Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Online spread betting and contracts for difference (CFDs) broker Financial Spreads announced it has updated the conditions for its Guaranteed Stops and is promising its clients fairer charges.
According to the company announcement, Financial Spreads will not be charging its clients for Guaranteed Stop orders only if the order is triggered. In case clients manually close their trades, remove the order or trades are closed because they hit a Take Profit (Limit) order, the broker will not charge for Guaranteed Stops.
“The great thing for clients about our new Guaranteed Stops is that they are a bit like only paying for your car insurance if you have had an accident,” said Adam Jepsen, the founder of Financial Spreads. “Using a Guaranteed Stop would protect investors against a flash crash like we saw with GBP/USD on 7 October.”
In his words, however, a more common and realistic scenario is where a market might gap lower or higher over the weekend. The changes to the Guaranteed Stop conditions will make it easy for clients to add them before the markets close for the weekend, in order to protect their downside. They will be charged only in case the Guaranteed Stop is activated.
“If the order isn’t used then the clients can easily choose to remove the order when the relevant market opens again on the Sunday or Monday,” Jepsen added. “When a client isn’t using a Guaranteed Stop, they can then use a normal Stop Loss order to protect their downside and there is no charge even if the Stop Loss is triggered.”
Financial Spreads is also automatically adding Stop Loss orders to all new opening trades although clients can opt-out of this facility.
Once a Stop Loss has been added then, while the markets are open, clients can adjust the level of these orders and/or make them Guaranteed Stops.
Furthermore, Financial Spreads said it has lowered the price of their Guaranteed Stops to 3 points on stock indices, forex or crude oil markets (except for ZAR and HUF forex markets where they still charge 10 points). Guaranteed Stop charges on metals are 5 points, for UK and US shares there is a 0.30% charge and for European shares there is a 0.50% charge.
One thing the broker has not changed is the flexibility of Guaranteed Stops. This means clients can add, remove and adjust Guaranteed Stops on open positions.
Financial Spreads is based in London. It offers spread betting and trading in CFDs on forex, stock indices, commodities, and shares of companies listed in the UK, the US, and Europe.
Earlier this year it reopened for business, after FINSA Europe decided to discontinue the relationship with its partners back in 2015. After restructuring, however, the company revived its relationships.
Currently, Financial Spreads is the trading name of Clear Investors, which acts as an appointed representative of Finsa Europe, regulated by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
