Markets and product FAQs

Forex, also known as foreign exchange or currency trading, is the buying of one currency by simultaneously selling another. Forex traders attempt to profit by speculating on the direction the currency exchange rates will go in the future.

FOREX.com does not charge data or exchange fees on forex trades. We are compensated via the spread, which is the difference between the bid and ask. View our live spreads.

However, you may incur a rollover charge is you hold your positions overnight. Learn more about rollovers.

You can trade forex at FOREX.com 24 hours a day, five days a week. For more information, please visit our range of markets.

Our Margin Pip Calculator allows clients to review the amount of funds needed in order to enter into a Forex trade with the option to change the contract size.



In addition, our FOREX.com platforms have a built in Margin Calculator.

You can trade 80+ currency pairs at FOREX.com. View our full range of markets.

All metals (including spot and CFD markets) are available 23 hours a day, 5 days a week. Please visit our Market Information Sheets in the platform for exact opening and closing times. When trading is closed you may still place new working orders or edit and cancel existing working orders. Metal markets also follow CME holiday closures.

Full week trading, including over the weekend, is available for gold with the XAU/USD 7-Day product.

Yes, metal CFD futures have fixed monthly or quarterly expiry dates thus any position you have will close automatically when the market expires. When the market is close to expiry the next contract month will become available for you to trade.

If your account is a FOREX.com account, you can view a market’s expiry date in the Market Information Sheet on the FOREX.com desktop trading platform or the Market 360 on the WebTrader platform.

If your account is a MetaTrader 4 account, you can view more information about the market's expiry date on the MetaTrader 4 desktop download platform in Terminal > Company > Support > CFD Product Details.

The Metals CFD Futures markets will typically state Palladium (per 0.1) [Month XX] CFD, Platinum (per 0.1) [Month XX] CFD, and Copper (per 0.05) [Month XX] CFD.



If it states per 0.1, the trade size of 1 is equal to 10 because it is 1 contract per every 0.1. If it states per 0.05, the trade size of 1 is equal to 500 because it is 1 contract per every 0.05.



Therefore, if you were to calculate the margin requirement, it would be the notional value x rate x leverage. The notional value would be calculated as quantity/0.1 or quantity/0.05 depending on what is listed for the market.

The minimum lot size for gold is 10 troy oz, which is a quantity of 1, and the minimum for silver is 500 troy oz, which is also a quantity of 1 on the FOREX.com platform.



The maximum order size varies by market. You can view a market's minimum and maximum volume through the platform.

There is no expiry date when trading spot gold and silver. As long as you maintain the required margin, your position will remain open until you choose to close it. As with forex positions, open gold and silver positions automatically roll forward to the next day's value date following the close of NY trading at 5pm ET.

There is no financing charge for CFDs with expiry dates. These markets have wider spreads as the cost-of-carry (financing charge) has been incorporated into the price.

Gold (XAU) and silver (XAG) are traded as spot. Spot gold is offered as XAU/USD, XAU/EUR, XAU/GBP, XAU/CHF, XAU/GBP, XAU/JPY and XAU/AUD. The symbol for spot silver is XAG/USD. Copper, palladium, and platinum are traded as CFD futures.

With most CFDs, financing is debited for long positions or credited for short positions daily if you are in a position at 5pm ET.



These charges are typically calculated as follows:



F=(S x P x R)/D



F - Daily Financing Charge

S - Number of CFDs (2500)

P - Closing Price

R - Relevant 1-month LIBOR rate, +250 basis points for long positions or -250 basis points for short positions, e.g. (4.50% + 2.50%) = 7.00%

D - Day basis for currency (365 for GBP, HKD, PLN, SGD and ZAR, 360 for all the other currencies)

Margins for indices vary according to the market and type of account.



For more information on a specific market, please check the Key Market Information or Market Info within the trading platform.

Index CFD cash markets are non-expiring markets, however all of our index CFD Futures markets do expire.



You can find more information through Key Market Information directly on the desktop download platform. There is an "i" icon for each market.



You can also find this information on the WebTrader's Market Info section.



When a CFD Futures market expires, we close all open positions based on our most recent prices and all open orders are cancelled. To retain your open positions in a market, you must manually open a new position in the next contract month. You may also set the position to Autoroll prior to executing the position/order. When you launch the deal ticket, you will see a tick box option to Auto-Rollover. This box is located next to your "Direction" selection. If you tick this box, your futures contract will automatically roll to the next contract when it expires. Please note that autoroll is not available on the MetaTrader platform.

