Perpetual futures vs CFDs: who sets your price?

You open your trading app, pick a market and tap Buy. But who set that price? And is the company behind the app making money from your fees, or from your losses?

CFDs, short for contracts for difference, and perpetual futures let you trade on whether a price rises or falls. You do not own the stock, gold or other asset itself. Perpetual futures have no set end date.

Some CFD brokers set the buy and sell prices you see. They can change the gap between those prices. They may also take the other side of your trade and benefit when you lose.

Turbo connects your orders with other traders through a live order book: a list of buy and sell orders. You can see the prices available before you trade. Turbo charges a clear fee and does not trade against you.

1. The spread can widen when prices move fast

The spread is the gap between the price you can buy at and the price you can sell at. It is a cost of trading, even if the app says “zero commission.”

A CFD broker that sets its own prices can add an extra charge inside that gap. This is called a spread markup. The broker can also change the spread as market conditions change. When big news breaks or fewer people are trading, the gap can get much wider.

That means the low spread in an advertisement may be very different from what you pay when you want to get in or out.

In the first example, buying and immediately selling costs you $2. In the second, it costs $10. That is before any other fees. The price halfway between buying and selling is still $100 in both examples; the wider gap alone makes the trade more expensive.

The European securities regulator ESMA explains how a CFD spread can include an extra broker charge.

On Turbo, the spread comes from other traders’ buy and sell orders. Turbo adds no extra charge to that gap. Spreads can still widen when markets move fast, but you can see the available prices and how much is for sale at each one.

2. Some brokers can profit when you lose

Some brokers keep the other side of your trade themselves. This is known as B-booking. If they have not made another trade elsewhere to balance the risk, your loss can be their gain.

For a simple example, you lose $100 because the price moves against you. The broker on the other side makes $100 from that price move, before its costs. If you win $100 instead, it loses $100.

That creates a conflict: the company providing your app and setting your prices may also benefit from your trade going badly.

Malaysia’s securities regulator explains this conflict in its guide to CFD providers. Brokers work in different ways: some pass the risk to other firms, while others keep some of it. B-booking is not proof that a broker is cheating, but it is worth knowing how yours makes money.

Turbo does not take the other side to profit from your loss. It matches your order with other traders and charges a fee when the trade happens. Turbo’s trading fee applies whether you eventually win or lose.

3. See what happens when you tap Buy

A price on a screen tells you what a broker is offering. It does not necessarily show how that price was worked out, what extra charge was added or whether your trade was passed to another firm.

If you receive a worse price than expected, it can be hard to tell what happened. Did the market move? Was there enough available at the price you saw? Would the broker have passed on a better price too?

The UK Financial Ombudsman Service covers these questions in its guide to CFD complaints. It explains that passing worse prices to customers while keeping the benefit of better prices can be unfair.

Turbo’s order book shows the prices people are willing to buy and sell at, and how much is available at each price. If there is not enough at the cheapest price, a larger buy order may need to pay more for the rest.

Prices can change between tapping Buy and the trade happening. Getting a different price from the one you expected is called slippage. Seeing the order book helps you judge that possibility before you trade.

You can also use a limit order: set the most you will pay to buy, or the least you will accept to sell. The trade only happens at that price or better. It may not happen at all if nobody takes your price.

What changes with Turbo?

4. Know what you pay and who gets it

Turbo’s standard fee is 0.05% of the trade value. On a $1,000 trade, that is $0.50. If you later close the trade at the same $1,000 value, Turbo charges another $0.50.

There is also a fee from the exchange, where orders are matched. That fee varies by market and how your order is filled. The spread and any slippage add to your costs too. The app shows the trading fees before you confirm.

See Turbo’s fee guide for the breakdown.

Leaving a trade open can bring another cost. CFD brokers commonly charge for holding trades overnight. A low advertised spread does not tell you what those charges will add up to.

In its 2025 review, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority found large differences in overnight charges and gaps in how some brokers explained them.

On Turbo, open trades can involve an hourly payment called funding. It passes between traders backing a price rise and those backing a fall. You may pay or receive it, and none of it goes to Turbo.

The rate can change, including which side pays. Check the funding rate before leaving a trade open. Clear costs help you decide whether a trade is worth taking.

5. Trade when the news happens

Turbo’s markets stay open 24/7. You can react to weekend news or change a trade from your phone while the stock exchange is closed.

You are trading a separate contract, so its price can move away from the stock exchange’s last closing price. Check the available prices and amounts before trading, especially at quieter times. Some CFD brokers offer weekend trading too, sometimes through separate contracts.

Perpetual futures have no set end date. Some CFDs can also stay open without one. But either type of trade can close automatically if losses leave too little money backing it.

Take care with leverage and the money backing your trade. Leverage lets you open a trade larger than the money you put behind it. It makes both gains and losses larger relative to that money.

Your app should make trading clearer

Look beyond the advertised spread. You should be able to understand where your price comes from, what you are paying and whether the company behind the app benefits when you lose.

Turbo gives you a live order book, fees shown before you trade and no added spread markup. It connects you with other traders without taking the other side of your trade itself. You choose the market and the trade, with more of the picture in front of you.

Explore how Turbo’s markets work.

For other ways to trade gold, read Gold ETFs, futures, CFDs and perpetuals: how to choose.

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