From T-bills to perps: what you own, what you can lose and when you can sell

Of about 543,000 German retail investors who traded turbo certificates between 2019 and 2023, 74.2% ended with net losses, BaFin found; across all of them, the average net loss was €6,358 per investor and the aggregate net loss over the five years exceeded €3.4bn. A Treasury bill holder, by contrast, is paid face value at maturity. Some products make you a lender or a part-owner, some give you a contract to buy or sell later, and some put you on the opposite side of the firm that sold you the product. This article does not say what to buy.

A US Treasury bill is short-term government debt, sold for terms of four to 52 weeks, at a discount or at face value, from $100, and repaid at face value at maturity, according to TreasuryDirect. Bonds are IOUs too, and high-yield corporate bonds carry a lower credit rating and higher credit risk than investment-grade ones, the SEC's investor site Investor.gov explains. With inflation-protected Treasuries (TIPS), the principal rises with inflation and falls with deflation, and the TIPS page spells out the floor at maturity: "You never get less than the original principal."

Owning a share puts you behind lenders: if a company is liquidated, bondholders are paid first, then holders of preferred stock, and common stockholders are "the last in line". Even without a failure, large company stocks as a group have lost money on average about one out of every three years, Investor.gov notes in its guide to stocks. Costs can bite too. Non-traded REITs, which own real estate, are illiquid and generally cannot be sold readily on the open market, and their sales commissions and upfront offering fees usually total about 9 to 10 percent of the investment, according to the regulator's REIT page.

A futures contract fixes the price and amount of a commodity to be bought or sold at a future date, though most are liquidated before delivery. Speculating in futures and options is "a volatile, complex and risky venture that is rarely suitable for individual investors", the CFTC warns, and many individuals "lose all of their money, and can be required to pay more than they invested initially". A stock option contract generally covers 100 shares, its premium is non-refundable and some writers face "unlimited potential losses", according to an Investor.gov bulletin; shares of commodity funds holding futures "may not track the value of the underlying asset over time", a CFTC advisory says.

A contract for difference (CFD) exchanges the difference in an asset's value between opening and closing a position, as the CFTC describes it. In March 2018 the EU's ESMA cited national analyses showing 74-89% of retail CFD accounts typically lose money, with average losses of €1,600 to €29,000 per client. Its temporary measures capped retail leverage from 30:1 for major currency pairs to 2:1 for cryptocurrencies and added margin close-out, negative balance protection and a risk warning. National regulators now apply their own CFD measures with those elements, ESMA said on 24 February 2026. In the US, the CFTC alleged in a 2018 complaint that a platform's CFDs were unlawful because they were not traded on a CFTC-designated contract market.

Turbo certificates, also sold as knock-out warrants or mini-futures, expire at once and usually become worthless when the underlying hits the knock-out barrier, a total loss even if the price then moves the investor's way, BaFin says; about 70 percent of the turbos in its study were held for less than 24 hours. BNP Paribas's bull and bear certificates in Sweden instead reset a fixed leverage every day. In its example, a 3% fall in the underlying must be followed by a 5.5% rise to restore a BULL X15 certificate's original exposure, and it recommends holding them for one day (BNP Paribas).

Global currency trading reached $9.6 trillion a day in April 2025, according to the BIS. In US retail forex the dealer is your only counterparty, customers "may also be liable for additional losses beyond your initial deposit", and two out of three forex customers lose money, the CFTC says, based on registered dealers' accounts from Q2 2021 to Q1 2022.

Meme coins, SEC staff said on 27 February 2025, are "akin to collectibles", typically have "limited or no use or functionality", and "neither meme coin purchasers nor holders are protected by the federal securities laws" (SEC). In the EU, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) entered into force in June 2023; firms already providing crypto-asset services under national law could continue until 1 July 2026 at the latest (ESMA).

Perpetual futures, or perps, have no fixed expiry, and their market has largely developed outside the US, mostly on offshore venues, the CFTC says in its policy statement. It said each asset class merits independent review and said perps are "likely particularly ill-suited for agricultural products". When exchanges convert existing perpetual-style contracts, CFTC staff conditions include advance notice, a chance to exit positions and risk disclosures (12 June and 5 October 2026 letters). Where perps meet the EU definition of a CFD, national measures apply, including leverage limits and negative balance protection, ESMA says.

A tokenized security is recorded wholly or partly on a crypto network, and its format "does not affect application of the federal securities laws", SEC staff said in a 28 January 2026 statement. Tokens issued by unaffiliated third parties may or may not give holders any rights in the underlying security, and can expose them to the third party's own risks, such as bankruptcy.

According to Securitize's launch announcement, BlackRock's BUIDL fund, launched on 20 March 2024 for qualified investors with a $5m minimum, invests all its assets in cash, US Treasury bills and repurchase agreements and seeks a stable $1 per token, which it says it may not always maintain. Its tokens could move 24/7/365 at launch, but only between pre-approved investors.

In the US, only accredited investors may take part in certain exempt offerings, including those by private funds: among other tests, people with income above $200,000 ($300,000 with a spouse) in each of the past two years who reasonably expect the same this year, or with net worth above $1m excluding their main home. These offerings do not have to make prescribed disclosures, and "you could lose your entire investment", an accredited-investor bulletin says. Structured notes, issued by financial institutions, link returns to an index, stock or rate; Investor.gov's structured notes bulletin cautions that principal protection, where offered, "is subject to the credit risk of the issuing financial institution", and "a liquid market for structured notes does not exist".