Spread is essentially the difference between the bid and the ask price. As traders always trade one currency for another, forex currencies are always quoted in terms of what the price is currently compared to another. To make things easy they are written in pairs. E.g. AUD/USD (Australian Dollar/US Dollar – AUD is the ‘base currency’ and USD is called the ‘counter’. If it took $1.5 AUD to buy $1 USD this would be written as 1.5/1.

If you choose to open and trade on a VT Markets RAW ECN account, you will find some of the lowest spreads in the industry. Trade on institutional grade liquidity, sourced directly from some of the world’s biggest banks with absolutely no mark-up applied at our end. This sort of liquidity and access to tight spread as low as zero, is no longer just the domain of hedge funds.

1. Open the Market Watch on the VT Markets MT4 Platform.

2. Right click inside the Market Watch and click ‘Spreads’

3. You will now have a 4th column displaying the Spread for each Forex currency pair, Commodity or Indices market.

For Standard STP account

For RAW ECN account

We do charge you commissions when trading forex, gold, silver, and oil with VT Markets Raw ECN account.
Please refer to the following table for a full list of RAW ECN commission charges, in the denomination of your trading account.
*On MT5 system limitations the commission column is not rounded up to 3 decimal places but to 2 decimal places only. Therefore, in EUR currency type account, the commission for 0.01 lot per side is rounded to $0.03 EUR (originally $0.025 EUR) and $0.06 EUR per position.

Forex leverage is defined as the use of borrowed capital, such as “margin” allowing the forex trader to gain access to larger sums of capital. This can heighten profits and losses and should be used wisely.

Here is an example of how leverage works in forex trading:

Forex Trader A has $5,000 USD:

If Forex Trader A has an account leverage of 10:1 and they wish to use $1,000 on one forex trade as margin, they will have exposure of $10,000 in base currency ($1,000) = 10 x $1000 = $10,000 (trade value).

Forex Trader B has $5,000 USD:

If Forex Trader B has an account leverage of 100:1 and they wish to use $1,000 on one forex trade as margin, they will have exposure of $100,000 in base currency ($1,000) = 100 x $1,000 = $100,000 (trade value).

The maximum forex leverage VT Markets may offer is up to 500:1. If you wish to get access to alter your forex leverage, please note this on the application or contact us. By submitting a change in trade leverage request, you accept that this can result in high risk and severe or total account loss. VT Markets is a non-advisory forex broker and will not provide you with investment or personal trading advice. For such advice, please consult a registered financial advisor.

Margin forex is very high risk and leverage should be used wisely.

Login to your client portal and request a forex leverage change to your trading account:

Client portal login

When trading spot foreign exchange (forex trading), all forex trades will settle two business days from date of entry, as per market convention.

Cash indices and commodities will settle at the end each business day (server time 00:00).

VT Markets is not involved in the physical delivery of trades, thus all positions left open at the end of the trading day will be rolled over to a new value date and will therefore have exposure to a swap charge or credit.

Please note: For forex trades held open from Wednesday to Thursday as per server time, the new value date becomes Monday, rather than the weekend. This means the rollover charge on a Wednesday evening will be three times the usual value indicated on the table.

As cash indices and commodities are same day settlement, holding trades over the weekend from Friday to Monday will carry three times the usual value as it accrues the three days of swap.

Also please note there is no overnight swap on crude oil as they are directly derived from the futures contract.

Forex swap rates are affected by market conditions and the interest rate of the affiliated countries of the chosen forex currency pair.

The daily released rates are calculated by our financial institutional partners using risk-management analysis.

Each forex currency pair has its own forex swap charge. Interest is paid in the currency sold and received in the currency bought.

For the most up-to-date forex swap rates, please refer to the Market Watch panel in our MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform.

Simply follow the steps outlined below: 1.Locate your product in the ‘Market Watch’ window. Right click, and select ‘Symbols’. 2.Select the product you wish to view from the list. Select ‘Specifications’. 3.Here you can view the forex swap rates for both long and short positions.

When you are trading oil on the MT4 platform, if you hold a position over the monthly expiration date of the futures contract that price is based on, you will encounter a rollover. If you do not wish for your position to be rolled over, then you should close your position beforehand.

This is because oil (CL-OIL) is a futures contract which has a set expiration date. If you want to continue to hold your position over the expiration date, the old position must be closed as the contract expires, and a new one opened on the new futures contract.

For a 10 barrel CL-OIL trade, at a price of $98.50 and a difference between monthly contracts of +50 pips ($0.50), the calculations are as follows:

Long position: (10 x -0.50) + (-0.04 x 10) + ((10 x 98.50 x -0.002 x 1)/360) = -$5.41

Short position: (10 x +0.50) + (-0.04 x 10) + ((10 x 98.50 x -0.002 x 1)/360) = +$4.59

All oil rollover adjustments are calculated in the currency that the instrument is denominated in. If your account is denominated in another currency, your account will be converted at the current market rate.

