Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Several other forex brokers across the world have joined Admiral Markets in taking precautions against the eventual increased market volatility around the upcoming presidential elections in France on April 23. Some have announced they will be temporarily increasing the margin requirements on some or all instruments, while others only warned their clients to be cautious and to make sure they have enough funds in their accounts.
Margin hikes
The EU and Australia-regulated forex broker XM, published a note on its website informing its clients that it will rise the margin requirements for all positions (for opening new positions and for maintaining existing positions). Starting from 17:00 PM server time (GMT+3) on Friday, April 21:
– 1% (100:1 leverage) for all currency pairs, Gold and Silver
– 4% (25:1 leverage) for all CFDs on Equity Indices, Commodities
XM will revert the margin requirements to their usual by Monday 24th of April 2017, shortly after the announcement of the results of the French presidential elections.
The FCA-regulated ActivTrades said it will double the margin requirements on the index FRA40, starting from 9 PM (CET) on April 21, Friday.
Another FCA-regulated broker – Trading 212 – also informed its clients it will increase margin requirements on all open positions with some instruments:
On 20 April (14:00 GMT), the margin requirement will change as follows:
– for French stocks – to 10%
– for the index FRENCH40 and its futures French40-16 Jun 17 – to 3%
– for the indexes GERMAN30, UK100, the futures German30- 6 Jun 17, UK100-16 Jun 17 and EUSTOX50- 16 Jun 17 – to 2%
The margin requirements for the following currency pairs containing EUR will be doubled:
– EUR/CAD from 0,5% to 1%
– EUR/AUD from 0,5% to 1%
– EUR/JPY from 0,5% to 1%
– EUR/USD from 1% to 2%
– EUR/CHF from 1% to 2%
– EUR/DKK from 3% to 6%
After the final election results (including the eventual run-off on May 7), the margin requirements will be reverted to their previous levels.
The Belize-regulated forex broker MTrading is also temporary increasing the margins for all instruments and all positions. The changes will be active from Friday, April 21, at 00:00 (EET) until Monday, April 24, at 12:00 (EET) and on Friday, May 5 until Monday, May 8 (at the same time as above), in case of a run-off on May 7:
Normal leverage | Changed leverage |
1:1000 | 1:50 |
1:500 | 1:25 |
1:200 | 1:10 |
Additionally, MTrading reserves the right to make other changes, such as further increases in margin requirements on any instruments or additional trading limitations or extension of the terms of any or all above mentioned amendments for an additional period of time.
General warnings and other precautions
Other brokers chose to just warn their clients to be cautious and hint at possible changes to their trading conditions, should the need arise.
ForexClub, for example, said it will limit the total volume at the opening of new positions, but did not provide further details.
RoboForex and Alpari warned their clients to be extra careful and make sure that they have sufficient funds in their account in order to cover the margin requirements in case of extreme market volatility and have in mind sharp market movements when opening new positions. Both said they could alter their margin requirements.
Darwinex, the FCA-regulated social forex broker and trading platform warned of abnormal widening of spreads, potential increased amounts of slippage on executed orders and, eventually, gaps in the charts due to the low liquidity available. The broker advised its clients to provide sufficient equity in their accounts and noted it reserves the right to change our margin requirements as we move closer to the election, depending on the outcome.
