US elections: updates on 24 brokers

The highly charged US Presidential Elections sees two very different candidates facing each other, with markets having very different views about them. We have already seen  currencies  move in reaction to the  debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

And now, comes the real thing. On November 8th, Americans go to the polls and the first results are released at 23:00 GMT, a very illiquid hour of the day, around the same hour that we had the pound flash crash.  So, brokers are getting ready.

This article will be updated as further data comes in. The list is ordered in alphabetical order:

1. Alpari: Limits its leverage to 100:1. More.
2. ActivTrades: cut its margin 4x
3. Ayondo: announced that  guaranteed stops no longer apply. Margin limited to 50:1 from 100:1
4. Blackwell Global: will increase the margins on selected instruments from Sunday, 6 November 2016, 9:00pm (GMT). More.
5. Dukascopy: “On Sunday 6 November, 22:00 GMT before the market opening, the leverage on USD/MXN will be lowered to 1:10. This measure will remain in place until further notice. On Tuesday 8 November at 10:00 GMT, the trading leverage on all currency pairs will be decreased till the level of the over-the-weekend leverage conditions on all trading accounts that have the balance over 30,000 USD or equivalent at the end of previous trading day (account balance on 7 November).All other accounts (under USD 30,000 or equivalent) that experience a significant increase of equity due to profit or deposit on Tuesday 8 November will be treated on a case-by-case basis.  The leverage reduction is planned to be cancelled on Wednesday 9 November, 05:00 GMT. Dukascopy reserves the right to prolong it if found necessary.
6. easyMarkets: This broker stands out by making NO changes to trading conditions. “”ŽIn addition to maintaining the offer of up to 200:1 leverage across all popular currency pairs, even including the tumultuous USD instruments, the company reiterated that during the upcoming US vote it will continue to offer its “Ž”Žtraders no slippage, negative balance protection, free guaranteed “Žstop “Žloss and fixed spreads.”    More  
7. ETX Capital: This broker has not announced margin changes quite yet, but they did announce a big data-powered election new sentiment tool.
8. Exness maintains leverage and client margin levels leading up to the US elections. More
9. Forex.com: The broker is considering margin changes: “The company noted in the announcement that in anticipation of the vote on November 8, markets may become increasingly volatile and therefore there may be some temporary changes to the clients accounts. FOREX.com further explained that these changes may include, but are not limited to, updates to margin requirements in the days leading up to and after the vote.”
10. FXCM: “According to an FXCM statement, the company said it will reduce margin requirements back to pre-election levels as soon as market conditions permit. The thirteen currency pairs that will see higher margins of 2 percent include Euro/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD and USD/CAD.”. More
11. FXOpen: The company may increase margin requirements up to 5 times their normal level starting from November 3rd without prior notice.
12. FxPro: “Beginning today at 19:00 BST (14:00 EST) new positions will adhere to a number of leverage changes due to the election. The changes will affect foreign exchange (FX) pairs, commodities, indices, and spreads and can be read below.” More
13. Hantec: “Currently if your account is set to 100:1 leverage the FX margin requirement is 1%. From Sunday FX margin requirements will INCREASE to 3%.” More
14. IG: The broker has already raised margins for MXN, BRL, ZAR and KRW. On Friday, November 4th at 14:00 GMT, just before the NFP, they will raise margin requirements to 1% on major currencies: USD, JPY, EUR and also CAD.
15. LCG: Limits its leverage to 1:100 as of Friday and 1:20 on USD/MXN.
16. MaxFX: Limits its leverage to 200:1.
17. NFA: That is actually not a broker but a US  financial regulatory body. They announced that “NFA-mandated maximum leverage on other major forex pairs is 50x (or 2% margin), and 20x on all other FX transations.” More
18. OctaFX: From October 31 till November 14, leverage for US30, NAS100, SPX500 indices will be lowered from 1:50 to 1:10 on Metatrader 5 trading platform.
19. OneTrade: Limits leverage to 33:1.
20. Robforex: CySEC/IFSC regulated RoboForex has taken a different approach. Today the FX broker only ‘warned’ of potential for volatility. However, the company decided to leave its leverage ‘as-is’ with no changes in margin requirements or reduction in leverage, which on some accounts reaches as high as 500:1. More
21. Saxo: Margins on the “Trump-trade” currencies will be hiked sharply: MXN to 15% and RUB to 10%.  Major currencies will see a hike to 2-3%.
22. Swissquote: The broker is preparing tools for traders: “Given their strong sensitivity to changes in the political outlook, Swissquote has created different US election forex baskets which feature several currency pairs that are increasingly correlated to poll results.
23. Tradeo: Limits its leverage to 50:1.
24. Z.comTrade limits its leverage to 1:50

More:  5 Forex lessons from Clinton’s stellar debate performance