Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Saxo Bank – a major European financial services provider based in Copenhagen – announced it is temporarily raising the margin requirements on a large selection of instruments, starting from August 16, at 0800 GMT. It is not clear for how long the new requirements will be in place, but the broker says it hopes “to return to normal margin conditions as quickly as possible.”
The changes include doubling yen, euro and dollar minimum margin on amounts below $3 million to 2 percent, as well as doubling the XAU and XAG requirements, a margin rate of 40% for Korean stocks and of 6% for all Index CFDs. Some other instruments are also affected.
The reason is the growing tension between North Korea and the USA and the goal of Saxo Bank is to reduce the clients’ risk against the potential high volatility, rapid price movements or market gaps in case the situation escalates.
The broker advises its clients to monitor closely their positions, make sure they have sufficient funds and use Stop Limit type orders (rather than Stop Market).
Saxo Bank, founded in Copenhagen in 1992, is a brokerage firm and a market maker. It holds a banking license from Denmark’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA). It offers trading in more than 30,000 instruments, including forex, binary options, CFDs, stocks, futures, and bonds through its proprietary online trading platforms SaxoTrader and SaxoTraderGO.
