Rates & conditions

Majors Retail Spread

Cross Target Spread in Pips Cross

Target Spread in Pips

EURUSD

2

EURJPY

3.5

GBPUSD

4

GBPJPY

7

AUDUSD

3

USDCAD

4

EURCHF

3

USDCHF

3

EURGBP

3

USDJPY

3

To view the full trading conditions on all Forex crosses click here

 

1) Target Bid/Ask spreads

The target bid/ask spreads listed are our best possible spreads used in normal market conditions. Under certain market conditions - such as over the release of key economic figures, during periods of volatile market conditions, and during the sometime illiquid European night time spreads may be wider and auto execution limits may be lowered or disabled. For certain categories of clients, the spreads may in general be wider by up to 2 pips. The spreads applicable to a client’s account will be displayed in the SaxoTrader. Please consult an assigned Introducing Broker or Saxo Bank to obtain further information about the spread range and its account implications.

2) Margin requirements

Forex is traded on margin enabling clients to leverage a small margin deposit for a much greater market effect where:

  • Reduced margin rates apply to the first EUR 50,000 (or equivalent) of investment collateral
  • Normal margin rates apply to all investment collateral over EUR 50,000 (or equivalent).

3) Autoexecuted trades

Major currency trades can be autoexecuted for amounts below the autoexecution limit. Autoexecuted trades are automatically accepted without intervention from the bank. For trade sizes over the autoexecute limit and in volatile market conditions, the trade must first be approved by a dealer which normally takes just a few seconds.

* Note that these are typical autoexecute limits that can change over the day, depending on the market conditions and available liquidity.

4) Trading on bands

Your trades will be subject to price bands when trading below the auto-execution limit described above. This in effect matches the best possible target spread to the amount traded and removes unnecessary delays and manual intervention. The smaller the amount traded, the narrower the spread. Each time you trade, a reload period begins. If you continue to trade within the reload period, your cumulative volume can affect a band jump. A band jump will automatically quote a spread respective to the cumulative volume traded within the reload period. After the reload period elapses, the bands are reset. The target spreads and amounts for the bands applicable to your account will be displayed in your SaxoTrader.

5) Ticket fees for low-value trades

For Forex trades below the Ticket Fee Threshold listed, a small ticket fee of USD 10 is added to the trade to cover administration costs.

6) Stop Orders

For all "no-slip" stop orders on Majors there is a minimum distance to current market. This means that stop and trailing stop orders for the below currency pairs must be placed with a minimum distance to market as indicated in the table below:

Cross Min Distance and Max Gap (pips) Cross

Min Distance and Max Gap (pips)

AUDUSD

15

GBPUSD

25

EURJPY

20

NZDUSD

20

EURUSD

20

USDCAD

20

EURCHF

20

USDCHF

20

EURGBP

15

USDJPY

20

GBPCHF

25

USDHKD

20

GBPJPY

50

   

Orders will automatically be rejected if they are not placed at a greater distance from market prices than shown above. This applies to both “no-slip” stop orders and trailing stop orders.

What is a "no-slip" stop order?

For the Majors, Saxo Bank will attempt to fill stop orders at the price level set by the investor for amounts up to 3 million in the base currency, except if the pair gaps more than the max-gap value defined for the specific cross. The max-gap values for each cross are the same as the minimum distance values defined in the table above.

Saxo Bank Historical FX Stop Order Slippage

The table below details Saxo Bank’s performance in filling client Stop Orders on the major currency pairs.

Saxo Bank focuses on reducing slippage on Stop Orders as we believe improving client certainty on exiting losing positions is of more importance than occasionally providing more profit than the client was hoping to take.

  • The data is for all Stop Orders.
  • Limit Orders are not included in the data because they are filled at the order level or better.
  • Market Orders are also not included because they are filled at best available price when executed.
New data will be available at the beginning of each quarter:

Order fill stats for H1 2011 (1. January - 30. June 2011)

Pair Number of orders Number of orders seeing slippage Percentage filled with no slip Average slippage in pips Median slippage in pips

AUDUSD

21,855

1,866

91%

0.1

0

EURCHF

11,900

1,761

85%

0.2

0

EURGBP

6,354

741

88%

0.1

0

EURJPY

18,730

1,860

90%

0.2

0

EURUSD

234,619

17,647

92%

0.2

0

GBPUSD

27,862

3,319

88%

0.2

0

USDCHF

12,113

1,812

85%

0.2

0

USDJPY

20,174

2,071

90%

0.2

0

XAGUSD

17,034

14,436

15%

88

20

XAUUSD

13,086

9,637

26%

16

3

Order fill stats for Q3 2011 (1. July - 30. September 2011)

Pair Number of orders Number of orders seeing slippage Percentage filled with no slip Average slippage in pips Median slippage in pips

AUDUSD

12,508

140

99%

0.1

0

EURCHF

15,360

420

97%

0.2

0

EURGBP

2,305

23

99%

0.1

0

EURJPY

7,590

147

98%

0.2

0

EURUSD

114,423

1,291

99%

0.0

0

GBPUSD

9,920

286

97%

0.2

0

USDCHF

7,609

301

96%

0.6

0

USDJPY

8,977

288

97%

0.2

0

XAGUSD

7,846

6,427

18%

89

15

XAUUSD

16,801

12,903

23%

51

4

Order fill stats for Q4 2011 (1. October - 31. December 2011)

Pair Number of orders Number of orders seeing slippage Percentage filled with no slip Average slippage in pips Median slippage in pips

AUDUSD

15,832
302
0.98
0.1
0

EURCHF

3,822
69
0.98
0.2
0

EURGBP

2,033
8
1
0
0

EURJPY

5,426
108
0.98
0.2
0

EURUSD

116,883
1615
0.99
0.1
0

GBPUSD

8,822
237
0.97
0.1
0

USDCHF

4,049
51
0.99
0.1
0

USDJPY

4,558
237
0.95
0.4
0

XAGUSD

3,810
3048
0.2
58
20

XAUUSD

9,916
7756
0.22
29
3

Note:

Actual fill levels will always differ from order levels by the amount of the client spread for orders placed on the opposite side of the spread (i.e., buy if bid and sell if offered).  In these cases, therefore, slippage is calculated as that beyond the expected amount given the actual bid/offer spread.  For orders placed on the same side of the spread (i.e., sell if bid and buy if offered), slippage is calculated as the full realized difference between fill and order rates.

Minimum Trade Sizes

Trades cannot be executed below set Minimum Trade Sizes.  The minimum trade size for each currency pair is listed in the trading conditions page.

Forex options spreads and conditions

Check our Forex options spreads and trading conditions.

Margin calls

Clients must maintain the margins listed in an account at all times. If the funds in the client account fall below this margin, clients will be subject to a margin call to either deposit more funds to cover positions or close positions — normally clients will be notified through their trading platform and via email. If the margin situation is not remedied, the Bank may close positions on a client’s behalf.

Forex Trading Hours

Saxo Bank is open for Forex Trading from Monday morning 05:00 local Sydney time to Friday afternoon 17:00 local New York time.

Some more exotic currency crosses have special trading hours as seen in the table below.

Currency Cross Trading Hours
USDRUB, EURRUB 08:00 to 17:00 CET
USDRON, EURRON 08:15 to 17:00 CET
USDJOD 08:00 to 16:00 CET
USDILS, GBPILS 07:00 to 17:00 CET
USDOMR 07:00 to 15:00 GMT
USDKWD 07:00 to 15:00 GMT
USDSAR 07:00 to 15:00 GMT
USDAED 07:00 to 15:00 GMT
USDBHD 07:00 to 15:00 GMT
EURLTL, USDLTL 07:00 to 14:00 GMT
USDQAR 04:00 to 15:00 GMT

ForeX trading over The Holiday Season

 You can find the trading hours for FX and FX Metals here: www.saxobank.com/en/about-us/online-trading-hours

Forex positions held until their Value Date, and Interest on Unrealised Profit/Loss

Open Spot Forex positions held at the end of a Trading Day will be rolled over to a new Value Date on a Tom/Next basis. As part of the tom next roll over operation, positions are subject to a swap charge or credit. The Swap Points used are based on a swap feed from a Tier 1 bank with a mark up corresponding to /- 0.25% of daily market overnight interest rates, plus an interest component of /- 0,75% for any unrealised P/L on the position based on the same interest rate feed.

View a more detailed explanation about Tom/Next rollover.

Open an account

Open an account today and start trading a full range of asset classes across the global markets.

How to open an account

Contact Saxo Bank

If you would like to speak with Saxo Bank about opening an account or if you have experienced any difficulties becoming a client, please contact us.
Phone: + 45 3977 4007
Fax: + 45 3977 4700

For full contact list

Risk Warning

Margin Trading carries a high level of risk to your capital with the possibility of losing more than your initial investment and may not be suitable for all investors. Ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.

Read more