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Trade FOREX
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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
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Trading Hours
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The dealing desk is open between Sunday
14:30 to Friday 16:30 Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) top |
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Dealing Spread
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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
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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
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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. top
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FX Trading Example
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| 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
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Trading over the Internet
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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
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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
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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
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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
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1,000
units/lot
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5,000
units/lot
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10,000
units/lot
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50,000
units/lot
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100,000
units/lot
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$12.10
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$60.50
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$121
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$605
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$1,210
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USD/JPY
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$10
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$50
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$100
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$500
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$1,000
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GBP/USD
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$17.22
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$86.10
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$172.20
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$861
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$1,772
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USD/CHF
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$10
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$50
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$100
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$500
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$1,000
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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. t
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Rollovers
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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
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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
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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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