FOREX.com is compensated by the spread, which is the difference between the bid and ask prices. View our live spreads.



In addition, you may be charged a nightly finance charge if you hold a position overnight, after 5pm ET.

With FOREX.com, you can trade Germany 40, Wall Street, EU Stocks 50 and more as CFDs. Click here to view our range of indices.

A CFD, or contract for difference, is an agreement to exchange the difference between the opening and closing price of the position under contract, rather than buying and selling the underlying security outright.

We offer trading on Magnificent 7 stocks as a CFD during normal US exchange hours, typically from 2:30pm to 9pm GMT, Monday to Friday.

In addition, we offer extended hours markets for the Magnificent 7, which are available to trade as a CFD 24hrs a day, between Monday 9am and Friday 10pm GMT.

The Magnificent 7, or commonly known as Mag7, is comprised of seven of the largest tech companies globally. Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla make up the Magnificent 7.

Borrowing costs are incurred when you short a shares CFD position, and reflect a charge incurred in the underlying market when the underlying asset is borrowed in order to sell and return at a later date. Very few markets will incur a borrowing charge, and to determine whether the market you wish to trade has borrowing costs or not, please check the relevant Key Market Information or Market Info in the FOREX.com desktop platform.

On the FOREX.com desktop download platform, CFD specifications will located in the Key Market Information (the "i" box) available for each market.



On the WebTrader platform, CFD specifications will be located in the Market Info.

Margins for shares vary depending on account type and shares.

For more information on retail accounts, you may refer to Shares on our Markets page.

Yes, your account is subject to any corporate actions occurring in the underlying market. All corporate actions (excluding dividends) will be emailed to you prior to the event. This is known as the instruction date. Depending on the corporate action, you may have to make a decision about positions on your account. You will have until the instruction deadline date noted in the email to decide. Corporate actions are free of commission.



Please note that in the event of any positions being closed and reopened, working orders will be cancelled.

You can access thousands of popular global shares as CFDs at FOREX.com. Click here to learn more.

Dividend adjustments are normally made on the ex-dividend date.

Yes, you can go either long or short on top companies from around the world.

A CFD, or contract for difference, is an agreement to exchange the difference between the opening and closing price of the position under contract, rather than buying and selling the underlying security outright.

If you would like to add a share, you will need to email [email protected] stating the name or ticker code. Your request will be reviewed by our Trade Desk.

Shares trading is available on the proprietary FOREX.com platforms. Please note that shares are not available on MetaTrader 4.

Corporate actions will be applied on a per-trade basis, not as an overall value.

A corporate action is an event initiated by a company that will affect all positions in that market. Some of these will have a direct action on the price such as dividends, some are indirect such as stocks splits and some have little to no impact such as a name change.

US Crude Oil 7-Day is a standalone WTI Crude Oil Cash CFD product that is available during standard weekday trading hours and remains open most of Saturday and Sunday, allowing you to react to geopolitical, economic, and market-moving events outside traditional oil market hours. Trading pauses for a short period on Sunday before weekday market pricing resumes.

When can I trade US Crude Oil 7-Day?

US Crude Oil 7-Day is tradeable 7 days and week with the following trading breaks:

• Sunday to Thursday: from 5 PM ET to 6 PM ET
• Friday: from 5 PM ET, reopening on Saturday at 4 AM ET

Please review the Market Information Sheet on the platform for exact trading hours.

How does pricing work?

During standard market hours, pricing follows our standard US Crude Oil pricing methodology, which references the underlying WTI market. When the traditional WTI futures market is closed during the weekend, pricing is derived from alternative crude oil reference markets and other relevant market information available to FOREX.com. Pricing adjustments may be applied to reflect differences between weekend reference markets and the traditional WTI market. When the traditional WTI futures market reopens, pricing returns to the standard US Crude Oil pricing methodology.

Weekend spreads may be wider than during standard market hours. In exceptional circumstances, trading may be restricted, paused, or made close-only.

How do positions work for US Crude Oil 7-Day?

US Crude Oil 7-Day is a separate market from the standard US Crude Oil CFD. Positions, margin requirements, and profit and loss are managed independently, and positions in one market will not offset, transfer to, or roll into the other.

Why might weekend prices differ from standard US Crude Oil prices?

