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Support: Trading Handbook |
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 Account Minimum
GAIN Capital trading accounts have an initial minimum deposit of $100,000.
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Account Statements
Customer account statements are provided online in the Reports section of the trading platform. Customers have access to a full suite of available reports, including account value summary, detailed transaction listing, open positions, etc. Reports may be generated for any date range, and printed or saved for future reference. For more information on the available reports, please see our user guide.
Monthly account statements are mailed upon request only. To receive monthly account statements by mail, you must complete and return a Request to Receive Monthly Account Statements by Mail.
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Confirmations
Deals are confirmed on screen, typically within one second. Full transaction details may be accessed on screen as well, including date, time, rate, notional amount bought and sold, USD value, and reference number.
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Daily Housekeeping
Daily housekeeping will occur each evening at 5:00pm ET and will last approximately 5 minutes. During that time, back office staff will conduct daily rolls and important system maintenance tasks will be performed. Online trading MAY be unavailable, but we will accept phone orders.
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Commission Rates
Our standard commission rate is a flat $25 per million traded, regardless of currency pair. Institutional & high volume accounts, please contact us for information on tiered pricing & commission structures.
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Interest
Regardless of account size or trading activity, GAIN pays interest via overnight roll points when you should be earning it. And when the currency pair order of a trade requires you to pay overnight interest, GAIN will make tight, aggressive overnight roll spreads. Open trades are rolled forward in the base currency of the position.
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Margin
GAIN's initial margin requirement is 1%. In general, additional margin is required when a client's initial margin drops in value by 50% based on the value of any open positions. GAIN reserves the right to liquidate any open positions at its sole discretion.
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Order Types*
GAIN's dealing platform provides sophisticated order entry and tracking. Orders may be entered at any rate - inside or outside the existing spread - using the following orders types:
- Limit orders
An order with restrictions on the maximum price to be paid or the minimum price to be received.
If a trader is long USD/CHF is 1.4627, a limit order would be entered to sell dollars above that price, for example, at 1.4800.
- Stop Loss orders
Order type whereby an open position is automatically liquidated at a specific price. Often used to minimize exposure to losses if the market moves against an investor's position.
If the trader above is long USD at 1.4627, a stop loss order could be left at 1.4549, in case the dollar depreciates below 1.4549.
As a rule, sell stops are filled on our bid, and buy stops are filled on our offer. This allows GAIN to fill client stop orders at the rate they requested in almost every case. In the rare instance that the market gaps over a requested rate, the stop is filled at the best available price. This is an important point for traders who are accustomed to being filled on sell stops when the offer reaches the requested order rate. For example, if a stop order is placed to sell USD/CHF at 1.4549, the trader will be filled when the bid reaches 1.4549 (i.e. the bid/offer is 1.4549/54).
- One Cancels Other orders (OCO's)
A contingent order providing that one part of the order is cancelled if the other part is executed. This is a particularly useful order type in that it allows traders to execute specific trading strategies based on technical analysis - without having to watch the market tick by tick.
As above, with the trader long USD/CHF at 1.4627, a typical OCO order would be a stop loss at 1.4562 and a limit (take profit) at 1.4700. If one part of the order is filled, the other is automatically cancelled.
- If / Then Single
A conditional order providing that if the first order ("If" order) is executed, the second order ("Then" order) is activated as a live, single order.
In cases where the If order does not execute, the Then single order will remain dormant. When either part of an If / Then order is cancelled, all parts of the order are cancelled as well.
An example of an If / Then single order would be to first place an 'If' limit order to buy EUR/USD at 1.0690, fifty points below the current market rate of 1.0740. The 'Then' part of the order would be a limit sell order to take profit at 1.0770 (eighty pips above the 'If' order execution rate of 1.0690). If the market dips to 1.0690 the 'If' order will execute and the 'Then' leg of the order will become active. Note: the 'Then' order could also have been a stop loss order at 1.0650 (forty pips below the execution rate of 1.0690).
- If /Then OCO
A conditional order providing that if the first order ("If" order) is executed, the second order ("Then" order) is activated as a live, One Cancels Other (OCO) order. Full description of an OCO order. The execution of either one of the two 'Then' orders automatically cancels the other.
In cases where the 'If' single order does not execute, the 'Then' OCO order will remain dormant. When any part of an If / Then OCO order is cancelled, including either leg of the OCO order, all parts of the order are cancelled as well.
An example of an If / Then OCO order would be to first place an 'If' limit order to buy USD/JPY at 118.80, fifty points below the current market rate of 119.30. The 'Then' part of the order would be an OCO order: one leg of the OCO could be a limit sell order to take profit at 119.60, (eighty pips above the execution rate of 118.80) the other leg a stop loss order to sell at 118.50 (thirty points below the execution rate). If the market reaches 118.80, the 'If' single order is executed, and the 'Then' OCO order is activated. If activated, the execution of either leg of the 'Then' OCO order automatically cancels the other.
- Trailing Stop*
A single stop loss order that automatically 'trails' the price of the currency. This offers the potential for greater gains while attempting to guard against price declines.
