Swissquote Lowers Margin Rates to as Low as 1% on 41 Financial Instruments

Swissquote Group (SIX Swiss Exchange:SQN), Switzerland-based online financial and trading services provider, has announced to its clients about improvements on margin rates and stop out levels for its Advanced Trader and MetaTrader platforms which will be effective from market open on November 23, 2014.

The broker whose shares are publicly listed on the Swiss Market Exchange, says they are striving to offer the best environment for traders and that the improved offering is an effort to merge the best available trading conditions offered between Swissquote’s Advanced Trader and MetaTrader platforms. Another likely explanation to the move could be to catch up to FXCM's switch to a raw spreads pricing model in a number of markets.

As a result of the conditions merger, Swissquote’s clients can now access trading opportunities on both platforms with over 100 markets including Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term, commodities and stock indices with reduced margin rates across 41 of the broker's popular financial instruments. Swissquote also announced that there would be no weekend Leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term change on its Advanced Trader platform.

Margin is the amount of funds needed in order to make a trade, which is expressed as the percentage of the total value of the trade. With a lower requirement traders can maximize the use of their existing margin balances for opening further trading positions with lower stop out levels.

One example of the effect of Swissquote's margin cut is that traders will now be able to open a position 100 times greater from their margin on the EUR/CHF compared to only 20 times larger before the change.

Despite the change, Swissquote's margin requirements remain higher than many other regulated European brokers offering as low as 0.5% margin (200:1) on forex pairs.