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Trading Basics

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Usable Margin: is the amount of account equity that is currently not being used to maintain open positions. Usable Margin should be thought of as two things: The amount available to open NEW positions The amount that EXISTING positions can move…

Cryptocurrency Margin Requirements are updated shortly after market open (Sunday 18:00 ET) and then updated daily during the market break (Between 16:45 ET to 18:00 ET Daily). Cryptocurrencies are currently leveraged at 4:1 and the new margin requirement will be the equivalent…

FXCM's trading hours vary by product. For forex, trading opens on Sundays between 5:00 PM ET and 5:15 PM ET and closes on Fridays around 4:55 PM ET. For CFD trading hours, click here.

FXCM offers several account types to meet your trading needs including mobile trading, automated trading, or Mac-compatible platforms. You can compare the features of our platforms at the forex trading platform comparison page. The most popular platform is the award-winning Trading…

The usable margin column in the accounts window of the Trading Station shows the amount of funds you have remaining in your account to open new positions or guard against losses. There are two things that can decrease your usable…

A Margin Call will occur on a trader's account when: Usable Margin is less than 0 When a trader's Equity is less than Used Margin When positions are over-leveraged or trading losses produce insufficient equity to maintain current open positions, a…

As a general rule of thumb, we recommend limiting total account leverage to a maximum of 20:1. For example, if you have an account balance of $10,000, you could trade a maximum position size twenty times larger than your account…

If the requested price of a stop or stop entry order is reached at the open of the market on Sunday, the order will be filled at the next available price and may experience negative slippage depending on the change…

Slippage is a factor when trading any financial market. Slippage occurs when the market gaps over prices or because available liquidity at a given price has been exhausted. Market gaps normally occur during fast moving markets when a price can…