Share Trading Accounts Australia

There are differences between the contract for difference (CFD). In order to make them work, you must know the difference between them. Read on in this article to inform yourself about this and more...


Direct market Access

Direct Market Access, DMA, is the term used for financial markets that documents electronic trading parameters that give investors a way to interact with the order book of the exchange for investors who wish to trade financial instruments. Typically, members of the exchange are restricted to brokers, dealers and market making firms. Using Direct marketing Access control the individual trader can manage their account themselves without the benefit of a trading house, buy side firms or investment companies.

The Benefits of Direct Market Access and Contract for Difference


Direct Market Access has opened the door to the individual trader who wants to participate in CFD’s themselves rather than handing their order and trades to brokers for trading. The individual trader now has the opportunity to bypass the middle man, so to speak, and send their trade directly to the execution desk to finalize and uphold the integrity of the trade.

The upside to the individual trader working their own CFD deals is they can set their own trading goals and change them as they see fit for an up to the minute trade or revision to the trade without going through the trading specialist. This also affords the trader to take more or less risk based on their past performance of the same or similar trading instrument. This also allows the trader more control over the final execution and the ability to use as much too as little liquidity and price opportunities more quickly. In other words, the individual trader can do just about everything a trading specialist will do for the price of a CFD commission.

The down side is unless the individual trader is well versed in the manipulation of the trade and all the elements involved, the trader could find themselves in financial jeopardy with no fixed exit strategy. If the individual trader cannot read trends or does misread a trend, the financial gain may be more or less than expected with no real assurance of any kind of return at all.

DMA vs MM
Direct Market AccessMarket Maker
StructurePhysical link to actual stock exchangeMirrored price to stock exchange
Pricetaker/makerPrice maker, means that your trades are influencing the security price (your order are contributing to bid-ask price)Price taker, means that your trade do not contribute to bid-ask price
LiquidityMarket liquidityCan provide a higher degree of liquidity
CostBrokerage and financing costBrokerage, financing cost and potentially additional spread on bid-ask price


The Market Maker


The market maker is a trading company that creates their own market and price range which is based on the actual exchange at the start of the market. They create both the buy and sell price for a financial instrument or a commodity. Each market maker assumes the risk of the particular shares of security in order to offer both the buy and sell price. This method of trading allows the security owner to sell from their inventory as soon as an order for that instrument is received. The trader then seeks an offsetting order and the trading process takes a mere minutes.

The upside to being the market maker is the instruments offered gain more exposure on the market as they are considered liquid. That gives them exposure to a wide range of markets most instruments do not see. This is because the instruments are manipulated by the market maker and not the market. It may seem like this makes market maker investments more solid for a positive return but they are subject to the same risks brought on by a volatile market as well as a somewhat stable market that stumbles and has to go through a slight correction phase.

The downside is there is no assurance that the performance of such instruments that are price created and held by brokerage and trading firms will perform any better than any other security on the market.

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