FX Trading24 - Trading Details

Trading Details

The Advantage of Trading with FXCM Order Execution

FXCM order execution gives traders the opportunity to trade using price quotations offered by 17 of the world’s largest banks. FXCM offers a highly transparent and intelligent order execution system. Every transaction is carried out with one of the world‘s largest banks or financial institutions, which compete against one another to supply FXCM with the best available bid/ask spreads. FXCM order execution offers traders the advantages that come with trading at highly transparent and competitive prices, and the well-known speed and convenience of FXCM’s award-winning trading platform.

FXCM order execution is available at any time, even during sensational, market-moving news and economic events. Traders can also place entry orders at any price, even within the spread.

Unlike its competitors, FXCM offers customer support and service 24 hours a day. That allows traders to place orders over the phone whenever the market is open. FXCM’s more than 600 highly qualified employees are available around the clock in international main branches and their affiliated companies in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo to offer you competent service any time, day or night.

Hedging

The FXCM trading platform makes it possible to hedge. Short and long positions can be held simultaneously in the same currency pair (or CFD).

Buy and sell the same currency pair simultaneously.

Trade in both directions within trend channels, trading ranges, etc. without committing to a specific market direction.

Hedged transactions do not have any margin restrictions.

The hedging feature is very popular. FXCM trading accounts come equipped with the hedging feature. It is available as an option.

Trading Hours

Trade on the forex market opens every week on Sunday between 5:00 and 5:15 PM EST (New York Time) and is open continuously until the following Friday at 5:00 PM EST. Pricing, order placement and confirmation are done both online and by phone. Trading is closed for the weekend.

Trading Etiquette

To place a trade or an order via the phone:

Trader: When calling the trading desk, the trader should specify at the outset the type of account they are trading with.
FXCM: “May I have your account number, please?”
Trader: “My account number is 55555.”
FXCM: “May I have your login ID, please?”
Trader: “My login ID is 55555.”
FXCM: “May I have the answer to your security question, please?”
Trader: “The answer to my security question is Sun Street.”
FXCM: “May I have the name on this account, please?” (The Trading Desk Agent asks this question in order to verify that the caller is indeed the account holder.) "Which trade would you like to make?"
Trader: “I would like to go long at market, 3 lots of USD/JPY."
FXCM: “Filled at 106.65.”

Available Accounts

You can find an overview of all the available accounts here.

FXCM Trading Platform

The FX Trading Station (FXCM’s trading platform) provides traders with real-time prices and charts for all available currency pairs and CFDs.

Bid/Ask-Spreads

Below is a list of some typical average spreads in the currency pairs available on the FXCM trading platform. The spreads are displayed in pips. In addition, you can see the spreads for nearly every currency pair in the demo account and test your first trades with no obligation.

» Open a Demo Account

Spreads

Currency pair		Generally available

EUR/USD Euro – U.S. Dollar		2.6

USD/JPY U.S. Dollar – Japanese Yen		2.4

GBP/USD British Pound – U.S. Dollar		3.1

USD/CHF U.S. Dollar – Swiss Franc		3.3

AUD/USD Australian Dollar – U.S. Dollar		2.7

EUR/JPY Euro – Japanese Yen		3.1

EUR/GBP Euro – British Pound		2.9

USD/CAD U.S. Dollar – Canadian Dollar		3.4

EUR/CHF Euro – Swiss Franc		3.8

NZD/USD New Zealand Dollar – U.S. Dollar		3.8

CHF/JPY Swiss Franc – Japanese Yen		4.2

NZD/JPY New Zealand Dollar – Japanese Yen		4.1

AUD/JPY Australian Dollar – Japanese Yen		3.3

AUD/CHF Australian Dollar– Swiss Franc		5.1

AUD/NZD Australian Dollar – New Zealand Dollar		6.4

GBP/JPY British Pound – Japanese Yen		4.7

CAD/JPY Canadian Dollar – Japanese Yen		3.9

AUD/CAD Australian Dollar – Canadian Dollar		4.6

EUR/AUD Euro – Australian Dollar		3.9

GBP/CHF British Pound – Swiss Franc		6.1

USD/DKK U.S. Dollar – Danish Krone		Variable

USD/SGD U.S. Dollar – Singapore Dollar		Variable

EUR/CAD Euro – Canadian Dollar		4.3

GBP/AUD British Pound – Australian Dollar		5.1

GBP/CAD British Pound – Canadian Dollar		5.9

USD/TRY U.S. Dollar – Turkish Lira		Variable

EUR/NZD Euro – New Zealand Dollar		8.2

EUR/TRY Euro – Turkish Lira		Variable

GBP/NZD British Pound – New Zealand Dollar		9.9

USD/HKD U.S. Dollar – Hong Kong Dollar		Variable

USD/ZAR U.S. Dollar – South African Rand		Variable

USD/MXN U.S. Dollar – Mexican Peso		Variable

CFDs: Indexes, Gold, Silver, and Crude Oil

The following is a list of available CFDs. Please note that different CFDs have different trading times, margin requirements and trading volumes than those which apply to currencies.
Further information about CFDs and the applicable spreads can be found in the FXCM trading platform by opening a demo account. » Activate a demo account

Spreads

CFD		Generally available

US 30 Dow Jones - US stock index		4(6)

SPX 500 S&P 500 - US stock index		0.5

NAS 100 NASDAQ 100 - US stock index		2

UK 100 FTSE 100 - British stock index		1(2)

GER 30 DAX - German stock index		1(2)

SUI 30 SLI - Swiss stock index		4

ITA 40 MIB 40 - Italian stock index		15

ESP 35 IBEX 35 - Spanish stock index		8

FRA 40 CAC - French stock index		1(2)

SWE 30 OMX - Swedish stock index		1

HKG 33 Hang Seng Index - Hong Kong stock index		15

JPN 225 Nikkei 225 - Japanese stock index		15

AUS 200 AUS 200 - Australian stock index		1(2)

XAU/USD Gold		0.5

XAG/USD Silver		0.05

UK Oil Crude oil		5

US Oil Crude oil		5

Order Volume

With the FXCM Trading Station all trades are placed in standard volumes of 10,000 (10K) units of the base currency per lot. The FXCM Trading Station permits a maximum trading volume of up to 50 million per transaction. To increase trading volume, you can either place additional orders or you can use the MetaTrader platform, which has unlimited trading volume.

