cate

Hi, About 9 pm (UK time) last night I went to open a position in EUR/MXN and discovered that instead of the usual minimum order size being 1 (needing about £480 margin) I was able to open tiny .1 positions (needing about £48 margin). The same applied to JPY/USD but other pairs like EUR/USD and AUD/USD hadn't changed. Now this morning the minimum order size has gone back to what it used to be, but the tiny positions I was able to open last night are still there in my account. Do you know if these .1 positions are going to be available again in the future or did something briefly go wrong with the trading platform that allowed them last night? Did anyone else notice this? Can anyone at IG help? Maybe @KoketsoIG? Many thanks, Cate

Hi @KoketsoIG, That's such a shame. 😞 But thanks for letting us know. Cate

Hi @KoketsoIG, I have the same question as @Premachandra! The Morning Call and Charting the Markets both seem to have disappeared. Do you know what's happening with them this week? Many thanks, Cate

Hi John, I only meant that if you want to check what levels the price actually hit you need to set the chart to Bid to see if your stop was hit. Because if the Bid (which will be lower than the Mid that is currently displayed on your chart) hit the stop level then the stop will have been triggered. Similarly if you have a short position, you need to look at a chart of the Ask (which will be higher than the Mid) to see whether a sell stop will have been triggered. Does that make sense? I always flip my chart to either the Bid or the Ask, depending which direction I'm trading, when deciding where to set my stop levels, if I'm trying to be precise - it gives a more accurate picture. But even with that precaution spreads (difference between Bid and Ask) can widen at times of high volatility/ low liquidity, so sometimes at a turning point a stop gets hit that's further from the mid than you might expect. But it sounds as though Neueneuen has discovered that the level of your stop shouldn't have been hit, according to the Bid prices on the chart. Hope it gets sorted out! Cate

Hi John, Just a thought, but it looks as though your chart is set to display the mid price. You really need to set it to show the Bid because if that hit your stop it would have triggered a sell of your position. But if the Bid didn't hit that level either, then I agree something's wrong. Good luck, Cate

Thanks, @KoketsoIG. I'm only confused because when I wrote to the helpdesk on 6th June, they sent me a document called FX_TIERED_MARGIN_RETAIL which they said was a list of the new margin requirements that would come into effect on 11th June. It shows (Tier 1) EUR/TRY 5% and TRY/JPY 5% I think they must have sent the wrong document. Could you give me a link to the place on the website that has an up to date table of margin requirements? Best wishes, Cate

@neueneuen As I seem to keep saying on this topic - it's bizarre. Why publish a document showing the rate at 5% if they don't intend to stick to it? @KoketsoIG do you know if this change to 15% for the TRY pairs is permanent, or if there's some temporary reason and it's going to settle down? The document the help desk sent me showed a published rate of 5% margin effective from 11th June. Would really appreciate IG sorting this out. The rate used to be 7.5%, then went to 15%, then 25% and now again 15%. I've been trying to test out a trading strategy, but keep finding the margin isn't what I expect it to be and so I can't take the trade my system is telling me to. Thanks, Cate

@neueneuen I just wanted to let you know that I've finally managed to get my hands on a document from IG that lays out the proposed margin changes that come into effect on 11th June. It looks as though only about a dozen commods and the dollar basket will have their rates increase. The helpdesk also included a full table of FX rates and rather extraordinarily the TRY pairs are all showing a 5% margin for Tier 1. I can't quite believe it's true, given that at its best the rate was 7.5% before the current jump to 25%. Waiting to see what actually happens on the 11th...

@neueneuen Absolutely! I do wonder if you're right and they're trying to stop us trading some of the pairs altogether.

Thanks so much, @neueneuen, I really appreciate all that. It seems a bit bizarre, doesn't it? I wish IG were a bit more upfront about it all. It's not very reassuring having to dig like this to try to find what's going on.

Hi @KoketsoIG and @neueneuen, The TRY pairs have changed their margin requirement again without any warning. EUR/TRY now requires 25% margin. Do you know why this happened without any notification that a margin change was coming? Is it a permanent change this time? I wish IG we're clearer about what's going on with margin changes. We've been told things will change on 11th June but no indication of what the changes will be. And this change in the TRY has come earlier than any changes were meant to happen. I've included you @neueneuen in case you're still also trading the TRY pairs. Best wishes, Cate

I came on here to ask the same question as @alpen. I'll write to the helpdesk to check which of my positions are going to be affected, but I assume this means we're going to have to contact them before opening any trades in an asset we don't currently hold, between now and 11th June. I mean I don't have a position in EUR/CAD at the moment but I might open one at some point in the next 10 days, not realising that the margin rate is about to change. Those of us who trade frequently and in quite a wide range of assets are going to find this a bit of a nightmare... I'm a bit puzzled why the changes aren't been listed in advance the way they used to be. I can see quite a bit of drama coming on 11th June! Best wishes, Cate

Thanks so much, @KoketsoIG! Much appreciated. best wishes, Cate

Realise I should probably have tagged someone from IG in this question - @MongiIG?

Hi, There used to be a really useful weekly blog on this help forum that was called "Counting the Cost" and showed how many days interest would be payable each night on all the FX pairs. It was great for checking that you weren't going to be caught by a night that wasn't following the usual pattern of 3x on Wednesday but normal the rest of the week. (I remember when TRY positions had a 6x night suddenly, which would have been painful if you were in the wrong direction and not expecting it.) But I can't find any of these blogs more recently than April. Have they stopped? I really hope not. Thanks, Cate