Fairfax, the London-based international investment banking group, has announced the launch of Prime CFDs, a new company that provides broking advice for contracts for difference.

The new service will offer clients the ability to place phone orders or trade online and will cover all the major global exchanges, the principal indices, individual equities and other financial instruments.

A CFD is a derivative contract that give the holder the ability to profit from the move in a price of a single share or whole index. The investor can earn many times the amount of his or her initially invested stake. CFDs are popular because they allow investors to make leveraged bets on market moves although providers of CFDs typically advise clients to contain any exposure to an adverse price move by buying a pre-arranged sell clause.

“I am very pleased to announce the launch of Prime CFDs as the latest example of our continued growth strategy and I look forward to working with the team to develop the new business to capitalise on its considerable potential,”  said Stefan Allesch-Taylor, chairman of Fairfax.