing on positions held past end-of-day, currency conversion if your account base currency differs from the instrument.
- Leverage cuts both ways
- A 1:30 multiplier means a 3.3% adverse move wipes out 100% of the margin used. Higher multipliers (1:100, 1:300, 1:999 on selected forex) make this faster. Multiplier is a tool for capital efficiency, not a free upgrade to bigger positions.
- Margin call mechanics
- When losses on open positions reduce your free margin to a broker-defined threshold (typically when margin level reaches 50% on Libertex), positions are closed automatically — usually the largest-loss position first — to protect against negative balance.
- Client funds are segregated
- Money you deposit is held in client-segregated accounts at tier-1 banks, separate from the broker's operating capital. Regulators in most jurisdictions require this — meaning broker bankruptcy doesn't put client deposits in the bankruptcy estate.
Nothing on this page is unique to Libertex — these are the standard mechanics every regulated CFD broker operates under. What differs between brokers is the spread, the commission, the multiplier caps, and the quality of execution under stress (slippage in fast markets, dealing-desk vs. STP routing). For Libertex-specific numbers, see the fees and leverage pages.
Related
Specific topics to read next
Three pages dig deeper into the most important mechanics — leverage caps per category, the step-by-step trade walkthrough, and what the demo lets you experience without risking capital.
Leverage and multipliers
Real per-category caps on Libertex (forex up to 1:999, stocks up to 1:10, crypto up to 1:300), what they mean in dollars, and why the cap differs by asset class.
LeverageHow to trade — step by step
End-to-end walkthrough of placing a real trade: instrument selection, order ticket, stop-loss, monitoring, closing. Action-oriented, not theoretical.
How to tradeDemo account
$50,000 virtual funds, no deposit, no KYC. Same platform, same instruments, same order flow — the practical way to experience the trade lifecycle without risk.
Demo
FAQ
How-it-works questions
CFD mechanics understood
Try a CFD trade on a demo before committing capital.
CFDs in the abstract are different from CFDs on the order ticket. Open the demo with $50,000 virtual capital and place a trade — see how multiplier, spread, commission, and stop-loss interact in practice. No KYC, no deposit, indefinite use.
Trading in financial instruments is a risky activity and can bring not only profits, but also losses. The amount of possible losses is limited by the amount of the deposit.