On Sunday, 7th of May 2017, France will vote for a new president which may cause volatility across the global markets, thus we will be making some changes to all of our instruments’ margin requirements. We have taken the decision to set the maximum leverage to 1:100 for all trades opened on 2nd May 2017 & 3rd May 2017. Further, all trades opened from 4th May 2017 and onward will be limited to a leverage of 1:50. This is intended as a protection to prevent over-leveraging and clients attaining potential negative balances.

All positions opened prior to May 2nd will not be affected.

– For example, an account with 1:200 leverage opens up 1 standard lot of USDJPY on May 1st. The margin requirement is $500. This position is held until May 2nd and another 1 standard lot position is opened on USDJPY in the same direction; the margin requirement for the first trade is still $500, but the margin requirement for the second trade will be $1,000 as the maximum leverage for all pairs is 1:100 for all trades opened up on or after May 2nd. On May 4th, yet another trade on USDJPY is opened in the same direction for 1 standard lot. This last trade will have a margin requirement of $2,000 as leverage is limited to 1:50 for all trades opened on or after May 4th.

In summary – Maximum leverage on all new trades opened on May 2nd & May 3rd will be capped at 1:100 leverage ON ALL PAIRS AND INSTRUMENTS. Maximum leverage on all new trades opened on or after May 4th will be capped at 1:50 leverage for all pairs and instruments. 

It is anticipated that these will be short term measures in order to manage the risk of this upcoming election. Once market conditions have returned to normal after the election, our trading conditions will return to normal. We will make an announcement at that time. The purpose of this change is to protect our clients from becoming too over-leveraged and sustaining large losses during this event. Please remember that you are responsible for covering any negative account balances that result from your trading, and that these protections offer no guarantee of preventing such an occurrence – lowering of leverage is done only to reduce the possibility of negative balances from occurring.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask us.