If the live rate is 1.2701 and the Trailing Points are set to 30. The sell stop order will be filled if EUR/USD bid reaches 1.2671 (live rate - 30 pips). If EUR/USD moves in your favor, e.g. to 1.2735, the stop order will automatically adjust to 1.2705 - always 30 pips from the live rate.
All of the above orders may be entered as Day Orders, entered today and good until end of NY business day (5:00pm ET). Or, clients may choose to may enter a Good 'til Cancelled Order (GTC), which is valid until the order is executed or cancelled. Orders remain open until they are triggered or cancelled. If you close out a position manually, you must cancel any order(s) relating to that position.
*Placing contingent orders may not necessarily limit your losses.
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Order Execution*
- First In First Out (FIFO)
Open positions are closed according to the FIFO accounting rule. All positions opened within a particular currency pair are liquidated in the order in which they were originally opened.
- Stop Loss Orders*
As a rule, sell stops are filled on our bid and buy stops are filled on our offer. This is an important point for traders who are accustomed to being filled on sell stops when the offer reaches the requested order rate. For example, if a stop order is placed to sell USD/CHF at 1.4549, the trader will be filled when the bid reaches 1.4549. In the rare instance the market gaps over a requested rate, a stop order is filled at the best available price.
- Limit Orders
Sell limit orders are filled when the bid reaches the requested rate; limit orders to buy are filled on the offer. For example, a limit order to buy EUR/USD at 1.0456 will be filled when GAIN's offer hits 1.0456.
- Good Til Cancelled (GTC) Orders
All GTC orders remain open until they are triggered or cancelled. If you close out a position manually, you must cancel any order(s) relating to that position.
- Orders left over the weekend or holidays*
Orders left pending at close of trading on Friday at 5:00pm ET or placed over the weekend are subject to a gap open on Sunday evening when GAIN starts trading at 5:00pm ET. For both stop loss and limit orders - if your order is triggered due to news, events or other fundamental factors, it will not be executed over the weekend. Your order WILL be executed at the prevailing price when GAIN's trading desk opens Sunday. Because of the additional gap risk involved, you may want to reconsider leaving open orders over the weekend or holidays.
*Placing contingent orders may not necessarily limit your losses.
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Phone Trading
Live clients may trade over the telephone with GAIN's trading desk 24 hours a day, from Sunday at 5:00pm ET through Friday at 5:00pm ET. All trades executed via the phone are subject to a pre-deal margin availability check and will be manually entered into the customer's account for integrated P&L analysis and reporting. All telephone calls are recorded for the safety of both parties.
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Reporting
The dealing software tracks all trading activity in real time, allowing clients to view current open positions, real-time profit and loss, margin availability, account balances, and all historical transaction details directly on-screen.
In addition, by clicking on the 'reports' tab on the menu bar, clients may access five ad hoc reports:
Account Value Summary - an online monthly account statement. View current account balance (realized P&L) for a selected month, as well as all deposits, withdrawals, interest earned, and fees charged (if any).
Detailed Transaction Listing - lists complete trade detail for any selected date range, including deal date, currency pair dealt, trade direction (buy or sell), contract size for both currencies in the pair dealt, and executed deal rate.
Open Positions - a summary view of all open positions, including contract size, USD value, average rate of open positions, reval rate (current market rate), and unrealized P&L. This report supplements real-time position information available in the position management screen of the trading platform.
Order History - provides detail on all order activity for a selected data range, including order entry date and time stamp, listing of all cancelled and/or executed orders, along with its reference number. The Log Entry column provides a confirmation number and action detail for any order.
Rollover History - provides rollover details for any transaction held open past 5:00pm EST, including rollover rate and USD value. May be generated for any given date range.
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Rollovers
GAIN automatically rolls forward all open positions to the next day's value date following the close of NY trading at 5:00pm ET.
GAIN clients have the opportunity to earn interest on positions left open overnight - at all margin levels. The amount of interest that can be earned depends on the direction of the open position and the interest rate differential between the two currencies involved. Rollover credits or debits are reflected in the unrealized P&L of the open position, and a rollover report (available in the "Reports" tab of the trading platform) provides additional detail of rollover activity.
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Trading Hours
GAIN's trading desk is open 24 hours daily from 5:00pm ET Sunday through 5:00pm ET on Friday.
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Trading over the Internet
Executing a deal with GAIN via the Internet is a simple process. Simply enter the number of lots and then click on the bid (buy) or offer (sell) for the currency pair you wish to trade. The dealing software automatically calculates the initial margin requirement based upon the notional amount of the deal, and if sufficient funds are available in your account, will accept the transaction. Deals are confirmed online, normally within one second, and the system instantaneously displays your open position in the position management window and displays the detail of the trade in the deal blotter.
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Transaction Sizes
On the GAIN dealing platform, all trades are sized in units of 100,000 of the base currency, called 'lots'. The maximum deal size available online is 25 lots (2.5 million of the base currency). Trades over 2.5 million and up to 100 million may be executed with GAIN dealers over the phone.
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