The CFTC has recently released new rules that go into effect October 18, 2010. Included in these new rules is an increased margin requirement from 100:1 to 50:1 for the major Forex currency pairs. Traders who are highly leveraged may need to take action ahead of the start of trading on October 17 (5:00 PM EST) to prevent margin selling in their account.
For further information I recommend you visit the CFTC website for their documents on the new requirements and policy: CFTC Factsheet PDF.
Sad news for me and no doubt many of you. I will either have to scale back my trading with the US brokers that I do business with on a regular basis or look for an offshore broker. I am strongly leaning towards the latter.
If you wish to share your opinion with other fx traders regarding this issue I invite you to join me on this forum thread:
http://www.forexnirvana.com/f7/cftc-proposed-leverage-changes-1355/
Happy trading everybody!
Cheers,
Alan