Trading
FOREX.com charges no trading commissions or transaction fees. FOREX.com is compensated for its services through the bid/ask spread.
All banking fees, including but not limited to wire transfer charges, are the responsibility of the customer and will be deducted from the customer's trading account.
FOREX.com charges an account inactivity fee of £15 per month if there is no trading activity or no open positions for a period of 180 days or more.
Open positions are closed according to the (First in First Out) FIFO accounting rule. All trades opened within a particular currency pair or product are closed in the order in which they were originally opened.
The minimum margin requirement is dependent on your account type. In our Standard Account, margin rates are 1% on most contracts. View the full list of margin requirements by currency pair.
In our Mini Account, margin rates are 0.5% (200:1) on most currency pairs, and 1% (100:1) on oils, metals and indices.
Open positions are required to be fully margined at all times. There are no margin calls in forex trading. If a customer’s account balance falls below required 100% maintenance margin, all open positions are subject to automatic liquidation. Liquidations are handled in the following manner: the net open position with the greatest unrealized loss is closed first, followed by the next largest losing position and so on, until the maintenance margin requirement is satisfied or exceeded. Depending on the size and unrealised P&L of the open positions, customers risk having ALL open positions liquidated in order to meet the minimum margin requirement and incurring losses greater than the initial required margin.
Traders always have the option of employing a lower degree of leverage. You may request a leverage change at any time by logging into your account and going to the MyAccount section of the website. Increasing leverage increases risk.
Margin requirements are subject to change without notice, at the sole discretion of FOREX.com.
In addition to our 100% maintenance margin requirement, our trading system continuously monitors required margin on your account and will liquidate some/all of your open positions should your account balance fall below the required margin.
These policies and procedures are in place to help to ensure you don’t lose more money than you deposit. However, as an added safeguard, we offer Negative Balance protection and will credit your account to a zero balance if your account goes into negative equity as a result of a liquidation event. This policy protects you up to 50,000 of the base currency of your account.
Market orders: Market orders are executed at the best available price at the time the order is received.
FOREX.com platforms that support Market Orders include:
- FOREXTrader PRO
- FOREXTrader PRO.web
- Website trading
- FOREXTrader mobile (mobile web, iPhone App, WAP)
Instant Execution Mode: Instant Execution is designed for use in combination with the one-click dealing feature available in FOREXTrader PRO. When Instant Execution mode is enabled, market orders will only be executed at the requested rate or within a user-specified deviation. When Instant Execution is enabled, the default setting is 1 pip deviation. As such, if the market moves unfavorably away from the requested price by more than1 pip, the order is not executed. However, if the market moves in the customer’s favor by any amount then the order will be executed at the improved price. Customers can adjust the desired tolerance to suit their trading strategy by clicking on Preferences>Trade Settings in FOREXTrader PRO.
Limit Orders: Limit orders are executed at the order rate or better. Sell limit orders are filled when the bid reaches the requested rate; limit orders to buy are filled on the offer.
Stop Orders: Stop orders become market orders when a predefined order rate is reached. Stop orders are executed at the best available price, depending on available liquidity. Buy Stop orders are filled on the offer price and Sell Stop orders are filled at the bid price.
Time and sales reports for a specific period can be requested by contacting customer service.
End of Day (EOD) orders automatically expire at 10pm GMT on the same day the order was entered. Good ‘til Cancelled (GTC) orders automatically expire on the Saturday following the 90th calendar day from the date the order was entered.
FOREX.com’s trading hours are from Sunday at 10pm GMT through Friday at 10pm GMT. Orders (e.g. Stops, Limits, and contingent orders) left pending over a weekend or holiday period will not be executed until FOREX.com resumes regular trading hours.
- Market Order
A market order is an order to buy or sell at the current market price.
- Limit Order
A limit order is an order to buy or sell at a specified price. Limit orders can be used to enter or exit into a position. A buy limit order can only be executed at the limit price or lower, and a sell limit order can only be executed at the limit price or higher.
