General
Do you offer fixed or variable spreads?
We don’t offer fixed spreads as we never interfere with market forces or client orders. As such, all products tradable on our platforms are variable spreads.
What are swaps, and what is the difference between positive and negative swaps?
A forex contract expires every two days. Instead of actual delivery of the underlying asset, many traders and investors will ‘rollover’ the contract to extend its trading period. It’s upon this ‘rollover’ that swaps are earned or incurred by the holder of a forex contract. The swap rate is calculated as the interest rate difference between the two nations issuing the currency, and are added to, or subtracted, from the profit and loss for the contract.
A positive swap is where you earn interest from the contract, and a negative swap is where you incur interest on the contract.
For a more detailed explanation, including examples, please see our swap rates page.
What is leverage and how does it affect my account?
As the name suggests, the term “Leverage” was coined because using leverage allows you to trade positions sizes with a fraction of the capital that would be normally be required to trade that specific market.
Leverage allows you to do this by reducing the amount of margin required for each position opened. The higher the leverage you have set the less capital margin you are required to have in your account to place a trade. To learn more about the function of leverage and how it is calculated please visit Leverage and Margin.
Before trading understand how increasing leverage can increase the risks and rewards of a trading.
How can I change the leverage on my account?
You cannot change the leverage.
What is the maximum leverage allowed on my account?
The maximum leverage is 30:1 for retail client.
What is margin/margin requirement?
Margin is the amount required to open a new forex position. It is not a fee or a charge to your account – it is an amount set aside from your free equity to support your new trade.
It is the client’s responsibility to maintain sufficient funds in their respective accounts to avoid triggering a margin call at 50% margin level. For more information on margin calls please visit our Fair Execution Policy.
How do I calculate the required margin?
Margin requirements are calculated as follows:
(100,000 units * Number of standard lots)/Leverage * conversion rate to your base currency
For example, for a USD account with 30:1 leverage, if you place a EUR/USD buy order of 0.1 lots (10,000 EUR) @ 1.3632, the calculation would be as follows:
{(100,000 *1.3632)*(0.1)}/30 = $454.40
100,000EUR * 1.3632 = $136,320 (margin required for a standard lot when leverage is 1:1)
$136,320 * 0.1 = $13,632 (margin required for 0.1 lots when leverage is 1:1)
$13,632/30 = $454.40 (margin required for 0.1 lots when leverage is 30:1)
When will a margin call be triggered?
A margin call is triggered when your account’s equity falls below 50% of the required margin. For more information please see our margin call policy page.
What is slippage?
Slippage is the difference between the execution price and the requested price of a pending order or trade. It can be caused by a number of factors, but more commonly by thin liquidity, abnormal volitility and gapping in the markets (where gapping refers to a situation where there is a break between the tradable prices).
Please be advised that slippage is a natural occurrence caused by market forces and is by no means induced by ThinkMarkets. Please refer to our website for more information on our Slippage Policy
Trading Tools and Services
How do I use FXWirePro news feed?
FXWirePro gives you access to in-depth news from a large network of sources. You can find FXWirePro news feeds via our ThinkTrader application.
Support and Education
I’m new to ThinkMarkets, where do I start?
Every new trader is different, but we offer a range of education content here including a Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced course as well as downloadable trading guides. You can access them for free in our Learn to Trade section.
I need help – how can I contact you?
You can contact us in a number of ways – select ‘Support’ from within the ThinkPortal and you can see our full contact information.
The three main methods are: