What is the Margin Watcher feature on Trading Station?

Margin Watcher is a Trading Station feature that sends a notification message on the Trading Station platform to allow for time to manage your account and possibly prevent liquidation via a margin call. In this time you may look to add equity to your account or reduce your exposure. 

Margin Watcher will activate when your account equity falls below the required Maintenance Margin for open trades. Generally speaking, when your account equity falls at or below 100% of entry margin, you get a margin warning and at or below 50%, your account is liquidated via margin call.

The MC column in the Trading Station is for Margin Call and can be used to determine your account level:

•             N (or no margin call) means there is sufficient margin in your account.

•             W(or margin call warning—usually red) means you are below required margin, but above liquidation margin.

•             Y(or yes margin call) means a margin call has been issued and positions have been liquidated.

Margin checks occur once daily for all accounts (at approximately 5pm EST), if your equity is greater than your Entry Margin Requirement during this check the warning is removed.

If you deposit funds or close trades a manual check will occur on your account, if your equity is greater than your Entry Margin Requirement during this check the warning is removed.

If the market moves in your favor and your equity is greater than your Entry Margin Requirement and you do not wish to wait for the daily margin check, you may contact FXCM to remove the warning.

Read FXCM’s Execution Risks for more on our margin call policy and specifics of liquidation.

It should be noted that if your account is in margin warning status, it will be set to ‘close-only’ and you will not be able to open new positions.

You can find the most up to date Margin Requirements here.