Nature of Product
A CFD is a contract under which the parties agree to exchange the difference, in cash, between the opening value and the closing value of the contract.
CFDs are leveraged financial products, meaning that you only have to outlay a small percentage of the notional value of a transaction.
We offer a two-way price on a number of FX CFDs, e.g. For instance, GBP/USD 1.33560-1.33578.
If you expected GBP to increase in value against the USD you would buy at 1.33578, if you expected it to depreciate you would sell at 1.33560.
You nominate the number of contracts you wish to trade, with the value of each contract determined by the tradeable unit of the contract.
For instance, in this case one contract would represent USD $1 for each 0.0001 movement in price on the Financial Spreads platform.
Let's say you chose to buy 1 contract at 1.33578. This would equate to a notional value of USD $13,357.8 (13,357.8 units multiplied by 1 contract).
In order to place the trade we would require margin on your account of 0.5% of the notional value of the trade, which equates to USD $667.89 in this case.
In the above example, the value of your open position would increase by USD $10 for every 0.0001 increase in price and decrease by USD $10 for every 0.0001 fall in price.
You can close your position at any time during our trading hours. Positions can be automatically closed if the available funds on your account fall below 20% of the required margin to have positions open.
There are a number of different order types that you can place in connection to a trade to manage your risk such as stop loss, trailing stop loss and guaranteed stop loss orders.
Please make sure you fully understand the nature of CFD Trading and the below risks associated with trading such products before making a decision to trade as there is a chance you can lose significantly more than your initial deposit.
Risks of the Product
Although CFDs allow you to speculate on the rise and fall of global financial markets at a relatively low cost, without ever owning the underlying asset, they are considered to be risky products:
Counterparty risk - CFDs are "over the counter" (OTC) products, which means that they are not traded on a licensed financial market, such as a Stock Exchange. They are a contract between you and us, which means you are exposed to the risk of us as the counterparty not fulfilling our obligations to you.
Leverage risk - The leverage nature of CFDs means that a relatively small move in the price can cause an immediate and substantial loss to you, including a loss far greater than the amount of your initial investment.
Gapping risk - Financial markets can be very volatile. Gapping refers to an occurrence whereby the quoted price moves sharply from one level to the next, through an order level meaning your order may be executed at a worse price than you had hoped for which may incur losses beyond expectation.
Foreign Exchange risk - CFDs are denominated in the currency of the relevant underlying market. Whilst trading in foreign denominated CFDs you are exposed to the risk that the proceeds of the trade will not be worth as much as they would have been at the onset of trade due to an adverse movement in the exchange rate.
Costs of Product
The principle cost or commission of trading CFDs is incorporated in what is known as the Spread, which is the difference between the sell and buy price. The Spread is fixed and can be viewed, along with other specific product information,
here in the Market Information Sheets.
There is a cost of holding FX CFDs overnight, known as the Overnight Financing Charge. The effect of these adjustments is to mirror the effect of us financing the asset in the underlying market on your behalf.
When holding long positions your account will typically be debited with the charge and, when holding short positions, it may lead to you being credited with the charge but it will depend on the relative interest rates of the countries of the currencies involved in the trade.
How to Complain
If you have a complaint about this product, you should contact us immediately at
compliance@finsaeurope.com.
We must give you a response within 8 weeks, but we will normally respond to complaints within 3 days or less.
Please see
Customer Terms and Conditions.
If you are not happy with our response, you may take the complaint to the
Financial Ombudsman Service.