- Stop order
A stop order is an order to buy or sell when a predefined order rate is reached. Stop orders can be used to enter or exit into a position. A buy stop is entered at a stop price that is always above the current market price. A sell stop order helps to avoid further losses or to protect a profit that exists if a stock price continues to drop. A stop order to sell is always placed below the current market price.
- One Cancels Other (OCO's)
A contingent order providing that one part of the order is cancelled if the other part is executed. If one part of the order is filled, the other is automatically cancelled.
- If / Then
An If/Then order provides that if the first order ("If" order) is executed, the second order ("Then" order) is activated as a live, single order. In cases where the “If” order does not execute, the “Then” single order will remain dormant. When either part of an If / Then order is cancelled, all parts of the order are cancelled as well.
- If /Then OCO
An If/Then OCO provides that if the first order ("If" order) is executed, the second order ("Then" order) is activated as a One Cancels Other (OCO) order. The execution of either one of the two "Then" orders automatically cancels the other.
In cases where the 'If' single order does not execute, the "Then" OCO order will remain dormant. When any part of an If / Then OCO order is cancelled, including either leg of the OCO order, all parts of the order are cancelled as well.
- Trailing Stops
A trailing stop allows a trade to continue to gain in value when the market price moves in a favorable direction, but automatically closes the trade if the market price suddenly moves in an unfavorable direction by a specified distance. When the market price moves in a favorable direction (up for long positions, down for short positions), the trigger price follows the market price by the specified stop distance. If the market price moves in an unfavorable direction, the trigger price stays stationary and the distance between this price and the market price becomes smaller. If the market price continues to move in an unfavorable direction until it reaches the trigger price, an order is triggered to close the trade.
All of the above orders may be entered as Day Orders, entered today and good until end of NY business day (10pm GMT). Or, customers may choose to enter a Good 'til Cancelled Order (GTC), which is valid for 90 days from the date the order is entered or until the order is executed or cancelled.
Orders remain open until they are triggered or cancelled. If a position is closed manually, any order(s) relating to that position must also be cancelled.
Placing contingent orders may not necessarily limit your losses.
Phone trading is available to customers during market hours. To place a trade over the phone, contact customer service.
Phone Trading Instructions
- State your Account Number.
You will be asked to verify the name on the account and answer other security questions
- Ask for the current price i.e.
"I would like a price on Euro/Dollar"
- FOREX.com will provide the current bid/offer.
"Euro/Dollar is trading at 1.28551/562" (the first number being the bid, the second the offer)
- If you wish to place a market order, state your interest.
"I sell 50,000 of Euro/Dollar at the market"
- FOREX.com will provide verbal confirmation of the trade. Your trade will be entered on your behalf and the trade will appear in the trading platform immediately.
- If you do not wish to deal at the quoted levels, simply say "nothing done."
- You may also request that a stop or limit order be placed on your behalf. Be sure to indicate the type of order and the price.
All trades executed via the phone are subject to a pre-deal margin availability check and will be manually entered into the customer's account for integrated P&L analysis and reporting.
All phone orders will be recorded to ensure fairness and accuracy for all parties involved.
View full product list and pricing schedule.
FOREX.com automatically rolls forward all open positions following the close of NY trading at 5:00 pm ET. During the roll process, trading is typically suspended for 1-2 minutes. The amount paid or earned depends on the direction of the open position and the interest rate differential between the two currencies involved. For example, assuming UK interest rates are significantly higher than Japan's, a trader long GBP/JPY (i.e. holding British Pounds), is paid interest upon rollover. Conversely, if a trader is short GBP/JPY (i.e. holding yen) interest will be debited upon the rollover.
Rollover credits or debits are applied daily to customer's account reflecting interest paid or earned on each open position held overnight.
FOREX.com’s daily rollover rates and detailed reporting of rollover activity is available in the Reports section of the trading platform or MyAccount.
FOREX.com's trading desk is open 24 hours daily from 10pm GMT Sunday through 10pm GMT Friday. On major holidays, this schedule is subject to change. Holiday hours are usually finalised two weeks prior to any date and customers are notified on a best efforts basis.
