It should also be mentioned that there are no real stocks, also known as physical stocks, available for investing in at XTB. 

Physical stock trading involves buying and selling real shares of a company through a broker or a trading platform. Purchasing physical stock grants an ownership share in a company. Physical stock owners have the right to vote in shareholder meetings and receive dividends if dividends are distributed by the company. It should be noted that in order for the stock owners to profit from selling shares, they should buy when the price is low and sell when the stock price is high. 

On the other hand, CFDs can be profitably traded in both long and short directions. CFD trading is a form of derivative trading where traders do not actually own the underlying assets. Instead, they are speculating on the price movements of the assets. 

In terms of trading costs, physical stock trading generally involves higher transaction costs and commissions, while CFDs have lower commissions, but often fees are included in spreads. 

Both stock trading and stock CFD trading have their advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage of trading real stocks is that these instruments are great for investing long-term, as there are no swap fees (fees for keeping positions open overnight).

CFDs are great for trading short and medium-term. For this very reason, CFD traders are often referred to as market speculators. There are a couple of good reasons why CFD trading is popular:

• CFDs can be traded with leverage. This means traders can control larger positions with smaller deposits. Leverage comes with great opportunities as traders can increase their purchasing power and potential winnings, however, high leverage can increase losses just as easily. 
• CFDs allow traders to access a wider range of assets and different markets easily, including stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities, Forex, etc. In addition, CFDs are more liquid and offer tighter spreads than underlying assets due to the fact that more traders are trading CFDs. 
• Short selling is another advantage of trading CFDs. Traders can short assets and make money even in bear market conditions. This is not an option when trading physical assets.
• No ownership or delivery of the underlying assets is required. Profits made from trading CFDs are added straight to your trading account, which is super comfortable for most. For instance, investors buying crypto coins have to worry about crypto wallets and cashouts, while this is not a concern for crypto derivatives traders. 

On the downside, CFDs have rollover fees, also known as swap fees. These swap fees are low but can accumulate over time, which is why CFDs are great for speculating on markets in the short term but fail to compete with physical assets when it comes to investing long term. 

XTB offers European and US stocks for trading. There are 1,125 US company stock CFDs available for trading, as well as 213 companies from the United Kingdom and 110 from Germany. 

The clients of XTB have access to trading some of the most popular company stocks such as:

• Apple inc.
• Airbnb inc.
• Amazon.com inc. 
• Citigroup inc. 
• Walt Disney Co. etc.

The European and US stocks are the most liquid in the world and high liquidity brings tight market spreads. XTB doesn’t charge commissions for trading stock CFDs. Instead, fees are included in spreads. 

The size of market spreads is based on volatility and therefore is dynamic. However, trading fees are fixed. Let’s check the trading fee structure below for trading CFDs on Stocks with XTB.

* for Transactions (each opening and closing of position on stock CFD and ETF CDF on particular markets)
** included in the Spread
*** deducted from the equivalent of the dividend due to the client on particular market

In addition to spreads, clients of XTB are charged with swaps. In CFD trading, the swap for CFDs is a financing cost that is applied to a trader’s position if it’s held overnight. The swap rate for stock CFDs offered by XTB is based on the interbank interest rate for the currency in which the underlying stock is denominated. 

If a client of XTB is long on a stock, he will pay the financing cost or swap rate, and if he is short, he will receive the credit. It is critical for traders to be aware of the swap rates when trading CFDs on stocks, as they can have a great effect on the overall profitability of the trade. Swap rates are especially important for medium and long-term traders. 

Swap Points value and position rollover value at XTB are calculated using the following formula: 

(bid rate + ask rate)/2

To sum everything up, XTB offers CFDs on stocks to its clients and not physical shares. CFDs are preferred instruments for market speculation. There are no commissions on stock trading at XTB. On the other hand, trading fees are included in spreads. There’s a 0.30% markup included in the spread when traders are placing orders for every CFD on the stock. In addition to spread markups, clients of XTB are charged with swaps. Swaps are generally very small, however, if orders are open for many days, they can add up, which is why CFDs are not great instruments for investing long-term.