Price exposure and ownership answer different needs.
General informationSources and dates included
Identify the legal product
A CFD is a contract whose value changes with an underlying price. Physical or allocated gold involves different ownership, storage and delivery arrangements. An XAU/USD chart alone does not establish what you own.
Compare complete costs
For a CFD, examine spread, commission, margin and financing. For physical gold, examine dealer premium, storage, insurance, delivery and resale spread. Comparing only the displayed spot price misses these differences.
Ask about exit and insolvency
Read how you close or redeem the product, whether delivery is possible and what claim exists if the provider fails. If religious compliance matters, obtain product-specific qualified review rather than assuming all gold products share the same structure.
For a physical-gold quote, record weight, fineness, seller premium, custody, delivery and resale terms. For a CFD quote, record ounces per lot, spread, commission, margin and holding charges. The two lists answer different questions even if both refer to the same gold price.
Hypothetically, a CFD with 100 ounces per lot gives two ounces of price exposure at 0.02 lots. A USD 10-per-ounce move represents USD 20 before charges. That arithmetic does not establish ownership of two deliverable ounces. Check the contract for delivery rights rather than inferring them from the exposure amount.