The traditional WTI futures market is closed during portions of the weekend. As a result, weekend prices are derived from alternative crude oil reference markets, which may not move in the same way as the traditional WTI market. The US Crude Oil 7-Day price may therefore differ from the final weekday price or from the price available when the traditional WTI futures market reopens. Trading during the weekend may allow clients to respond to market developments before the traditional WTI futures market reopens, but it does not eliminate the risk that prices may gap when the traditional markets reopen.

What events can affect US Crude Oil 7-Day prices during the weekend?

Crude oil prices can respond rapidly to developments affecting global oil supply and demand. These may include geopolitical events, OPEC+ decisions, production or supply disruptions, inventory developments, and other significant energy-market events. These events may occur while the traditional WTI futures market is closed and can result in significant price movements.

Will financing charges apply?

Yes. Financing is applied to US Crude Oil 7-Day positions on a daily basis, including weekends. Positions held through the applicable financing cut-off may therefore be subject to a financing adjustment. Please refer to the Market Information Sheet for current financing information.

Can stop-loss orders be triggered during the weekend?

Yes. If a stop level is reached based on the price quoted for US Crude Oil 7-Day, the order will be triggered as usual. Execution will occur based on available prices in the US Crude Oil 7-Day market at that time. Orders associated with the separate standard US Crude Oil market will not be triggered by movements in the US Crude Oil 7-Day market.

Can trading be restricted or suspended?

Yes. In exceptional circumstances, including significant market disruption, problems with available reference prices, or other conditions where reliable pricing cannot be maintained, FOREX.com may restrict trading, make the market close-only or one-sided, temporarily suspending trading or withdrawing pricing. In extreme circumstances, you may be unable to close a position until reliable price formation resumes.

The formula to calculate how much margin is required is quantity x price x margin.

With most CFDs, financing is debited for long positions or credited for short positions daily if you are in a position at 5pm ET.



These charges are typically calculated as follows:



F=(S x P x R)/D



F - Daily Financing Charge

S - Number of CFDs (2500)

P - Closing Price

R - Relevant overnight LIBOR rate, +250 basis points for long positions or -250 basis points for short positions, e.g. (4.50% + 2.50%) = 7.00%

D - Day basis for currency (365 for GBP, HKD, PLN, SGD and ZAR, 360 for all the other currencies)

Margins for commodities vary according to the market and type of account.



For more information on a specific market, please check the Key Market Information or Market Info within the trading platform.

With FOREX.com, you can trade US crude oil, natural gas, coffee and many more as CFDs. Click here to view our range of commodities.

All of our commodity future CFD markets, including markets on MetaTrader, expire. Please note however, that our spot commodity CFD markets do not expire.

You can find more information through Key Market Information directly on the desktop download platform. There is an "i" icon for each market.

You can also find this information on the WebTrader's Market 360 section.

For MetaTrader 4 accounts, commodity CFD markets information is found in Terminal > Company > Support > CFD Product Details on the MetaTrader 4 platform.

When a CFD market expires, we close all open positions based on our most recent prices and all open orders are cancelled. To retain your open positions in a market, you must manually open a new position in the next contract month. You may also set the position to Autoroll prior to executing the position/order. When you launch the deal ticket, you will see a tick box option to Auto-Rollover. This box is located next to your "Direction" selection. If you tick this box, your futures contract will automatically roll to the next contract when the it expires.

MetaTrader 4 does not have the option to autoroll; therefore, MetaTrader 4 clients will need to manually open a new position in the next contract month.

"Spot commodities are also known as Non-Expiring Commodities (NECs). To price these non-expiring markets, we use two sufficiently liquid futures contracts on the underlying commodity. This is usually the two with the nearest expiry date.



The contract with the closest expiry date is called the Front month contract and the second-nearest expiry date is called the Far month contract.



Throughout the duration of the Front month contract, the price of the NEC will gradually move from the price of the front month to the price of the far month.



As there will be an adjustment to the NEC Market price every day, your account will be subject to an adjustment in the form of a Credit/Debit to offset this price adjustment. For example, if the NEC contract is adjusted by +2 points, clients with long positions will be debited 2 x stake and clients with short positions will be credited 2 x stake. "

FOREX.com is compensated by the spread, which is the difference between the bid and ask prices. View our live spreads.



In addition, you may be charged a nightly finance charge if you hold a position overnight, after 5pm ET.

A CFD, or contract for difference, is an agreement to exchange the difference between the opening and closing price of the position under contract, rather than buying and selling the underlying security outright.

As of January 6, 2021, cryptocurrency trading has been restricted by our regulatory body, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Therefore, it is no longer offered for trading.

However if you're a Professional Client, you'll still be able to trade our range of Cryptocurrency CFD markets, which include: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple.

Slippage is when an order is filled at a price other than the requested price.

Our quoted prices are executable the majority of the time. In fast-moving markets, orders may be executed at a price which has ceased to be the best market price. Limit orders will always be filled at the price asked or better.

You're only charged margin on the larger side of the trade. Using the example below, you would only have been charged margin on the original Wall Street CFD short 2 position, and not any hedged trade thereafter which is smaller than the initial trade.

For example, you have an open sell position for 2 Wall Street CFDs with an initial margin of £2,400, and then you open a buy position for 1 Wall Street CFD with a margin of £1,200 (hedged trade). As the margin is bigger on the open sell 2 Wall Street CFD trade, this will be the total margin required for all trades in this market. We do this to ensure that you have enough margin to cover the remaining position if and when the larger side is closed. The same rule apples for all step margin levels.

Pending orders, such as stops and limits, can be executed End of Day (EOD) or Good 'til Cancelled (GTC) on FOREX.com platforms.

End of Day (EOD) orders automatically expire at 5pm ET on the same day the order was entered.

Good ‘til Cancelled (GTC) orders will not expire unless clients manually cancel them or if they are linked to an open position, they will expire when that position is closed.

Pending orders on the MetaTrader 4 platform can be set to expire at a specific date and time; otherwise, it will remain on the platform with no expiry.

To check the execution price of your order you may use our charts, but be sure to review the correct price type chart.



If you have an open buy position or a pending sell order, you will need to monitor the BID chart.



If you have an open sell position or a pending buy order, you will need to monitor the ASK chart.

CFDs: There is no expiry for a CFD trade (unless it is a CFD future) and you may hold it for an unlimited period, as long as you have enough funds in your account to cover margin. Please remember that you will, however, be charged a daily overnight financing fee.



Futures contracts work differently and you can trade the price of futures markets using CFDs. Futures contracts are quoted monthly or quarterly and will have various different expiry dates, which will be stated in the Key Market Information section within the platform. You can choose to close your position at the expiry of a contract or roll your contract into the following month.

A limit down price is the maximum sell-off permitted in a market on a single day of trading. Once this level has been reached, trading on the market may then be restricted to prevent significant volatility and potential panic selling. A limit down price is typically determined as a percentage decline in a given market, rather than a nominal decline in price.



A limit down period is imposed by an exchange (such as the NYSE) and not by brokers. It usually lasts 15 minutes but may be extended depending on the percentage decline before market open.



Please note that a limit down only restricts selling on the affected market(s).

Foreign Exchange

Foreign exchange, gold, and silver price quotes are derived from prices provided to us by selected top-tier global banks in the wholesale foreign exchange, gold and silver markets.



Commodity CFDs

Commodity CFD price quotes are derived from quoted or execution prices from the derivative exchanges for commodities products.



Index CFDs

Index CFD price quotes are derived from quoted or execution prices for the underlying reference assets from derivatives exchanges with respect to the given indices which we believe will provide the best available prices to you on a consistent basis.

Market gap risk is a risk of holding positions open over the weekend or during a trading break.


Therefore, when the market reopens, the price could be substantially different from the previous closing price.

A trailing stop loss order is a powerful risk management tool, helping you to minimise potential losses, without setting a limit on your potential gains.



A trailing stop is created by setting a stop order that 'trails' your position by a specific number of points. If your trade moves in your favour, the trailing stop moves with the market, executing only when the market moves against you by the set number of points.



The trailing stop is more flexible than a fixed stop loss, since it automatically tracks the market's price direction and does not have to be manually reset, as you would have to with a fixed stop loss.

Orders are executed at the best available price at the time the order is received.

Financing charges for positions which remain open at our market close are calculated using the following formula:

Short Positions F = V × I / b

- Long Positions F = V × I / b, where:

- F = Daily Financing Fee
- V = value of equivalent (quantity x end of day closing price)
- I = applicable Financing Rate
- b = Day basis for currency (365 for GBP, HKD, PLN, SGD and ZAR,360 for all the other currencies)

The daily financing fee will be applied to your account each day that you hold an open position (including weekend days). The financing rates are set at benchmark regional interest rate +/- 3%.
For example, you are long €10 on the France 40 and hold the position overnight. France 40 closes at 6500.

The LIBOR rate for that day is 0.33.

F = V x I / b
V = 10 (quantity) x 6500 (end of day closing price) = 65000
I = 0.33 + 3% = 3.33%
V x I = 65000 x 3.33% = 2164.5
F = 2164.5 / 365 = €5.93 (Financing paid by you per day)

You can access our rollover rates directly from our trading platforms.

FOREX.com Desktop Platform: Click on the "i" icon next to a market in a Watchlist to view details on that market. Rollover information can be found under the financing charge section.

On your browser: You can view a market’s rollover on its Markets Info tab. To open this tab, right click on the name of a market and select Market Info from the dropdown. From there, rollover information can be found under the financing charge section.

FOREX.com mobile apps: In our mobile app, you can view a market’s rollover on its Market Info tab. To open this tab, select the name of a market and head to the Market Info tab. From there, rollover information can be found under the financing charge section.

MetaTrader 4: Click on the Company tab in Terminal, scroll to Profile, and select "Rollover Rates".

Borrowing costs are incurred when you short a shares CFD position, and reflect a charge incurred in the underlying market when the underlying asset is borrowed in order to sell and return at a later date. Very few markets will incur a borrowing charge, and to determine whether the market you wish to trade has borrowing costs or not, please check the relevant Key Market Information in the FOREX.com platform.

Rollover rates (also known as a financing charge or swap rate) are based on the interest rate differential of the two currencies and the spot price, and is calculated according to whether the position is long or short. We source institutional rollover rates and pass these onto the clients at a competitive price.

However, rollover rates can be impacted by market conditions, especially at the end of a quarter or year. We periodically review our rollover rates and adjust them to fit with current market and industry conditions.

Each currency pair will have two rollover rates: one for short positions, another for long positions. Depending on the difference, your account will either be debited or credited a certain amount based on the rollover rate.

As a service to our customers, all open forex positions at the end of the day (5:00pm New York time) are automatically rolled over to the next settlement date. The rollover (or swap) adjustment is simply the accounting of the cost-of-carry on a day-to-day basis. We do not charge rollover on intraday trades.

At FOREX.com, rollovers are not applied to intraday trades. No interest is paid or received if you open and close a position within the same trading day after 5pm ET and before 5pm ET the following day.

Other brokers may apply rollovers on a continuous, second-by-second basis. This policy may ultimately end up raising your total trading costs, especially if the broker's rollovers are not competitive.

Rollover rates are based on the interest rate differential of the two currencies and the spot price. However, rollover rates can be impacted by market conditions, especially at the end of a quarter or year.

We periodically review our rollover rates and adjust them to fit with current market and industry conditions.

If there has been no trading activity within 12 months, we do charge an inactivity fee of £12 per month until we do see trading activity or there are no funds in the account.

If the account has a balance less than £12, the remaining balance will be charged as the inactivity fee, not the full £12. Additional fees will not be charged if the account has no funds.

Retail accounts will automatically be suspended if there has been no trading activity for 36 months. For Professional Accounts, it will automatically be suspended if there has been no trading activity for 12 months. However, after the account is suspended, inactivity fees will still be charged.

To avoid being charged inactivity fees, the best way would be to withdraw your funds if you do not plan on using your trading account; otherwise, placing a trade will reset your inactivity period.

Activity like platform logins, orders, deposits, and withdrawals every 12 months will not make a client exempt from inactivity fees.

After the account is suspended, you will need to complete the Reactivation Request Form.

A Qualifying Trade for each market is equal to the volume stated in the following table. Any combination of opening and closing trades, in any markets, can be used to meet qualifying trade requirements. For example, opening and closing a standard lot FX trade equals 200,000 in volume. Further examples can be found below the table.

