Oil and gas
Oil
BenchMark offers online trading on the most popular energies such as Brent Oil and WTI, along with Natural Gas. Spot energies are based on futures contracts and are available in MetaTrader platform as CFDs. Competitive spreads and no commission trading are offered on all spot energies.
For short-term trading, spot energies are a popular choice, and as energy consumption increases across the globe, values increase too.
| Spread | from $0.05 in oil trading and $0.01 in gas trading |
| Min. trading volume | 10 barrels’ oil and 100 Btu gas (1 lot) |
| Margin requirements | from 1% |
| Commissions and other taxes | NO |
| Automatic execution | YES |
| Hedging without margin | YES |
| Stop/Limit restrictions | No restrictions |
| Experts | YES, without restrictions |
Margin groups
BenchMark applies different margins and stop-out conditions according to the client's categorization as retail or professional and the amount of the equity on the client's trading account. You can change your margin group by sending a request trough the client area. The conditions for each individual group are described in the table below:
| Margin group | Client's equity | Leverage | Stop-out level |
| Retail | Not applicable | 1:30 | 50% |
| Professionals group 1 | <10 000 €/$ | 1:400 | 30% |
| Professionals group 2 | 10 000 - 50 000 €/$ | 1:200 | 30% |
| Professionals group 3 | 50 000 - 200 000 €/$ | 1:100 | 30% |
| Professionals group 4 | >200 000 €/$ | 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.
Oil and Gas trading conditions
This table shows the required margins, spreads and minimum volumes for each precisous metal. Column Margin changes with the selected group. The values listed in the Average spread column are indicative and may vary depending on market conditions.
| Code | Minimum volume | Expiration | Margin Group 1 |
Margin Group 2 |
Margin Group 3 |
Margin Group 4 |
Margin Retail |
|
| USOIL | 10 barrels (1 lot) | Yes | 1% | 2% | 4% | 8% | 10% | |
| UKOIL | 10 barrels (1 lot) | Yes | 1% | 2% | 4% | 8% | 10% | |
| NGAS | 100 Btu (1 lot) | No | 1% | 2% | 4% | 8% | 10% | |
| WTI | 10 barrels (1 lot) | No | 1% | 2% | 4% | 8% | 10% | |
| Brent | 10 barrels (1 lot) | No | 1% | 2% | 4% | 8% | 10% |
The given margin requirements are related to the announced minimum volumes.
Trading hours in GMT
| Code | Trading hours | Interruption |
| USOIL | Sun 22:00 - Fri 21:00 | every day between 21:00 - 22:00 |
| UKOIL | Mon 00:00 - Fri 21:00 | every day between 21:00 - 00:00 |
| NGAS | Mon 22:00 - Fri 21:00 | every day between 21:00 - 02:00 |
| WTI | Sun 22:00 - Fri 21:00 | every day between 21:00 - 22:00 |
| Brent | Mon 00:05 - Fri 21:00 | every day between 21:00 - 00:05 |
Spot Oil (Non-expiring Oil and NGAS)
Investors seeking to speculate on Oil price fluctuations should recognize that Oil is commonly traded as Futures Contracts that requires the exchange of assets for cash at a future date. If investors do not wish to take delivery of the underlying asset, all positions must be closed before the contracts expiration date. As such, trading Oil as a spot instrument negates these concerns for those investors who are only interested in price speculation. The spot price of Benchmark Oil instruments is derived from a weighted average between the relevant nearby first month and second month Commodity Futures Contracts and follows the business day convention of New York. The following pricing method offers two main advantages for investors:
- Reduction in the level of volatility when the first futures contract approaches expiration, since there is often less liquidity.
- Investors can transfer their postions from current month to the nex one, without having to close their open positions.
Rollover of Spot Oil
BenchMark’s Spot Oil instruments are margined products. As such the traded value is financed by way of an overnight rollover charge. Positions that are opened and closed within the same trading day will not be subject to overnight charges. The amount of the applied rollover is based on the number of business day the position is held and a markup, where the the difference between the contracts is included in small daily parts.
Oil and gas trading rollover
CFDs on oil and gas are based on the price of the real futures contracts. Oil and natural gas have a monthly expiration (please see the tables below). BenchMark does not make physical delivery of the asset at the end of the futures contract. Therefore, before expiry date CFD positions on oil and gas must be rolled for the next month.
Clients that hold an open position in USOIL and UKOIL on the "Expiry date in MetaTrader" will be closed at our bid/ask at 20:45 GMT. The only consequence of this is the client will realize any floating P/L at the time it is closed.
The new contracts for USOIL start trading at 22:00 GMT and 00:00 GMT for UKOIL. After the trading starts, clients can re-open their positions again in the new contract. Please, contact us If you want BenchMark Finance to reopen your positions after the interruption.
BenchMark always reminds about the procedures and expiration dates of the contracts.
Verification of the daily applied swap rates
The applied daily swap rates for both long and short position in oil and gas can be checked on this link.
Note: Swap rates, which will be applied for the next day, are updated in the calculator after 16:00 GMT.
The rates are calculated at the beginning of the next business day (17:00 New York time). When opening and closing a position within the same business day, the position will not be swaped.
Exipiry Dates
| Contract | USOIL | UKOIL |
| November 2018 | 18 October 2018 | 27 September 2018 |
| December 2018 | 19 November 2018 | 30 October 2018 |
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