Here are a few examples:

U.S. Dollar/Japanese Yen (10,000 U.S. dollars)
Euro/U.S. Dollar (10,000 euros)
Euro/British Pound Sterling (10,000 euros)
Euro/Japanese Yen (10,000 euros)

Margin

FXCM allows for currency trading with a number of different margin settings, which offer a high degree of leverage*. Thus traders have the option of adjusting their margin requirements from 3% (33:1) to a maximum of 0.5% (200:1). The margin is simply set aside for the duration of individual trades, and the default setting for new Mini accounts is approximately 0.5% of the trading volume.

Margin Requirement – FXCM Mini Account

Currency pair	EUR accounts	GBP accounts	USD accounts

EUR/USD (as well as most EUR-based currency pairs)	€50	£50	$75

GBP/USD (as well as most GBP-based currency pairs)	€70	£50	$90

USD/JPY (as well as most USD-based currency pairs)	€45	£40	$50

AUD/USD (as well as most AUD-based currency pairs)	€50	£40	$60

The margin requirements for all currency pairs can be seen in the FXCM Trading Station. The "Trading Prices" window lists (in the simple view) the current margin requirements for each currency pair in the MMR column.

*Without proper risk management this high leverage can produce both negative and positive results.

Margin – Exotic Currency Pairs

The margin requirements for exotic currency pairs range from 0.5% to 22.5% of the open trading volume depending on the currency pair and the account denomination. The EUR/TRY, HKD/JPY, SGD/JPY, USD/HKD, USD/MXN, USD/SGD, USD/TRY, USD/ZAR and ZAR/JPY currency pairs are considered exotic.

Rollover/Interest Policy

Open positions still on the market as of 5:00 PM EST have a daily rollover interest rate, which a trader is either paid or charged depending on the type of open position.

If you want to receive interest on open positions, all you have to do is hold a positive rollover position at exactly 5:00 PM EST. A positive rollover position is an open position in which the currency pair earns interest due to the current interest rate status. On the other hand, if a trader has an open position with a currency pair that generates negative interest due to the current interest rate status, the trader will have a negative rollover position and the trader will have to pay interest.

The rollover interest rate per lot of trade volume is displayed above the buy or sell price in the Advanced Dealing Rates window of the FX Trading Station. RollS indicates the interest for sell transactions and RollB indicates the rate for buy transactions.

Please note: The rollover interest rate on Wednesday is approximately three times higher than the interest rate on other trading days. This three-day rollover day compensates for the weekend when the banks are closed.

Why Is Rollover Interest Charged?
Regulations on the spot forex market state that all trades have to be reported and paid within two work days. For example, a trader who sells 100,000 euros on Tuesday has to pay this amount by Thursday or else be charged rollover interest. FXCM thus offers the service of automatically making such payments for its customers. All trades which are still open on the market at the end of the trading day at 5:00 PM New York Time (EST) automatically assume rollover status.

Order Types

The FXCM trading platform offers a wide array of order options, such as market orders, entry orders, stop-loss orders, trailing stop orders, limit orders and OCO orders. All orders are valid until they are executed or until the trader cancels them (good until cancelled (GTC)). Click here to learn about the different types of orders.

Account Denomination

FXCM offers account denominations along with deposit and withdrawal options in EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, NZD, CAD, and JPY. It is particularly convenient for customers located in these regions to be able to handle and process their account statements in the local currencies. This enables traders to focus more of their time, energy, and concentration on the market. » More information

Margin Watcher

Margin makes it possible for traders to control larger positions than their available account balance. Margin is not a down payment for a transaction. It is more of a guarantee of security against trading losses. Margin is highly practical for short-term traders who need to leverage their capital to realize short-term profits. But leverage is a double-edged sword. Without proper risk management this high leverage can produce both negative and positive results. FXCM offers a unique feature integrated into the FXCM Trading Station to help traders control their margin as much as possible. As a trader with an FXCM trading account you have a complete overview of your margin requirements so that you always know how much margin you need to cover your open positions and how much margin is available for new positions. The FXCM trading platform provides this information to traders in the Accounts window. (The “Used Margin” column (Usd Mr) shows you how much margin is needed to cover open positions. The “Usable Margin” (Usbl Mr) column shows how much margin is still available for new positions.)

If account equity – the value of all open positions – falls below the margin requirements, all open positions are automatically closed. This is called a “margin call” and it prevents customers from having a negative balance.
FXCM traders can thus never lose more than the amount they deposited into the trading account.

If you need additional information, please contact our customer service team, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mini Trading Details

FXCM Awards

2011 FXStreet - Bext FX Awards - Best Broker Research Team: DailyFX

2010 FX Traders' Choice Awards - Eagle Award:
Best FX Broker - Europe Falcon Award: High Broker Satisfaction - Oceania, Americas, Africa Global FX Broker - Overall