Trading Hours

The trading desk is open 24 hours daily from 17:00pm ET Sunday through 17:00 ET on Friday. There may be special Holiday schedules from time to time.

Currency Pairs

24-hour trading is currently available in the following currency pairs: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD, AUS/USD, NZD/USD, EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, EUR/AUD, EUR/CAD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, CHF/JPY, AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY CAD/JPY,AUD/CAD, AUD/NZD, GBP/AUD, and GBP/CAD. 

Dealing Spread

Deal on competitive spreads. 

Transaction sizes 

On the dealing platform, all trades are sized in units of 10K or 100K of the base currency, called ‘mini-lots’ and ‘standard-lots’. Please decide which size lots make the most sense for you based on your risk tolerance.

Trading Minimums

The minimum transaction size is one mini-lot, or 10,000 of the base currency, with a minimum margin deposit of 1%. For example, a US$10,000 position would require an initial margin deposit of US$100. Traders can trade as little as 10K in the base currency.

Price Quotes

Clients have the ability to execute trades directly from real time streaming bid/ask quotes. Live prices are continuously published to clients via the dealing software, and the traders can at any time click on the current bid or offer to execute a trade.

Trading over the Internet

Executing a deal via the Internet is a simple two-step process. Simply enter the number of lots and then click on the bid (buy) or offer (sell) for the currency pair you wish to trade - your deal is automatically executed. The dealing software automatically calculates the initial margin requirement based upon the notional amount of the deal, and if sufficient funds are available in your account, will accept the transaction. Deals are confirmed online, normally within one second, and the system instantaneously updates both your open position and calculates your current P&L. 

Phone Trading 

Live clients may trade over the telephone with the trading desk 24 hours a day, from Sunday at 1900 ET through Friday at 1630 ET.  All trades executed via the phone are subject to a pre-deal margin availability check and will be manually entered into the customer’s account for integrated P&L analysis and reporting.  All telephone calls are recorded for the safety of both parties.

Order Types 

NFA Compliance Rule 2-43b

What Does NFA Compliance Rule 2-43b Mean?

A 2009 rule implemented by the U.S. forex industry's self-regulatory organization, the National Futures Association (NFA), regarding forex trading by U.S. regulated forex companies. It prohibits hedging by requiring multiple positions held in the same currency pair to be offset on a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis. It also prohibits price adjustments to executed customer orders except to resolve a complaint in the customer's favor or in the case of certain straight-through processing transactions, and these changes must be reviewed, approved and documented by the NFA. TraderhouseGlobal.com’s relationship with CMS has our customers trading via the Currenex electronic trading network www.currenex.com which has always and will continue to automatically follow FIFO accounting. Stop loss and limit orders are available via this platform.

The dealing platform provides sophisticated order entry and tracking. Orders may be entered at any rate - inside or outside the existing spread - using the following orders types: 

Limit orders – An order with restrictions on the maximum price to be paid or the minimum price to be received. 

Using the above example, if a trader is long USD/CHF is 1.4627, a limit order would be entered to sell dollars above that price, for example, 1.4800

Stop loss orders – Order type whereby an open position is automatically liquidated at a specific price. Often used to minimize exposure to losses if the market moves against an investor’s position. 

If the investor above is long USD at 1.4627, an investor might wish to place a stop loss order for 1.4549, which would limit his loss should the dollar depreciate, possibly below 1.4549 

One cancels other orders (OCO’s)  - A contingent order providing that one part of the order is cancelled if the other part is executed. This is a particularly useful order type in that it allows traders to execute specific trading strategies based on technical analysis – without having to watch the market tick by tick.

As above, with the trader long USD/CHF at 1.4627, a typical OCO order would be a stop loss at 1.4700 and a take profit (Limit) at 1.4562.  If one part of the order is filled, the other is automatically cancelled. 

All of the above orders may be entered as Day Orders, entered today and good until end of NY business day (16:30 ET).  Or, clients may choose to may enter a Good ‘til Cancelled Order (GTC), which is valid until the order is executed or cancelled.

