Forex
Forex
Currency market, also called Forex or FX market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily turnover of over 6 trillion USD.
BenchMark offers online Forex trading on major currency pairs like EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, AUDCAD and a wide variety of minor and exotic currency pairs. Forex is offered as CFDs in the MetaTrader platform with no commissions, tight spreads and automatic execution.
Forex trading gives the opportunity for trading both directions - rising or falling markets - and because CFDs are traded on margin (leverage), transactions can be made without the need to pay their full value.
| Commissions/Fees | NO |
| Spread | from 0.6 pips |
| Minimum trading volume | 1 000 currency units (0.01 lot) |
| Margin (leverage) requirement | starting from 0.25% (1:400) |
| Automatic execution | YES |
| Hedging without margin | YES |
| Long/Short positions | YES |
| Stop/Limit restrictions | No restrictions |
| Expert Advisors | YES, without restrictions |
| Real-time quotes | YES |
Forex trading hours
Benchmark offers spot forex trading through its MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms from 21:02 GMT on Sunday to 20:58 GMT on Friday. The trading hours of the currency pairs including Russian ruble are from 06:15 to 14:00.
FX trading has a daily pause between 20:58 and 21:02 GMT. During that period FX quotes will not be active for trading. This 4-minute pause in trade is made because in this time the liquidity is extremely low.
Margin groups
BenchMark applies different margins and stop-out conditions according to the client's categorization as retail or professional and the amount of the equity on the client's trading account. You can change your margin group by sending a request trough the client area. The conditions for each individual group are described in the table below:
| Margin group | Client's equity | Margin (leverage) | Stop-out level |
| Retail | Not applicable | from 3.34% (1:30) | 50% |
| Professionals group 1 | <10 000 €/$ | from 0.25% (1:400) | 30% |
| Professionals group 2 | 10 000 - 50 000 €/$ | from 0.50% (1:200) | 30% |
| Professionals group 3 | 50 000 - 200 000 €/$ | from 1% (1:100) | 30% |
| Professionals group 4 | >200 000 €/$ | from 2% (1:50) | 50% |
- Switching from one margin group to another is not automatic. When switching to a higher group (increased client's equity), the client is notified of the change via a platform message or by a phone call. If client has more than one account, the margin group is applied on the basis of the sum of client's equity in all client's accounts in MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms.
- BenchMark is not responsible for the stop-out of positions due to a transition to a higher group. It is client's duty to maintain a sufficient level of free margin to withstand the transition to a higher group.
- If client's equity becomes lower and this allows client's account to be moved to a lower group, the client must notify BenchMark that he/she is eligible to move to a lower group.
Forex trading conditions
This table shows the required margins, spreads and minimum volumes for each of the currency pairs. Column Margin changes with the selected group. The values listed in the Average spread column are indicative and may vary depending on market conditions.
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