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Crash 1000 index: what it is and how to trade it

By Luis Sanches y Milton Bertillo, mentors at SHEFA Trading Academy · Updated 19 October 2026 · Reading time: 7 min

The Crash 1000 Index is a synthetic index published by Deriv that rises slowly and very steadily, and suffers a sudden crash every 1,000 ticks on average. It is not a stock market index or a contract on a real asset: the price is generated by the issuer itself and the execution conditions are set out in the symbol specification. Understanding that mechanism —and not trying to guess when the jump will come— is what separates a planned trading approach from a blown account.

What it is and who publishes it

Crash 1000 belongs to the family of crash boom indices: a series of instruments created by the broker (Deriv is the original issuer; other intermediaries distribute them) that do not replicate any market. There are no companies behind them, no interest rates and no macroeconomic data. The price is calculated on the provider's servers and traded as an OTC derivative.

Three practical consequences follow from this:

• There is no fundamental analysis. There is no news that moves the price and no opening hours: it trades 24/7, including weekends.
• The issuer is the counterparty. The symbol specification is the contract, and what it states there takes precedence over any habit you bring from forex.
• The number in the name indicates frequency, not magnitude. In Crash 1000, the crash occurs, on average, once every 1,000 ticks. How far it falls in each of those jumps depends on the version of the symbol, so that figure is read in the specification sheet, not assumed.

You can see the rest of the family —Boom 300/500/1000, Crash 300/500, volatility, step— in the instrument catalogue. It is useful to compare before choosing: the Crash 500 has the same shape but with more frequent jumps, and the Step Index 200 represents the opposite end of the spectrum.

How the price behaves

Crash 1000 has two regimes that coexist:

1. Smooth drift. Between crashes, the price rises in small steps with a regularity that is surprising. It is the "boring" part of the chart, and the one that takes up most of the time.
2. Crash. In a single tick, the price drops a large block at once and then resumes the slow rise.

The result is an asymmetric distribution with a fat tail: many small gains and an occasional loss that eats up many days' profit. Volatility measured with standard deviation underestimates that risk, because it treats the jump as just another variation when in fact it is a concentrated event.

The trap of the smooth trend

That steady rise is the instrument's greatest danger, and it works like this: you see a chart rising almost in a straight line, you buy without a stop, you win for three days in a row and you conclude that the instrument 'tends to rise'. What has happened is that you caught a streak without a crash within a distribution where the jump exists and arrives without warning.

The problem is not only statistical; it is one of size. If your lot is calculated for the average move and not for the jump, a single crash wipes out weeks of accumulated gains. And because the rise is so clean, it invites you to average down or double the position after a loss, which is exactly the sequence that blows accounts. The same happens with the Boom and Crash in reverse: in a Boom the trap is the slow decline with upward spikes.

A detail that is overlooked: short backtests on these indices almost always look good, because the sample may not contain any representative jump. If you evaluate an idea, do it on a long history and check how many crashes it includes.

Volatility and cost: what the contract says

There is no real order book here, so the cost is not set by the market: it is set by the symbol specification. The fields you must check before the first trade are always the same:

• Tick: the minimum price increment. Its monetary value per lot is the basis of all risk calculation.
• Lot: the contract size, with its minimum, its maximum and its allowed increment. It is not a universal concept.
• Spread: the entry and exit cost, in points or money.
• Required margin: what the platform holds from you for an open position.
• Slippage: it does not appear in the spec sheet, but it exists. At the moment of the crash, your order may be executed worse than the price you requested, and a stop is not a price guarantee.

On the drift switching index: its defining feature is that the underlying drift changes by segments, so statistical behaviour is not the same all the time. That makes it interesting for studying regimes and dangerous if you apply a single sizing rule to all phases. Before trading it, the useful question is not which indicator to add, but which regime you are in.

How position size is calculated

The formula is the same as in any derivative; only where the data comes from changes:

Lots = (capital × % risk) ÷ (stop distance in ticks × tick value per lot)

Two rules before applying it:

1. The risk percentage is based on current capital, not initial capital.
2. The stop distance is measured in ticks of the symbol, not in mental 'points'.

Numerical example with a 1.000 account

Figures invented solely to illustrate the mechanics; the real tick value comes from the Crash 1000 specification.

With 1.000 in the account and 2% risk, a stop at 150 ticks allows 1,33 lots. If the broker only accepts increments of 0,1, you round down to 1,3. Now add slippage: if the crash is executed 20 ticks below your stop, those 1,33 lots lose an additional 2,66. It is still manageable, but it stops being so if the lot were three times larger.

And a check that almost nobody does: what happens if the jump occurs before your stop is triggered? There, no calculation is any use, only small size and capital that can withstand the worst case.

Typical mistakes with this instrument

• Trading without a stop, trusting the drift. The crash gives no warning and does not respect the linearity of the previous leg.
• Copying the lot size from another instrument. A reasonable lot on a constant-volatility index can be outrageous on a Crash 1000.
• Averaging down or doubling down after a loss. The smooth rise makes it look like an opportunity; it is the fast track to ruin.
• Ignoring the symbol specification. Tick, minimum lot and margin change between versions and between brokers.
• Confusing a fixed spread with a fixed cost. The spread can be stable while slippage is not.
• Looking for patterns in the jumps. There is no published seasonality that allows them to be anticipated.
• Forgetting the psychological side. Seeing weeks of profits wiped out in a tick breeds revenge; if it happens to you, the problem is no longer the instrument. If you trade from Argentina, check the local conditions at synthetic indices in Argentina before choosing a broker and funding method.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Synthetic instruments: index fact sheets | Synthetics
• Step Index: what it is and how to trade it | Guide
• Crash 500: what it is and how to trade it | Guide
• Synthetic indices Argentina: what it is and how to trade it