Standard Forex Account:  $500 per lot on all instruments.  Equivalent to approximately 0.5% margin or 200:1 leverage.

Mini Forex Account: $50 per lot on all instruments.  Equivalent to approximately 0.5% margin or 200:1 leverage.

Share CFD Account:  $500 per lot on all instruments.  Equivalent to approximately 1.0% margin or 100:1 leverage.

Mini Share Account:  $50 per lot on all instruments.  Equivalent to approximately 1.0% margin or 100:1 leverage.

GCI is able to maintain these low margin requirements by enabling automatic liquidation of positions once a margin call is reached.  This policy also provides for the protection of client account balances in the event of rapid price movements. 

A margin call is reached if a client's account equity falls below the required margin.  For example, in a Standard FX account, if a client has 10 lots of open positions a margin call will occur if account equity drops below $5,000.  At this point, some or all of the client's open positions will be closed immediately at current prices.

Traders are also able to monitor both usable margin and used margin in real-time from the "Account Information" window of the online trading platform.  Positions will be automatically closed once usable margin drops below zero. 

Walk through an example...

GCI encourages clients to avoid margin calls by either using stop loss orders or maintaining adequate funds in the account relative to position size.
 

More on CFD Margins

Share CFDs are traded in lots that are equivalent in size to 1,000 shares each.  For example, a trader can purchase 1 lot of a CFD on Microsoft at $51, for a total position value of $51,000.  The required margin for this trade is $500. Indices, Forex and Commodities are traded in "lots".

We have reduced the size of certain index and futures contracts to bring the margin requirement down to $500 per lot.  This provides the dual benefit of allowing individual traders to start with smaller positions and lower risk, and to allow larger traders to adjust their position sizes more precisely.  Please see specifications for further information on contract sizes.
 

Standard Forex and Share CFD Account Margin Option

Margin requirements for the Standard Forex and Share CFD accounts are set to $500 per lot by default.  With this margin setting, clients pay the daily carry as per the amounts shown in the "Currency Reference Rates"/"Instruments" window of the trading platform, regardless of position direction.  However, clients can choose to have their margin requirements set at $2,000 per lot, in which case they will pay or receive based on position direction.  In this case, negative amounts shown in the "Currency Reference Rates" window are the amounts that the client will pay, and positive amounts are the amounts that the client will receive.

Mini Forex and Mini Share Account Margin Option

Margin requirements for the Mini Forex and Mini Share accounts are set to $50 per lot by default.  With this margin setting, clients pay the daily carry as per the amounts shown in the "Currency Reference Rates"/"Instruments" window of the trading platform, regardless of position direction.  However, clients can choose to have their margin requirements set at $200 per lot, in which case they will pay or receive based on position direction.  In this case, negative amounts shown in the "Currency Reference Rates" window are the amounts that the client will pay, and positive amounts are the amounts that the client will receive.