Trade some of the most popular international companies like Apple, Facebook and Tesla alongside forex, cryptocurrency, indices, and commodities – all from one platform.
Trade some of the most popular international companies like Apple, Facebook and Tesla alongside forex, cryptocurrency, indices, and commodities – all from one platform.
At FXCM all transaction costs are already built into the spread and there are no added commission fees. The spread costs can easily be calculated on the Trading Station platform, as you can see the real-time spreads and pip costs (in your account denomination) before you enter any trade. To calculate the spread cost in the currency of your account:
Spread
x Pip Cost
x Number of Contracts
= Total Transaction Cost
Spreads will vary on different instruments, so take note before entering a trade on an unfamiliar product.
Any positions held past the closing time of a stock exchange may be subject to a "financing charge" which reflects in an FXCM account as "rollover." The financing adjustment will take place on the account shortly after the close of the relevant stock exchange.
Financing costs are calculated as:
(Yesterday's closing share price) X (1 month relevant Libor or Sonia + FXCM's mark up)/(days in a year)1 X (Trade Size x 0.1)
Note that the financing markup for long positions on CFDs is 5.25% and for short positions is 2.75%.
Financing costs are rounded to five decimals.
On Fridays, to account for holding a position into the weekend, Financing Costs are 3X larger than other days.
One of the many benefits of trading share CFDs with FXCM is that you free up valuable capital. As a general rule, you need to put down 10% of the notional value of the position you are trading unless otherwise stated. You can see the tangible benefits of this type of trading in the example with Vodafone (VOD.uk) below.
All things equal, Trader B has £1,174.50 collateral left over to do with as they wish, while still incurring the same profit/loss as Trader A.
Please contact FXCM for complete details on calculating margin on Share CFDs. Keep in mind that trading on margin can both positively and negatively affect your trading experience as both profits and losses can be dramatically amplified. In the event the Equity of the account drops below the account Margin Requirement, the account will receive a Margin Call and your position may be liquidated at the first available price.
Where a long position has been opened on a dividend paying Share CFD before the ex-dividend date and left open through the opening of the exchange on the ex-dividend date, FXCM credits dividends to your account net taxes and mark ups. Dividend payments takes place on the day of the ex-dividend date after the exchange closes for the relevant Share CFD.
Any short positions left open through the exchange open on the ex-dividend date will pay the entire dividend amount.
The daily dividend amount can be viewed from the simple dealing rates window in the Trading Station platform in the columns marked "Div S" (For sell/short positions) or "Div B" (For buy/long positions).
Please Note: Upcoming dividends are displayed in the counter currency of the instrument (For e.g if the AAPL.US (Apple) displayed "Div B" 0.23 that would be a credit of 0.23 USD per contract, irrespective of your account denomination.
As per Section 871 of the US tax code. A 30% tax applies on dividend adjustments to traders of equity derivatives of US stocks. In accordance with FXCM's obligation under this US tax regulation, 30% of all Dividend adjustments are withheld and passed on by FXCM to the IRS. 2
In the event of any corporate actions such as, but not limited to, stock splits, reverse stock splits, mergers, and spin-offs; FXCM shall determine in accordance with market practice the appropriate adjustment, if any, to be made to the current contract value or contract quantity of any open positions in order to preserve the economic equivalent of your position or to reflect the effect of the event on the relevant underlying share.
FXCM aims to open and close markets as close to the posted trading hours as possible, however in the event of certain corporate actions, FXCM may place trade restrictions, delay market open or bring forward market close. Depending on the type of corporate action, all open positions may potentially be liquidated and/or pending entry orders, stops and limits associated with the instrument may be cancelled. In this case clients would need to re-establish another position if desired and/or insert new stops and limits.
Due to restrictions implemented by regulatory bodies, underlying stock exchanges, or liquidity providers that FXCM works with, some shares may be restricted to be "sold short."
Any short sale restriction does not impede someone from closing any open position; it only prevents the opening of new short sale positions. FXCM may not proactively contact clients on which positions may have short sale restrictions.
The MetaTrader (MT4) platform may provide an error message, "Trade is Disabled" and the FXCM Trading Station may state, "You Cannot Trade at This Price" but these error messages should not be construed as official communication of a short selling restriction.