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  Trade FOREX
Trading Hours
Dealing Spread
Trading Minimums
Price Quotes
FX Trading Example
Trading Over the Internet
Phone Trading
Order Types
Margin
Rollovers
Confirmations/Back Office
Interest
Leverage
Risk Warning
 
Trading Hours

The dealing desk is open between Sunday 14:30 to Friday 16:30 Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5)
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Dealing Spread

Premier offers clients 'Interbank' dealing spreads, which are normally 4 pips or less on all major currencies, including EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF. However, the dealing spreads may vary depending on market conditions.

The dealing spreads are dictated by overall market liquidity. Of the major currency pairs, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and GBP/USD are the most liquid, and therefore dealing spreads for these currency pairs are rarely wider than 4 pips. In fact, EUR/USD spreads are usually 3 pips during the trading day.

Our dealer's trading system, considers the ability to deal directly from live quotes more important than a consistent 4 pip or less dealing spread. Keep in mind that ALL online Forex providers must source liquidity from the Interbank market, and dealing spreads should always reflect available Interbank liquidity.
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Trading Minimums

The minimum amount that is required to open a FOREX Trading Account is $300. For standard FOREX account the minimum is $3,000.

All FX transactions are normally transacted in round amounts.
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Price Quotes

Premier clients have the ability to deal directly from live quotes. Prices are updated automatically as market conditions dictate, on average every few seconds.

The US Dollar is the centerpiece of the Forex market and is normally considered the 'base' currency for quotes. This means that most quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the other currency quoted in the pair. For example, the exchange rate between US Dollars and Japanese Yen is expressed as USD/JPY 102.69. This means that there are 102.69 Yen to $1 USD.

This applies to all currencies except the British pound, the Euro and the Australian dollar. These currencies are quoted as dollars per foreign currency as opposed to foreign currencies per dollar. For example, the normal method of quoting Sterling against USD is GBP/USD 1.6500. Sterling is the base of the quote; the US Dollar is the currency of the quote so at the above rate, 1.6500 USD (the currency) can be changed for £1 (base).

All dealing prices include a bid (buy) and ask (sell) rate. The 'bid' is the price at which a dealer is willing to buy (and investors can sell) the base currency for the counter currency. The 'ask' is the price at which dealers will sell (and investors can buy) the base currency for the counter currency. For example, using a USD base currency, if the quote reads USD/JPY 102.69 - 102.74, the 'bid' (102.69) is the rate at which you will sell Dollars and buy Japanese Yen. The 'ask' (102.74) is the rate at what you will buy Dollars and sell Yen.
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  FX Trading Example

To illustrate a typical FX trade, consider the following example. Suppose you decide that the US Dollar (USD) is undervalued against Swiss Francs (CHF), and want to buy Dollars and sell Francs. If current bid/ask price for USD/CHF is 1.5622/1.5627, this means that you can sell 1.5627 Francs for $1 US.

Since you are buying $100,000 and selling 156,270 CHF, your initial margin requirement would be 2% of $100,000, or $2,000.

Profit and Loss (P&L) is calculated in the following manner:

Suppose the bid/ask price of USD/CHF rises to 1.5835/1.5840, meaning you can buy Francs at 1.5835 and sell them at 1.5840. Since you hold Dollars, you must sell them to realize any profit. If you sell $100,000 at the current exchange rate of 1.5835, you will receive 158,350 CHF. Since you originally sold 156,270 CHF, your profit is 2080 CHF. If you wish to express profit in USD, simply divide 2080 by 1.5840 = US $1313.13

However, had the market moved in the opposite direction in the same amount, the above example would have resulted in a loss of US $1313.13.

*There is a risk of substantial loss in trading forex products.

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Trading over the Internet

Executing a deal via the Internet is a two-step process. Simply enter the number of lots and then click on the bid (buy) or ask (sell) for the currency pair you wish to trade - your deal is automatically executed. The dealing software automatically calculates the initial margin requirement based upon the notional amount of the deal, and if sufficient funds are available in your account, will accept the transaction. A deal confirmation is immediately returned, and the system instantaneously updates both your open position and calculates your current P&L.
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Phone Trading

When trading via phone, our brokers will quote the same prices available to Internet dealers. All telephone calls are recorded for the safety of both parties.
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Order Types

The trading system supports the following buy/sell orders types:


Limit orders
- An order with restrictions on the maximum price to be paid or the minimum price to be received.

Using the above example, if the current price of USD/CHF is 1.5627, a limit order to sell dollars would be above that price, for example, 1.5800

Stop loss orders
- Order type whereby an open position is automatically liquidated at a specific price. Often used to minimize exposure to losses if the market moves against an investor's position.

If the investor above is long USD at 156.27, an investor might wish to put in a stop loss order for 155.49, which would limit his loss should the dollar depreciate, possibly below 155.49

One cancels other orders (OCOs)
- A contingent order providing that one part of the order is cancelled if the other part is executed.

As an example, the trader above could enter an OCO which would automatically cancel his stop loss order if his limit order was filled, or conversely, cancel his limit order if his stop loss order was filled.

All of the above orders are good till cancelled orders.
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Margins

The table below shows an example of the margin required for each contract size in the major currency pairs based on spot rates of 1.2100 for EUR/USD and 1.7220 for GBP/USD. Margin required is subject to change in market rate. In a live account, the margin required for each non-dollar based currency pair will be converted to U.S. Dollars, in real-time, at the prevailing market price for that pair. Once the equity in an account falls below the required margin, then all open trades will be closed at the prevailing market rate.

Required margin for selected currency pair
 

1,000
units/lot

5,000
units/lot

10,000
units/lot

50,000
units/lot

100,000
units/lot

 EUR/USD

$12.10

$60.50

$121

$605

$1,210

USD/JPY

$10

$50

$100

$500

$1,000

GBP/USD

$17.22

$86.10

$172.20

$861

$1,772

USD/CHF

$10

$50

$100

$500

$1,000

The table uses 100:1 leverage for purposes of calculating the margin requirement. The margin requirement will vary based on the level of leverage used.
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Rollovers

A rollover is the simultaneous closing of an open position for today's value date, (normally at the end of the trading day) and the opening of the same position for the next day's value date at a price reflecting the interest rate differential between the two currencies.

Unless specific settlement instructions are provided, dealer will automatically roll forward all open positions to the next day's value date at the end of each business day, 5:00pm EST. All rolls will be done at competitive rollover rates, and depending on the currency pairs involved, trades will be executed where the trader will either earn or pay away points, depending on the interest rate differential between the two currencies.
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Confirmations/Back Office

A confirmation is sent electronically after every trade, which provides all transaction details, including date, rate, notional amount bought and sold, and reference number.

Clients may view their current open position, real-time profit and loss statements, and all historical transaction details in the dealing software.

Account statements are sent at the beginning of each month, and list all transactions for the previous month by currency and value date, a summary of all current open positions, and account balance as calculated at the close of business on the last business day of the month.
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Interest

 

In the spot Forex market trades settle in two business days. If a trader sells 10,000 euros on Tuesday, the trader must deliver 10,000 euros on Thursday unless the position is held open and rolled over to the next value date. As a service to our traders, FX Solutions automatically rolls over all open positions to the next settlement date at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Roll over involves exchanging the expiring position for a position expiring the following settlement date. The positions being exchanged are not valued at the same price. If a trader is long the currency bearing the higher interest rate, the position "being sold" is worth more than the position being acquired. The reverse is also true; if a trader is short the currency bearing the higher interest rate, the trader is acquiring a position worth more than the one "being sold". The amount of the difference varies based on the currency pair, the interest rate differential between the two currencies, and fluctuates day to day.

At 5:00 PM each day, funds are subtracted from or added to accounts with open positions because of this automatic roll over. On Wednesdays, the amount added or subtracted to an account as a result of rolling over a position is three times the usual amount. This "3-Day" rollover accounts for settlement of trades through the weekend period. When there are bank holidays in either settlement country the normal roll schedule does not apply.
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