When you are trading forex, sometimes you notice a slight difference between the price you expect and the execution price (the price when the FX trade is completed). When this happens, it is known as slippage. It is a common thing to experience as a forex trader and it can work either positively or negatively.

The main reasons for slippage are forex market volatility and execution speeds. When a market experiences high volatility it generally means there’s low liquidity and market prices fluctuate very quickly. Where this affects forex traders is when there’s not enough FX liquidity to fill an order at the requested price. When this happens, the liquidity provider will complete the trade at the next best price.

Another cause for slippage is execution speed. This is how fast your Electronic Communication Network (ECN) can complete your trade at the price you want it to. With market prices changing in fractions of a second, having faster execution times can make a difference, especially on large trades.

Say that the price of the AUD/USD was 0.9010. After analysing the market, you speculate that it’s on an upward trend and long a one standard lot trade at the now current price of AUD/USD 0.9050, expecting to execute at the same price of 0.9050.

The market follows the trend but goes past your execution price and up to 0.9060 very quickly – within a second. Because your expected price of 0.9050 is not available in the market, you’re offered the next best available price. For the sake of the example, that price is 0.9045. In this case, you would experience positive slippage:

0.9050 – 0.9045 = 0.0005, or +5 pips.

On the other hand, let’s say your trade was executed at 0.9055. You would then experience negative slippage:

0.9050 – 0.9055 = -0.0005, or -5 pips.

It’s important to note that slippage can occur with all types of requested orders including Stop Loss, Take Profit, Buy/Sell Stops and Buy/Sell Limit Orders. As VT Markets uses market execution, we cannot guarantee such orders.

We operate under market execution and for this reason, we are unable to fill a forex order that no longer exists. If your requested price is no longer available, your order will be filled by our FX liquidity providers at the going market rate.

Spread is essentially the difference between the bid and the ask price. As traders always trade one currency for another, forex currencies are always quoted in terms of what the price is currently compared to another. To make things easy they are written in pairs. E.g. AUD/USD (Australian Dollar/US Dollar – AUD is the ‘base currency’ and USD is called the ‘counter’. If it took $1.5 AUD to buy $1 USD this would be written as 1.5/1.

Dividends adjustment example 1. If you buy and hold 1 lot DJ30 cash index overnight at the price of 21500.00 and the current overnight financing is -3 USD per day, with the dividend component of +20 USD, the total swap of the given day will be -3+20 = +17 USD 2. Conversely, if you sell and hold 1 lot SPI200 cash index overnight at the price of 5100.00 and current the overnight financing is -1 AUD per day, with the dividend component of -20 AUD, the total swap of the given day will be –1+(-20) = -21 AU

A corporate action is any event that brings material change to a company and affects its stakeholders, including shareholders, both common and preferred, as well as bondholders. These events are generally approved by the company’s board of directors; shareholders may be permitted to vote on some events as well.

The most common corporate actions include: • Cash dividend: Money paid to stockholders out of profits or earnings, they are taxable as income for the recipients. • Stock split: An issue of new shares to existing shareholders in proportion to their current holdings. • Rights issue: An offer of securities to existing shareholders in proportion to their shareholding. This enables shareholders to subscribe for additional shares at a pre-determined price. • Buy back: The purchase of its own shares by a company. Shareholders can sell their shares back to the company for the buy back price. • Bonus issue: When additional shares are issued by a company on a pro rata basis for free.

Dividend payment is by far the most common type of corporate action. Profitable companies may issue several dividend payments a year. Typically, an ex-dividend date will be announced when dividends are issued. For example, the last ex-dividend date for Apple Inc. (AAPL) is 8th May 2020, with a dividend amount of $0.82 USD per share. If you have held a CFD position of Apple Inc. (AAPL) on our platform at the close of trading on 7th May 2020, an adjustment to your position(s) will be made to account for this dividend payment.

There will be no dividend related impact if the AAPL CFD position(s) are closed before market close on 7th May 2020. Similarly, new AAPL CFD positions opened after the market open on 8th May 2020, will also not be impacted.

For example:

If you have bought and held 100 Apple Inc. shares CFDs at the close of trading on 7th May 2020, you will be entitled to 0.82 per share x 100 = 82 USD.

Under US taxation laws, 30% of any dividend income in relation to equities and equity derivatives will be withheld, which is 82 USD x 30% = 24.6 USD

The two adjustments made on 08/05/2020:

Credit: Gross dividend payment 82 USD

Debit: Withholding tax amount 24.6 USD

Alternatively:

If you have sold and held -100 Apple Inc. Share CFDs at the close of trading on 7th May 2020, you will be deducted 0.82 per share x 100 = 82 USD.

The adjustment made on 08/05/2020:

Debit: Gross dividend payment 82 USD

On the market open of ex-dividend date, the underlying share price is generally expected to fall by a similar magnitude to the dividend amount.