On the site of a broker that offers CFDs in the EU you will find a line like this: “74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.”
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A CFD is a bet on a price, often with borrowed money, so losses grow fast. In 2018 the EU’s markets watchdog, ESMA, saw that 74% to 89% of everyday accounts lost. From August 2018, every provider had to print its own number. It still must.
Each broker counts its own customers over the last 12 months. In October 2026 two big European brokers printed 66% and 74%. About 7 accounts in 10 lost money.
The number counts how many accounts lost, not how much. It also sits in the smallest letters on the page, under the biggest promises.
Find your broker’s line: usually at the foot of the page or on the CFD page. Read it as what it is: the odds the broker measured on people like you.
EU law makes CFD brokers print how many customers lose. Today it is often about 7 in 10.
Do it today
Find your broker’s “% of retail accounts lose money”.
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