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A bond is a contract between an entity that borrows money and a creditor that lends it to the entity. When you purchase a bond, you are effectively giving a loan to the bond issuer. With government bonds, also known as sovereign bonds, a national government borrows money to fund its operations. The bond specifies what interest rate (coupon) will be paid and at which times during the life of the bond and when the principal funds, also known as face value, will be returned. This is called the maturity date. Bonds are an asset class by themselves that offers more stability than stocks. 
 
The return on a bond is known in advance, which makes them low risk investments, although the risk is related to the credit rating of the bond issuer. If the coupon rate is higher than the prevailing interest rates, a bond becomes attractive so the demand for these bonds will increase, driving up their price. If the bond interest is lower than the prevailing interest rates, their price will drop, so bonds are inversely correlated to interest rates.

A contract for difference (CFD) is a derivative product that derives its value from the performance of an underlying instrument such as Gold, a Stock Index, a Currency Index or a Government Bond. It is a contract to pay or receive the difference between the current price of an underlying instrument and the price when the contract is liquidated. This allows traders to take advantage of price movements. CFDs can be used to either speculate and try to profit from price movements or to hedge an exposure to certain instruments by mitigating the risk of price movements. 
 
CFDs are popular with retail traders and are typically not held for a long time. They are similar to futures, but there are differences, for example they don't have an expiration date or a set future price, they have less regulation, the minimal amount of the underlying asset you need to trade is less and CFDs are traded through brokers, not through large exchanges. These brokers are paid via a spread and most offer products in all major markets worldwide.

Currencies are traded on the Foreign Exchange market, also known as Forex. This is a decentralized market that spans the globe and is considered the largest by trading volume and the most liquid worldwide. Exchange rates fluctuate continuously due to the ever changing market forces of supply and demand. Forex traders buy a currency pair if they think the exchange rate will rise and sell it if they think the opposite will happen. The Forex market remains open around the world for 24 hours a day with the exception of weekends. 
 
Before the Internet revolution only large players such as international banks, hedge funds and extremely wealthy individuals could participate. Now retail traders can buy, sell and speculate on currencies from the comfort of their homes with a mouse click through online brokerage accounts. There are many tradable currency pairs and an average online broker has about 40. One of our most popular chats is the {link_start_chat}Forex chat{link_end} where traders talk in real-time about where the market is going.

Stock Indices use a portfolio of representative companies (usually spanning major industries) to reflect the status of the whole stock market. There are basically three kinds: global, regional and national. Global indices include companies regardless of where they are traded. Regional indices include companies from a certain region and national indices include companies from a specific nation. Stock Indices are used to get an indication of the market's overall direction. Some analysts use them as a barometer of the underlying economy. 
 
Indices can be comprised of tens to hundreds of stocks and each index calculates the weighted average differently. Some weigh the stocks equally (equal weighting), others take company size into account (capitalization weighting) and others use a hybrid method (modified capitalization weighting). Stock Indices are tradable entities themselves. A currency index is a measure of the value of a specific currency relative to other select currencies. Indices like the US Dollar Index or the Euro Currency Index are used to gauge the strength of those respective currencies.