Markets
Indices: what it is, what moves it and how to study it
What it is, what moves it, when it moves and how to practice it on demo before thinking about a live account.
What it is
The market in a sentence
CFDs on stock indices: the direction of a group of stocks in a single trade, up or down.
Instruments HFM lists
- US Wall Street 30 (USA30)
- US SPX500 (USA500)
- US Tech 100 (USA100)
- UK 100
- Germany 40
- Japan 225
Examples taken from HFM's specification tables on October 26, 2026. The instruments available depend on the account type.
See the Indices conditions on hfm.com →What to study
US30 and NAS100 are the reference indices in Levels. Watch how they react to the New York open.
Be clear on this
An index CFD tracks the price; it does not make you the owner of anything. It has its own trading hours and futures contracts have expiry dates.
What moves it
Three forces worth watching
The biggest companies
An index moves mostly on its heaviest components; the quarterly results of a few companies can move the whole index.
Rates and inflation
When rates rise, growth stocks tend to suffer; inflation data and central bank meetings mark days of movement.
General sentiment
Geopolitical and global economy news can change the mood of the whole market in one session.
Sessions
When it moves
They follow the hours of their home exchange: US indices move most near the New York open. Each instrument has its own breaks; check them on hfm.com.
The exact hours of each instrument are published by HFM and can change.
Live chart
Watch it now
TradingView chart for educational purposes. Prices may differ from those on your HFM platform. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell.
Practice
How to practice it on demo
Watch US30 or NAS100 during the first hour of New York for a week. Note which way it moves and what data came out that day.
- 01
Open a demo account
It is free and uses no real money. Request it with the button on this page.
- 02
Mark levels on the daily chart
Support and resistance from the last few weeks. That way you arrive at each session with a map.
- 03
Calculate the size before trading
Use Arco's calculators to set how much you risk per trade; on demo it counts too.
- 04
Write everything down for a week
What you saw, what you did and what happened. The journal is what gets studied, not the balance.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about Indices
What is US30?
The index of 30 large US companies known as the Dow Jones. On HFM's list it appears as US Wall Street 30.
Why do some indices have an expiry?
Some index CFDs are based on futures contracts that expire. HFM explains how it handles this on each instrument's page.
Keep exploring
The other markets
Pick this market and watch it for a week on demo.
It is the first exercise of module 3: mark levels every day and write down what happened.