Order Execution

Stop Loss Orders - Execution Rules

As a rule, sell stops are filled on our bid, and buy stops are filled on our offer. This is an important point for traders who are accustomed to being filled on sell stops when the offer reaches the requested order rate. 

For example, if a stop order is placed to sell USD/CHF at 1.4549, the trader will be filled when the bid reaches 1.4549 (i.e. the bid/offer is 1.4549/54). This is an important point for traders who are accustomed to being filled on sell stops when the offer reaches the requested order rate.  (For traders who are accustomed to this practice, entering a stop loss at 1.4544 would achieve their goal.)

Good Til Cancelled (GTC) Orders - Execution Rules

All GTC orders remain open until they are triggered or cancelled. If you close out a position manually, you must cancel any order(s) relating to that position.

Orders left over the weekend

Orders left pending at close of trading on Friday at 1630 ET or placed over the weekend are subject to a gap open on Sunday evening when TRADERHOUSEGLOBAL.com starts trading at 1900 ET. For both stop loss and limit orders - if your order is triggered due to news, events or other fundamental factors, it will not be executed over the weekend. Your order WILL be executed at the prevailing price when CMS’ Liquidity providers trading desks open on Sunday. Because of the additional gap risk involved, you may want to reconsider leaving open orders over the weekend.

Margin 

Margin for an open position can be determined by using the equation below.
  Margin requirement = USD position size * 1%
  Margin calls/immediate liquidation of open positions will take place when available margin falls below zero.

Example:
You buy 1 lot of EURUSD @ 1.4955.
Your USD position size is 100,000 * 1.4955 = $149,550
Your margin requirement is $149,550 * .01 = $1495.50 In this example if your account equity
      falls below $1495.50 you will receive a margin call and the position will be liquidated.

Rollovers 

A rollover is the simultaneous closing of an open position for today’s value date, (normally at the end of the trading day) and the opening of the same position for the next day’s value date at a price reflecting the interest rate differential between the two currencies.  Clients either earn or pay away points on rollovers, depending on the direction of their positions and interest rate differential between the two currencies involved. 

Unless specific settlement instructions are provided, all open positions are automatically rolled forward to the next value date each day at 1700 ET. 

Daily Housekeeping

Daily Housekeeping will occur each evening from 1700 to 1715 ET. During that time, important system maintenance tasks will be performed and back office staff will conduct daily rolls. Online trading MAY be unavailable, but we will accept phone orders. 

Confirmations

Deals are confirmed on screen, typically within one second. Full transaction details maybe accessed on screen, including date, time, rate, notional amount bought and sold, USD value, and reference number. 

Reporting

The dealing software tracks all trading activity in real time, allowing clients to view current open positions, real-time profit and loss, margin availability, account balances, and all historical transaction details directly on-screen. 

Clients may also access additional reports online.  Click on the “Reporting” tab in the dealing software and follow the instructions. Reports may be generated for a specific date range, or ‘to date’ and printed for your records.

Risk Warning 

Forex trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors.

Before deciding to participate in Forex trading, you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience and risk appetite. Most importantly, do not invest money you cannot afford to lose. 

There is considerable exposure to risk in any foreign exchange transaction.  Any transaction involving currencies involves risks including, but not limited to, the potential for changing political and/or economic conditions that may substantially affect the price or liquidity of a currency. 

More over, the leveraged nature of FX trading means that any market movement will have an equally proportional effect on your deposited funds. This may work against you as well as for you. The possibility exists that you could sustain a total loss of initial margin funds and be required to deposit additional funds to maintain your position. If you fail to meet any margin call within the time prescribed, your position will be liquidated and you will be responsible for any resulting losses.  Investors may lower their exposure to risk by employing risk-reducing strategies such as  stop-loss or stop-limit orders.

There are also risks associated with utilizing an Internet-based deal execution software application including, but not limited, to the failure of hardware and software. Back up systems and contingency plans are in place to minimize the possibility of system failure, and phone trading is always available.