Currencies

MARKET	VOLUME REQUIRED	UNIT TYPE
All currency pairs (excl HKD)	200	Micro Lots

Metals

MARKET	VOLUME REQUIRED	UNIT TYPE
Copper	100,000	Pounds
Palladium	200	Troy Ounces
Platinum	200	Troy Ounces
Spot Silver (all XAG pairs)	10,000	Ounces
Spot Gold (all XAU pairs)	200	Ounces

Commodities

MARKET	VOLUME REQUIRED	UNIT TYPE
Corn	50,000	Bushel
Cotton	350,000	Pounds
HTGOIL	100,000	Gallons
Sugar	1,500,000	Pounds
Soybean	20,000	Bushel
UKOIL	5,000	Barrel
USOIL	5,000	Barrel
Wheat	50,000	Bushel

Indices 

MARKET	VOLUME REQUIRED	UNIT TYPE
AUS200	50	Contract
ESTX50	50	Contract
FRA40	50	Contract
GER30	20	Contract
HK50/td>	60	Contract
JPN225	2,000	Contract
JPN226	50	Contract
JPN227	50,000	mmBTU*
SPX500	100	Contract
UK100	20	Contract
JUS30	10	Contract

*million British Thermal Units

Example: The example below represents a customer’s trade activity in fulfilling a 25 Qualifying Trade requirement.

 

Example Qualifying Trades

MARKET	VOLUME		QTR*
	REQ'D	TRADED
EUR/USD	200,000	2,100,000	10.5
XAG/USD	10,000	160,000	16
USOIL	5,000	30,000	6
Corn	50,000	430,000	8.6
SPX500	100	440	4.4
TOTAL QUALIFYING TRADES EARNED		26.5

*Qualifying Trades Earned

At FOREX.com, rollovers for positions held over the weekend will be posted on Wednesday, as is standard in the industry. As a result, the rollover applied on Wednesday will be for three days of rollover interest.



A holiday rollover will occur when the currency traded has a major holiday and the banks are closed. A holiday rollover will typically be applied two days before the holiday.

The cost to trade varies depending on the market you are placing a trade for and your account type.


If you have a retail account, FOREX.com only charges commissions on shares CFD trading.

FOREX.com offers both fixed and variable spreads, depending on the market you wish to trade.



Fixed spreads don’t change according to market conditions such as volatility or liquidity. Depending on the market, fixed spreads may either be offered for a defined period of the day, or throughout trading hours.



Variable spreads may fluctuate throughout the day according to different factors such as underlying liquidity or market volatility. With variable spreads, FOREX.com will quote you the minimum spread it could be, plus an average spread for a defined historical period of time. View our live spreads.

Back to Base automatically converts any realised profits and losses, adjustments, fees and charges that are denominated in another currency, back to the base currency of your account before applying them to your account.



When Back to Base charges are applied, we use commercially reasonable rates (which may be up to and including +/- 0.5% away from our quoted prices or rates from time to time). Any conversions and the rates applied will be disclosed on your contract notes and statements.

The daily financing fee will be applied to your account each day that you hold an open position (including weekend days).



Financing is applied from 5pm ET each day for most markets. For details of the times for all of our available markets, please view the Key Market Information on the platform.

Intraday positions are all positions opened anytime during the 24-hour period after the close of FOREX.com's normal trading hours at 5pm ET.



Overnight positions are positions that are still on at the end of normal trading hours (5pm ET), which are automatically rolled by FOREX.com at competitive rates (based on the currencies' interest rate differentials) and applied directly to your account balance.

If you have a hedged position open overnight, you will be charged overnight financing on both trades.

The spreads on both rollover rates and STIRs (short-term interest rates) typically widen considerably at the end of each quarter. As a result, usually only for a few days, the daily charge can increase dramatically, causing visible spikes in the cost. It is also possible for currency pairs to charge rollovers for both long and short positions where they may not usually do so.

FOREX.com does not charge data exchange fees. However, you may incur a financing/rollover charge if you hold your positions overnight. Learn more about rollovers.

The current spread that is shown for an instrument is good for the maximum trade size shown on the Key Market Information for that specific instrument. Please note spreads may increase with large size trades.

Please contact a tax professional for information on the tax situation in your country.

At FOREX.com, rollovers are processed daily at 5:00pm ET, at which time any open positions will be rolled and a debit or credit applied to your account. We do not charge rollover on intraday trades.

When a price for a market is quoted, you will actually see two prices. The first price, known as the bid, is the sell price and the second price is the buy price, known as the offer. The difference between the sell and buy price is called the spread.

Margin is equity from your account set aside by FOREX.com to maintain a position when you’re trading on leverage. Equity is the sum of your cash and unrealised P&L.

Leverage is the ability to control a large position with a small amount of capital. It is usually denoted by a ratio. For example, if your account has a leverage of 33:1, that means you can trade a position of £50,000 with only approximately £1,500.

