What are CFDs?
Contracts for difference (CFDs) are derivative financial instruments that let you trade an asset's price change without owning the asset itself. You can trade stock indices, currency pairs, commodities, or shares with leverage, profiting both from upward (long) and downward (short) moves.
CFDs are popular thanks to their accessibility (low minimum deposit), leverage (typically up to 1:30 for EU non-professional investors per ESMA), and the breadth of available assets. They are high-risk instruments though — between 74% and 89% of non-professional investors lose money trading CFDs.