Following yesterday’s announcement by Alpari that its floating leverage would be adjusted, with reductions relating to ruble currency pairs, the Russian headquarters of the prominent retail FX firm has now announced that as of tomorrow, December 17, 2014, a fixed leverage of 1:10 will be applied to USDRUB and EURRUB, which will apply to new and already open positions.
Yesterday, Alpari set out new leverage criteria, detailing that for positions with notional volume from 0 to $1.5 million, the leverage on RUB pairs is axed from 1:100 to 1:50. This translated into the margin rising from 1% to 2%, whereas for positions with notional volume from $1.5 million to $3 million, the leverage was reduced from 1:50 to 1:25. The margin rose from the previous level of 2% to a new level of 4% and for positions with notional volume of more than $3 million, the leverage fell to from 1:25 to 1:10. The subsequent change in margin was from 4% to 10%.
This has been superceded by a blanket 1:10 ratio regardless of notional volume, as well and coincides with the company’s UK division having set USD/RUB trading to close only this morning in the light of current low liquidity and high volatility surrounding the ruble.
The reduction to 1:10 on ruble pairs echoes actions taken by a number of FX firms, as reported by LeapRate this morning, with a number of prominent FX companies preparing to follow suit in the very near future.
Alpari recommends that traders adjust the volume of open positions and modify your trading strategies if necessary.
To view the official announcement from Alpari, click here.