The part most brokers make you scroll past
Contracts for difference are leveraged products. Most retail accounts that trade them lose money. This page explains how, so you can decide whether the products suit you before you fund an account.
In one sentenceYou can lose your entire deposit quickly, losses are not limited to the margin you post for a single position, and past results — yours or anyone else’s — say nothing about future ones.
Leverage magnifies both outcomes
A CFD lets you control a position many times larger than the margin you post. At 1:100 leverage, a 1% move against you wipes out the entire margin on that position. At 1:500, a 0.2% move does the same. Leverage does not change the probability of a move; it changes how much of your account each move represents.
Margin calls and forced liquidation
If losses reduce your account equity below the maintenance margin level, FBGM will close positions automatically, starting with the largest losing one, until the requirement is met. This can happen without warning during fast markets and at prices materially worse than the level that triggered it. It is your responsibility to monitor margin.
Prices can gap
Markets do not always move continuously. Over weekends, around economic releases and during news events, the first available price can be far from the last one. A stop-loss order is executed at the next available price, not at the stop level, so losses can exceed what the stop implied. Guaranteed stops are not offered.
Volatility
Digital currencies, single stocks around earnings and commodities such as natural gas can move 10% or more in a session. FBGM may raise margin requirements or reduce maximum leverage on short notice when volatility rises, which can force you to add funds or reduce positions.
Liquidity
In thin markets — overnight sessions, holidays, smaller instruments — spreads widen and large orders may be filled in parts at progressively worse prices. In extreme cases an instrument may be suspended, leaving you unable to close a position until trading resumes.
Overnight financing and holding costs
Positions held past the daily roll incur financing that can be positive or negative. Over weeks or months these charges can exceed the gains from a modest price move. Financing rates change with underlying interest rates and are published per instrument.
Currency risk
If an instrument is priced in a currency other than your account base currency, profit and loss are converted at the prevailing rate. A gain on the trade can be reduced, or turned into a loss, by an adverse move in the conversion rate.
You do not own the underlying
A CFD is a contract with FBGM, not a share, a coin or a barrel. You have no ownership, voting or delivery rights. Exposure to the underlying is economic only and ends when the contract is closed.
Counterparty risk
Your contract is with FBGM Global Markets Ltd. Client money is segregated and the company is subject to capital requirements, but a regulated firm can still fail. In that case segregated funds are returned to clients; open positions would be closed at prevailing prices.
Technology risk
Trading depends on your device, your internet connection, FBGM’s systems and those of liquidity providers. Any of these can fail. Orders may be delayed, rejected or executed at a different price. Telephone dealing is available as a fallback but cannot guarantee the same speed.
What negative balance protection does — and does not — do
Negative balance protection means your account cannot go below zero: you cannot owe FBGM money. It does not stop you from losing 100% of the funds you deposited, and it does not apply to losses realised while the account remains above zero.
Appropriateness
Before opening an account FBGM asks about your trading knowledge and experience. If the answers indicate that leveraged products may not be appropriate, you will be warned. The warning is not a prohibition, but it should be taken seriously. Never trade with money you need for living expenses, debt repayment or obligations to others.
Updated: 2026-09-01