Cristiano Ronaldo attempts to score in online trading

Cristiano Ronaldo, said to be the world’s most highly paid football player, is lending his name to promoting contracts for difference (CFDs) derivatives, which regulators across Europe have been seeking to clamp down upon due to the high risk of deep losses to retail investors they can entail.  

The mercurial Portugal and Real Madrid forward tweeted his 59 million followers last month to say, “Happy with my new partnership with @EXNESS”.

He also retweeted a statement from Exness in which he says:”It’s an honour to partner with an international company that gives back to the world not only in offering the highest quality of services but also in fostering a socially conscious culture.

He adds, “This captures my own personal agenda of being the best I can be on the international football scene and giving back to the community with every opportunity I get.”

Exness, an online broker based on the island of Cypress, reportedly specializes in something called contracts for difference, or CFDs, which are derivatives.

Additionally, Exness reportedly allows investors to leverage their accounts, which in this case means they can borrow up to 500 times what they have on deposit to make trades, according to various reports. Here’s what that means: If you deposit as little as $500 in your account, you can borrow up to $250,000.

The problem for many, including regulators, is that CFDs make it extremely easy for investors to bet on the direction of movement of a market without actually buying any of the underlying assets.

Ronaldo has proved to be open to business opportunities, trading on his reputation as a footballer in a number of lucrative endorsement and sponsorship deals, and some joint ventures.

He opened a fashion boutique named CR7 (his initials and player number at Real Madrid) on his native island of Madeira, part of Portugal, with a second one in Lisbon.

He has also formed a joint venture with Madeira-based hotel group Pestana to open a small chain of football-themed boutique hotels also branded CR7, in Madeira, Lisbon, Madrid and New York.