How to Trade Associated British Foods shares (ABF)

To trade shares you can either use a traditional stock brokerage firm (such as IG) or you can use a CFD service, such as Plus500 We'll explore the pros and cons of both approaches in a moment.

Currently, IG charge a minimum of £5* per trade for buying and selling shares online, while Plus500 charge 0.20% above the spreadThe spread is the difference (in pips) between the buy price and the sell price.

Example: If the current buy price of EURUSD is 1.0004 and the sell price is 1.0003, there is a 1 pip spread. for stocks such as ABF

*For frequent traders or clients who place at least one CFD trade or Spread bet per month. Applies to UK shares only.

Pros & Cons of Trading Associated British Foods shares (ABF) as a CFD

A CFD (or 'contract for difference') is a way of trading instruments like shares without having to own the shares. Here are some of the pros and cons of CFD trading compared to using a traditional stock brokerage.

Advantages:

• The main advantage of a CFD broker is the leverage they offer their clients. This means that a trader would require a much smaller account sizes relative to the size of a trade in comparison to a traditional share dealing broker.
  
  For example, offer leverage of 1:10 on Associated British Foods shares. This means that at the current price of £3,176.50 per share, to buy 50 Associated British Foods shares with no leverage, it would cost a total of £158,825. However, using leverage of 1:10 , a trader would only require an account size of £15,883 to place the trade with a CFD broker like Plus500
  
  
• CFD brokers allow traders to go long or short, which means a trader could benefit from rising and falling markets.
• CFD brokers usually do not charge a commission and instead have their fees included in the spread.
• CFD brokers like AvaTrade that offer the MT4 platform, allow clients to use expert advisors to automate their trading strategies.
• UK shares that are purchased as a CFD are not liable for the usual 0.5% stamp duty payable with a traditional share purchase (please note that tax laws can change and are subject to individual circumstances).
• Unlike traditional brokerages that only offer stock trading, CFD brokers like Plus500 give access to a wide variety of instruments like stocks, commodities and currencies.

Cons:

• As mentioned, leverage is a double-edged sword that can magnify both gains and losses. And as with all trading, traders are at the risk of the markets moving against them.
• CFD brokers typically charge an overnight fee for holding a long position overnight. This is essentially the cost of borrowing the money from the broker to purchase the shares on margin. There would be no overnight fee if you closed the position on the same trading day. Therefore, this would only be a disadvantage if you are not a day trader or intraday trader.
  
  For example, Plus500 currently charge an overnight financing fee of 0.03% for individual equities. This means that for the example trade above, it would cost a trader £0.11 every day the position was open.

For further information on trading stocks as a CFD, visit out "trading stocks as a CFD page". It is important to remember leverage can work both ways and magnify gains and losses.

*All information collected from https://www.Plus500.com/uk/, see website for full terms and conditions. Your capital is at risk. Last updated on 20th March, 2017.

Associated British Foods: Key Stats & Background Information

Associated British Foodsshares are currently priced at £3,176.50, after opening the day at £3,160.00. As of 16/08/2017, Associated British Foods have 792 million shares available, bringing their market capMarketing capitalisation is the value of a publicly traded company, calculated by multiplying the current share price by the total number of shares available. to £25,148 million.

This market cap makes Associated British Foods the 26th largest stock on the FTSE 100 index by market capitalisation. In the past 30 days, the Associated British Foods share price has increased by 11.50%, from £2,849.00. In the past 90 days, it has ' ; increased by 11.03%, from £2,861.00 to the current price of £3,176.50.

In terms of trading activity Associated British Foods is the 88th most actively traded stock in the FTSE100, with an average of 257,502 shares being traded per day.

Associated British Foods had a profitafter tax for the financial year ending 30/06/2016of £821 million, an increase from £516 million for the financial year ending 30/06/2015, an overall 59% change in profit after tax.

Associated British Foods was listed on the London Stock Exchange on August 1, 1994, and can be traded on Monday-Friday between 8am and 4.30pm GMT (UK time).

Associated British Foods paid a dividend of 35.30p in 2016, an increase from 34.30p in 2015.

Top 10 FTSE 100 Companies by Trading Volume

Company	Trading Volume
Lloyds Banking Group PLC	29,633,566
Glencore PLC	25,480,177
Vodafone Group plc	13,680,209
Barclays PLC	9,522,328
BP plc	9,298,003
Old Mutual plc	8,917,408
Kingfisher plc	8,296,062
Tesco PLC	7,120,747
BHP Billiton plc	7,088,833
HSBC Holdings plc	6,883,122

Top 10 FTSE 100 Companies by Market Cap

Company	Market Cap
Royal Dutch Shell Plc	£203,936,671,782
HSBC Holdings plc	£151,482,984,775
Unilever plc	£134,942,466,038
British American Tobacco plc	£112,998,435,133
BP plc	£88,896,426,223
BHP Billiton plc	£80,172,645,168
GlaxoSmithKline plc	£73,924,730,668
Diageo plc	£65,065,792,486
Rio Tinto plc	£64,553,980,895
Vodafone Group plc	£59,419,780,275

Technical Analysis

In the past 52 weeks, Associated British Foods's shares hit a low of £2,335.00 and a high of £3,191.00. This means that their current share price is 36.04% above the 52-week low and 0.45% below the 52-week high.

Comparison of Associated British Foods's EPS & P/E Ratio with other Food Producers companies

Associated British Foods has a price/earnings ratio of 25.53. For comparison, Unilever's P/E ratio is 21.97 and J Sainsbury's P/E ratio is 11.29. Associated British Foods's basic earning per share from continuing operations for the 30/06/2016 financial year was 103.40p, which was an increase from the previous financial year of -119.26p.

Company	Basic - EPS	P/E Ratio	Market Cap (Million)
Associated British Foods ( LON:ABF)	103.40p	25.53	£25,148
Unilever ( LON:ULVR)	149.88	21.97	£134,942
J Sainsbury ( LON:SBRY)	23.90	11.29	£5,319

*Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and may be delayed.