Please note that increased leverage increases risk.

Our margin requirements differ according to platform (FOREX.com or MetaTrader), market, asset class and position size. You can find out the specific margin of each instrument in its Market Information Sheet on the FOREX.com platforms.



To calculate the amount of funds required to cover the margin requirement when you open a trade, simply multiply the total notional value of your trade (quantity x price of instrument) by the margin factor.



For example, say the margin requirement for EURUSD is 3.33%. The current buy price of EURUSD is 1.300 and you wish to buy 1 standard lot (100,000).



The total value of the position is $130,000 (100,000 x 1.300). The equivalent of $4329 would therefore be allocated from your account to open the position ($130,000 x 3.33%).



Keep in mind that when you have open positions, your margin requirement for those positions will adjust to the current market pricing.



With FOREX.com platforms, you can calculate the required margin before placing a trade through the platform’s margin calculator, monitor each position’s margin requirement separately or review your account’s total margin requirement through the Margin Indicator.

The larger the trade size, the higher the risk level associated with the trade. Therefore, we may increase our margin requirements for larger size trades or any additional trades in that instrument. To do this, FOREX.com increases the size of the margin requirement at specific levels, known as 'step margin levels'. Please note that step margin levels are not present in MetaTrader platforms.

The larger the trade size, the higher the risk level associated with the trade. Therefore, we may increase our margin requirements for larger size trades or any additional trades in that instrument. To do this, FOREX.com increases the size of the margin requirement at specific quantity levels, known as step margin levels. You can view a market’s step margin levels in its Market Information Sheet within the FOREX.com desktop platform.

Hedging margin on FOREX.com’s platforms is set to the largest trade, whereby only the margin for the larger portion of the hedge trade will be applied, and not for the smaller trade.


For example, you are trading CFDs and have two open Wall Street positions, originally selling a quantity of 10 and then buying a quantity of 5. In this case, only the margin for the larger side of the trade will be applied: the Wall Street short 10 position. Assuming that the margin for selling 10 Wall Street is €1,691.45 and the margin for buying 5 Wall Street is €845.70, you would only need to provide enough margin to cover the original, larger sell position for both of the trades in this market.

If your margin drops below 100% of your total requirement, then your positions are at risk of being closed. We’ll usually start automatically closing trades when it hits 50% of your total requirement. The calculation for the margin level indicator is determined by the net equity in your account divided by your total margin requirement, multiplied by 100.

Please be aware that during times of high volatility market prices can gap and this may affect the prices at which your positions are closed out.

Some markets on the FOREX.com platform may benefit from orders-aware margining, which means that placing a stop loss order on an open position will reduce the margin required to maintain that position. Information on whether a market includes orders-aware margining can be found within the Key Market Information within the platform.

As of 29 July 2018, FOREX.com Retail Clients are covered under negative balance protection. This means that their account balance will never be allowed to go below zero, regardless of market conditions.

Please note Professional Clients are not covered under negative balance protection and their account balance can go below zero. For more information, click here.

You are responsible for monitoring your account and maintaining the required margin to support your open positions at all times.

By default, FOREX.com accounts have a 50% margin requirement level (this may vary with your level of leverage and account type). This means that, if at any point, the equity available in your account drops below 50% of the margin required, you will be subject to auto liquidation and all or any open positions will be closed.

When your account falls below 100% margin, your account will be set to reduce only and you will not be able to enter into new positions.

While our 50% margin requirement level and real-time margin system is designed to limit your trading losses, your capital is at risk, especially during periods of extreme market volatility. For this reason, we strongly encourage you to manage your use of leverage carefully. Increasing leverage increases risk.

There are several proactive measures that you can employ to reduce the risk of liquidation and manage your account:

• Actively monitor the status of your open positions.


• Set a stop-loss order for each open trade to limit downside risk. You can set the stop-loss level at the time you place a trade, or add a stop-loss order at any time for any open trade. You can also change your stop-loss orders at any time to take current market prices or other conditions into account. The use of stop loss orders may not necessarily limit your losses.


• Keep your account funded in excess of your required margin. These extra funds act as a cushion, protecting you if the market moves against you. If you are in danger of breaching your margin limits, either incrementally reduce the size of your position or add funds to your account as soon as possible. However this measure is not a guaranteed method that limit your losses.