Due to the new European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) regulation coming into effect on the 1st August 2018, if you have any open positions on your Formax Trading account on this date, you may need to reduce the size of your positions or increase the margin you have available in your account, due to the reduction in leverage that will be applied to your account.

How will the new ESMA regulations effect your retail trading account?

The new rules impose stricter regulations on the distribution and sale of CFDs, including rolling spot forex trading.

This new regulation will affect all retail investors across the EU and has been designed to increase the standards of conduct across the industry as well as protecting clients from considerable losses.

The new regulation includes:

• Restrictions on leverage for major currency pairs to 30:1 and 20:1 for non-major currency pairs
• A margin close-out rule will be applied at 50% of minimum required margin
• Negative balance protection on a per-account basis

For example if you trade major currency pairs, you will need to have almost 7 times the margin you do now to trade the same stake sizes: