As a form of trading involving leverage, instead of having to put down the cost of the trade in its entirety (at 9611.5 x 5 that would cost £48,057.50, the same as my nominal risk)

You only need to put in a small percentage of the overall value to initiate the trade.

We normally work this out as a percentage of the nominal risk – if the margin is 1%, then 48,057.50/100 = 480.575. Therefore, rounding upwards by a penny, £480.58 is the amount needed to initiate the trade.

If, however, you had decided to sell £5 of the DAX instead of buying it, the price of your trade would be as follows;

9610.5 x 5 = £48,052.5

The amount you would need to put into your trade would therefore be 1% of that, meaning £480.53

Traders are advised to remember that increasing leverage increases risk.