Retail FX firm Admiral Markets has unveiled a plan to alter the trading conditions for its clients in the European Union, with the changes to include an increase in maximum leverage and launch of new account types. The reforms will come into force on October 6th and will affect all clients of Admiral Markets AS and Admiral Markets UK.
The account types will undergo renaming a renaming process in a similar vein to that undetaken recently by Alpari. The current Admiral.Pro account will become Admiral.Markets account, while a new Admiral.Prime account will emerge. In the UK, Admiral.Standard accounts will disappear, while in in other EU countries the account will still exist under the name Admiral.Classic.
Account specifications and an overview of some of their most interesting characteristics are as follows:
Admiral.Markets account:
The maximum leverage on this account will be raised from the present level of 1:100 to 1:500. Whilst such a fivefold rise is substantial in itself, it is unusual that this leverage will be offered in the UK, where FX brokers are usually reluctant to offer high leverage rates. For instance, CityIndex is a bit more conservative with its leverage on FX pairs not exceeding 1:400, FXCM UK offers maximum leverage of 1:200. FXPro and VantageFX are more generous and provide leverage that reaches 1:500. Heightened competition in the UK may be amid the reasons for the step taken by Admiral Markets.
The minimum deposit size is cut to GBP 150 in the UK (previously GBP 1,500) and to USD 10 in other EU countries (previously USD 1,000). The range of trading instruments will be beefed up with new currency pairs and CFDs.
Admiral.Prime account:
This is a new account based on an ECN technology, offering ultra-low spreads and leverage of up to 1:200 for currency pairs and up to 1:100 for Gold and Silver. The minimum deposit will be GBP 1,000 (UK) and USD 1,000 (other EU countries).
Admiral.Classic account:
Account centered on Forex trading, offering maximum leverage of up to 1:500. Many of the trading instruments that are now available on the Admiral.Standard account will not be available on Admiral.Classic, however. These include: SILVER, NZD/JPY, CHF/JPY, GBP/CAD, AUD/CAD, EUR/NZD, GBP/NZD, EUR/PLN, AUD/CHF, CAD/CHF, NZD/CHF, USD/HUF, USD/TRY, EUR/TRY, and CFDs on stocks, futures and indices (the single exception being DAX30).
The change in the trading conditions for the European clients of the broker comes amid a wider push undertaken by Admiral into new markets and services. In terms of new platforms, the UK subsidiary of the group plans to launch Metatrader 5. Regarding business structure, the firm has recently established MTrading – Admiral’s brand targeting Asian and African markets.