Short selling means borrowing shares, selling them, and buying them back later. Here's the mechanic, the borrow fees, and the asymmetric risk profile that makes it fundamentally riskier than owning stock.
A CFD is a contract between you and your broker to exchange the difference in an asset's price from when you open the trade to when you close it. You never own the underlying asset. That single distinction shapes everything about how CFDs work, what they cost, and why regulators treat them differently from traditional investing.
Leverage lets you control a larger position than your account balance would normally allow. A $10,000 account with 10:1 leverage can open a $100,000 position. That sounds powerful, and it is — in both directions.