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by dehrmann 875 days ago
This is basically want public equity markets are. You have to be an "accredited investor" (the only requirement is having a lot of money) to invest in all the extra risky things.
1 comments

That's a US thing. In the UK there's a KYC type form you fill out, self-certifying that you know what you're doing. And then you can trade CFDs, which are illegal in the US accredited or not. (Or not approved by regulators I suppose I mean, I assume professional US desks trade them OTC 'in' Europe. But I think probably European brokers even can't market them to or allow trades by US retail customers?)
The US has options and futures markets
Yes, contracts for difference are neither.
They are very similar. They were different when options and futures are settled by delivery of the underlying. Without, that not so much.