What's the difference between a perpetual CFD and a standard CFD?
Verdict
- A standard CFD tracks a market during its trading hours and charges an overnight swap; a perpetual CFD, which Pepperstone offers on 17 markets in Australia, trades 24/7 and charges daily funding at a weekly-set rate instead.
- Standard CFDs at Pepperstone come with two pricing models, spread-only or Razor raw spread plus commission; perpetuals carry a percentage commission of 0.015% per side on most contracts.
- Standard CFDs are clearly open to retail clients under ASIC caps; for perpetuals, Pepperstone's Australian pages do not say.
- Neither gives you ownership of the underlying asset.
Same broker, two different contracts. Using Pepperstone's own published terms, here is what changes when you pick NAS100 PERP instead of the NAS100 index CFD.
The core difference in a paragraph
With a standard CFD, time is priced through the overnight swap and, for shares and indices, limited by the market's own hours. With a perpetual, time is priced through funding, and the clock never stops: Pepperstone's perpetuals trade through nights and weekends. Pepperstone is the provider we would use for both, because it lists them side by side under the same ASIC-licensed company, Pepperstone Group Limited (AFSL 414530), so you can compare them on one screen.
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NAS100 vs NAS100 PERP at Pepperstone
| NAS100 index CFD | NAS100 PERP | |
|---|---|---|
| Expiry | None | None |
| Trading hours | Index market hours | 24/7 |
| Published trading cost | Spread only: 1 point average on Razor, 1.2 on Standard | 0.015% commission per side, plus the spread |
| Holding cost | Overnight swap | Daily funding at a weekly-set rate |
| Retail leverage | 1:20 (major index) | Not published on Australian pages |
| Platforms | Web and app, MT5, cTrader; MT4 and TradingView on Razor | TradingView, MT5, cTrader, app |
| Retail access in Australia | Yes | Not stated |
When the standard CFD is the better tool
- Intraday trades inside market hours, where the index CFD's spread-only pricing avoids the perpetual's commission.
- Retail clients who need certainty about access and leverage today.
- MT4 users, since perpetuals are not offered on MT4.
- Anything outside the perpetual list: 93 FX pairs, 1,162 share CFDs and 95 ETF CFDs on Pepperstone's Australian table.
When a perpetual makes more sense
- You want to react to weekend news on the Nasdaq 100, gold or oil rather than wait for Monday's open.
- You want to cost a multi-day hold in advance; the weekly funding rate is known before it applies.
- You want round-the-clock access to names such as NVDA or TSLA; Pepperstone's 24-hour US share CFDs (the '-24' suffix) run 24/5, while the perpetual runs 24/7.
What stays the same
Both are CFDs: you trade the price on margin, Pepperstone is your counterparty, you own nothing, and leverage magnifies losses as much as gains. Retail clients have negative balance protection on the account, and neither contract comes with a guaranteed stop-loss.
Sources
From Pepperstone's Australian pages.
Is a perpetual CFD cheaper than a standard CFD?
For a trade opened and closed within market hours, the standard index CFD avoids the perpetual's 0.015% commission. For multi-day holds, compare the swap with that week's funding.
Do perpetual CFDs expire like index forwards?
No. Pepperstone's index forwards have a fixed date; its cash index CFDs and perpetual CFDs do not.
Are some shares available both ways?
Yes. Pepperstone offers share CFDs on more than 600 US names and perpetuals on a shortlist that includes NVDA, TSLA, AMD and GOOGL.
Trading CFDs with leverage can wipe out your deposit fast, because losses grow as quickly as gains. CFDs are complex instruments and are not suitable for everyone. Nothing here is investment advice, and broker terms change, so confirm them on the broker's own site.