What is margin call?

Margin call is the term for when the equity on your account – the total capital you have deposited plus or minus any profits or losses – drops below your margin requirement. You can find both figures listed at the top of the IG platform.

At this point, your positions become at risk of being automatically closed in order to reduce the margin requirement on your account.

You can rectify the situation yourself in one of two ways: deposit enough funds to increase your equity above the margin requirement, or close positions to reduce it. Or if you need more advice, call our dedicated support team +44 (20) 7633 5431 for information on what to do.

When will my positions get closed?

Typically, there are four scenarios in which your positions will get automatically closed. However, we can’t always apply this protection and you shouldn’t rely on us doing so.

• If your equity drops beneath 50% of your margin requirement
• If you remain on margin call constantly for 24 hours
• If you are on margin call during periods of increased volatility, or periods when we anticipate increased volatility
• If you are on margin call going into the weekend. We’ll try to avoid having any accounts on margin call going into the weekend. So if your equity is below 100% of your margin requirement, your positions will be at an increased risk of being closed on a Friday evening.

Our margin requirements are subject to change. If they increase on one or more of your positions then your current equity may not be enough to keep positions open.

Finally, it is important to remember that we could close you out at any time when you are on margin call. It is your responsibility to have enough funds on your account to fully cover the margin requirement of your open positions.

Will I get notified?

We are not under any obligation to keep you informed when you are on a margin call and it is your responsibility to ensure there are enough funds on your account at all times to cover your margin obligations. Any attempt to contact you will be as a courtesy only, and we cannot guarantee that we will contact you. However, if we do so, we may contact you by telephone, post, fax, email or text message.

It is important to note that markets can move fast, which may mean that we are unable to contact you before your positions get closed. If your equity drops from above 100% of margin to below 50% in less than five seconds, for instance, we will not be able to contact you and your positions will be at risk of being closed.

*If your equity level moves below 75% multiple times on a single margin call, we won’t send you multiple notifications.