CFDs, or contracts for difference, have experienced a surge in popularity with private investors and traders. They are extremely flexible trading instruments that offer high degrees of leverage, the opportunity to go long and short and to hedge open positions in other tradable instruments. Similar to spread betting, traders can take advantage of price movements without having to buy the underlying asset, thereby avoiding stamp duty, broker commissions and 100% capital requirement issues. However, CFDs are high risk, predominantly because of their gearing exposure, and anyone entering this...

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