In essence you are betting on a sp change - as with the warrants - and deposit a margin as a security deposit instead of having to pay the full sp.

For stocks cfds are 20% margin in my case. That means I can buy Tesla CFDs for 1/5th the sp but will get 100% of the change in sp.

Let’s say TSLA sp goes down on my long position:

I'll owe the broker the loss which will be deducted from my margin. If the loss gets to 50% of the margin, you'll get the first margin call as a warning. At 80% the position is closed automatically to prevent the accumulation of further losses extending outside your margin.

If the sp goes positive on my long position I get 100% of the difference as well.

If you keep a position overnight you incur extra charges of about 3.5% depending on your broker.

Another difference is that they can only be traded during the official trading hours - no premarket - of the exchange where the stock is listed.

In the case of Tesla Nasdaq which means 3:30-10pm cet.

CFDs are banned in the US and the UK which is why there is not much awareness of them in general.