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I think this is pretty much what FTX.com is doing? It's trading derivative contracts on stocks; so if I understand correctly you can trade stocks (or even not-public companies) without the actual stock ownership.

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That's what an option is on the stock market. It's not so much trading stock, as it is making a bet on whether the stock goes up or down by a certain date.

You don't have to exercise the contract, you can just sell it to someone else.

Derivatives typically have mechanisms that forces them to stay pegged to the underlying asset. So it's not quite the same, even if you don't own the underlying asset. For example, perpetual futures (like those on FTX) have funding rates that vary based on price difference of the future vs underlying.

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