If Archagos had made their bets w/stocks or options on an exchange, they'd have a small position with little leverage & would've been pushed around by HFT. CFDs and swaps were the only way to get extreme leverage & secrecy for such a concentrated bet.
On exchange: brokers know who’s buying what, dont extend extreme leverage, Archegos has to disclose positions above a certain size Off-exchange: dont own underlying, no one knows how much u own, can press bankers for more leverage