No delivery, no storage

Nothing arrives in a vault, so what does the account hold? (South Africa)

Buying shares leaves you owning shares. A contract for difference leaves you owning nothing — no metal, no currency, no certificate. That is not a criticism of the instrument; it is the fact that decides what your account contains afterwards, and the honest answer is: numbers, in one currency, in your name.

A CFD is an agreement whose value tracks the price of something else. Nothing is delivered at either end, so nothing needs storing, insuring or transporting. What exists on the account after you open one is a settled balance, an amount of that balance held as margin while the position stays open, and a floating result that is not yet anyone's. Close the position and the floating figure stops floating: it is added to or taken from the balance, and the held amount is released.

What holding the thing itself would have meant, and what replaces it

Read the right-hand column as the answer to so where is my money.

With an owned asset	With a CFD
You hold the thing itself	You hold an entry on an account, denominated in the account currency
It has to be stored or kept somewhere	Nothing to store — the position exists only as a record
Selling means handing something over	Closing means the record ends and the figure settles
Value is what someone will pay for it	Value is the difference between two prices, converted into your currency

Which is why every question about a CFD position eventually turns into a question about which line on the account you are reading. How one balance splits into three lines

What a CFD leaves behind in the account record

Because nothing was delivered, nothing is ever added to an inventory. Open the account history after a closed position and there is no asset line, no holding, no certificate — only an entry saying that a position existed between two moments and what it settled at, expressed in the account's own currency.

That has a practical upside worth noticing. There is nothing to transfer, store, insure or lose track of, and no third custodian in the picture: the whole of your involvement is a number on an account held in your name, plus a written history of how it got there. Which is exactly why the identity attached to that account carries so much weight — it is the only thing establishing whose number it is.

It also sets the shape of every later question. Nobody can ask where their gold is being kept, because none is being kept. The answerable version is which line of the account the figure came from, and the history is where that is read. Which pot each money word counts

Reading a position as a custody question

Three steps, done in this order, answer nearly everything a beginner wants to know about an open CFD.

What you see: a position line with a price, a size and a figure that keeps changing. None of that is money that has moved.
What to read next: used margin — the part of the balance held while this position lives — and free margin, the part that is not. Together they explain a balance that looks smaller than expected.
The next step: read equity, which is the balance plus every floating result. It answers the only question with a single number in it — what would be settled if all of this closed now.

An independent guide: it opens no positions and holds nothing. CFDs are complex products. Trading is risky and may not be suitable for everyone, and past performance is not an indication of future results.

How far a CFD position can reach into your money

Because a CFD is leveraged, the amount held as margin is smaller than the exposure it carries, and that is the part beginners most often misjudge. Two boundaries are worth having straight.

Inside the account: a losing position consumes free margin first and can consume the balance. Money held as margin is not a shield — it is simply your own money in a locked state.

Outside the account: clients never lose more than they've deposited. The account cannot travel past zero into a debt, so money still standing in your own bank is beyond a position's reach. Losing the full amount deposited remains entirely possible. Where that line sits, exactly

Questions about what is really being held

If I trade gold as a CFD, do I own any gold?

No. Nothing is delivered. The account holds a record of a position and figures in its own currency.

Why is my position slightly negative the moment it opens?

The spread — the gap between the buy and sell price at that moment. It is paid at entry rather than charged later.

Where did the margin go?

Nowhere. It sits on the same account, in your name, held while the position is open and released when it closes.

Is equity money I can withdraw?

Not while positions are open. Equity includes floating results, which are not settled. A withdrawal comes from what is free.

What is the charge that appeared overnight?

The swap on a position carried past the daily rollover, stated on the ticket before the trade was confirmed.

Does a swap-free account remove all costs?

No. It removes the overnight interest on eligible instruments. The spread and any account commission still apply.

Can a CFD position leave me owing money?

Clients never lose more than they've deposited, so the account does not go past zero. The full deposited amount can still be lost.

Which currency is a CFD result paid in?

The account's own, which was fixed when it was created. Whatever the instrument is quoted in, the result reaches the balance in that one currency.

Open one, watch the lines, close it — with nothing held.

A practice account uses virtual money, so the split between free and held can be watched as often as you like. The button goes through a partner link to the official exness.com website.

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