CFD-need a better understanding

We can’t trade these in the States. Is my understanding correct
in that I trade crude on the futures market under “CL” and that is, obviously,
like trading the Aussie under “6A” on the futures market? But, trading
USOil is a CFD and trades like FOREX pairs with the various platforms making
the market and it’s a continuous contract?

I see you got no answer to your question here yet so i thought to add a few things here.

I am not US based but i believe you are correct that one cannot trade CFDs in the US because of restrictions by the SEC on over-the-counter financial instruments.

Many non-US based FX Brokers do offer Crude Oil commodity CFDs and they are useful since the unit size is (usually) smaller than the equivalent futures contract and the margin requirement is less.

At Least with my broker these are not continuous contracts. They expire before each front-month future contract and the trader had to close and reopen them if wanting to continue the position. For example, my latest shorts had to be closed on the 18th Dec and then reset on the 19th. Of course, there is no delivery obligation risk with CFDs since the contract is only with the broker, who will close them automatically anyway.

There is, however, at least one Aussie broker who offers a continuous crude/usd product termed XTIUSD as well as a crude CFD product.

Thanks, mate. It’s a little frustrating when the prices vary so much between the CFD and the futures contract that trades on the CME in Chicago, but I’ve gotten used to it. Would be nice to be able to trade
with lower margins like i can on FOREX vs. the futures contracts, but, whatta you going to do?!

Spreads on crude CFDs are also quite painful being typically 5-6 points compared to fx with close to zero. But since the moves are also typically longer then it is not such a problem except for intraday quick trades on short time frames.
Are you trading crude regularly?

Not regularly, but have done a couple, on the futures contract, of course.
You talk about volatility…