PUBLISHED: OCT 25th 2016
UPDATE: NOV 10th 2016
With the immediate market risk of the US election behind us, margin levels have now been normalised. The margin rates for your margin profile can be found under Account -> Trading Conditions in the platform.
UPDATE: NOV 9th 2016
Following the uncertainty posed by the US election, Global Trading is continuing to assess market conditions and is currently aiming to return to normalised margin levels starting tomorrow at 12:00 GMT, if no further unexpected developments occur. You will receive final details of the rates and final confirmation of the timing tomorrow, 10 November, 2016, around 10:00 GMT.
In anticipation of potential volatility during the upcoming US election period, we will be raising margins for a selected group of products as of Thursday, November 3rd, 2016 at 13:00 GMT. This will help protect against potential volatility, rapid price movements, and gapping. Due to market uncertainty in the lead-up to this event, please be aware of the possibility of substantial price gaps and illiquidity, along with rapid price movements in certain stocks, indices and FX pairs.
Similar margin changes were implemented leading up to the UK referendum (Brexit), in June.
Please bear the following in mind when trading during periods of potential market volatility:
- Market liquidity may vary substantially, and trade/quote requests may be unavailable at times as existing resting orders and new market orders are filled as priority
- Market orders are not guaranteed to be filled at any specific price – they will be filled “at best” according to available market price when processed
- Stop Loss orders are converted to Market orders once triggered, so are not guaranteed to be filled at your stop order level – gaps in available liquidity can result in significant slippage on Stop orders
- Buying options (i.e. puts to protect long positions and calls to protect short positions) could be a hedging vehicle suitable for market uncertainty such as the US Election since the Strike price is fixed in advance
- Ensure that you are familiar with placing orders and initiating trade requests on the platform
- Consider placing relevant resting orders well in advance of the US election
For GTS clients, please go to “Margin and Collateral Changes” under the “Account” tab in the GTS web-browser to view further details on specific margin & collateral changes along with future updates. Current requirements can be found under “Trading Conditions.”
It is important to note that additional requirements may follow, and we will notify clients as soon as possible. If you have any open positions in the affected markets, we advise that you monitor your positions accordingly to ensure a sufficient account surplus and margin collateral. The above changes should be temporary, however, and we expect a return to normal levels depending on market conditions following the US election.