A number of forex brokers has announced that they are going to cut leverage ahead of the Greece Referendum on July 5th, 2015 in order to prevent any undesirable outcome.

A number of forex brokers has announced that they are going to cut leverage ahead of the Greece Referendum on July 5th, 2015. The referendum that will decide on whether Greece will accept Eurogroup requirements in exchange for bailout funds is expected to trigger abnormal market conditions. In order to prevent any undesirable outcome, it is considered preferable to put special measures in place.

Caution

In June 25th, Alpari published notice that starting from 29th June, 2015, temporary limits may be set on the size of opened positions and the total volume of openable positions. There are also temporary changes on margin requirements beginning from the same date. Additionally, Alpari stated spread may be widened and instruments may be set to Close Only mode if the market is lacking liquidity.

Yesterday (30/6), EXNESS released in their company news, Due to the uncertain economic situation of Greece, we wish to inform you that at 17:00 GMT/UTC on Friday, 3 July 2015 (i.e. five (5) hours before the market closes) the leverage will be set to 1:100 thus increasing the margin requirement to 1%. The margin requirements will then be readjusted in accordance with the leverage previously used by the Client and the current account balance within 3 hours after market opening (i.e. by 00:00 GMT/UTC on Monday, 6 July 2015). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the changes will affect new and already open transactions in all pairs, not only EUR crosses.

In a letter to clients today, FXTM announced that they may implement trading switch to close-only mode and leverage adjustment during the week of the referendum and upon market opening on July 6th. The CySEC-licensed forex broker did not specify in what pairs the changes will be applied, thus can be concluded that the situation may affect all transactions as well.

FXCM and LiteForex also have changed their margin requirements on Euro pairs. FXCM have ruled it since the last weekend and has not replaced their decision yet. While LiteForex have said that they will triple margin requirements on all Euro pairs until Monday morning.

Meanwhile, several other brokers such as FXOpen, FXPro, and IC Markets, have not yet announced any precautionary measures, but warned their clients to take necessary preparation for the upcoming referendum. Apparently, SNBomb in January have carved an everlasting reminder for brokers and traders alike not to undermine black swan events.