FX trading conditions
For FX spot and FX forwards the trade tiles in Saxo’s trading platforms are colour-coded red (to sell) and blue (to buy) for all instruments where:
Prices are realtime
Market is open
Instruments are colour-coded grey where prices are not realtime, or the market is not open. Non-tradable instruments will have flat non-clickable tiles.
Derive the value of potential price improvements on every trade. Assume greater control of your trading, and achieve an optimal balance between fill ratio and price level through our fully customised orders.
Saxo offer a variety of orders, including Market, Limit and Stop orders. To learn more please see Orders and Execution Statistics.
To learn more about how Saxo executes orders on behalf of its clients, please refer to our Order Execution Policy.
There is a minimum commission (transaction fee) of 1 USD charged for the service of carrying out a transaction on small notional trade sizes.
Trades cannot be executed below the minimum trade size. Full details can be found here.
When netting open FX positions Saxo uses FIFO (First-In-First-Out) rules, which means that the first position that you open is the first position to be closed. This is provided that the positions are on the same account and that none of the positons have related orders attached.
Example: You are trading EURUSD and have opened the following positions:
| 1) | Buy 1M EURUSD |
| 2) | Buy 1M EURUSD |
| 3) | Sell 1M EURUSD |
| 4) | Sell 2M EURUSD |
| Total | Sell 1M EURUSD |
The first long position 1) will net out with the first short position 3), the second long position 2) will net out with half of the second short position 4), leaving only one short position of 1M EURUSD at the end of the trading day.
The NOP Value (Net Open Position Value) is the sum of all single currency exposures converted into the base currency of the account.
If the NOP value exceeds the NOP limit, you will only be able to place orders that close positions or reduce the NOP value. The breakdown of single currency exposures and the NOP value is displayed in the SaxoTrader platforms in the ‘Account Exposure’.
Saxo is open for trading 24 hours a day, 5½ days a week, opening on a Monday morning in Australia (05.04 Local Sydney Time) and closing on a Friday evening (16.59 Eastern Standard Time). However, some currencies have special trading hours as shown in the table below:
| Currency cross | Trading Hours |
|---|---|
| AED | 07:00 to 15:00 CET |
| ILS | 07:00 to 17:00 CET |
| RON | 08:15 to 17:00 CET |
| THB | 17:04 EST to 15:30 CET |
| Precious metals (XAU, XAG, XPT**) | 18:01 to 16:59 EST |
* In instances where no liquidity can be sourced in the market, these trading hours may be further reduced on a day-to-day basis
** Special dates and times for FX Metals apply on U.S. national holidays to reflect the trading hours of the underlying futures market
Please note, FX spot, forward and option prices stop streaming from 1 minute before the end of the trading day (17:00 Eastern Standard time) and remain non-tradeable (grey pricing) for 5 minutes. This is normal behavior. Saxo want you to recognise that liquidity can be thin during this brief interval and encourage you not to trade at this time.
Trading hours for FX Crypto crosses adhere to the trading hours of Crypto Futures offered on the CME exchange.
Trading Hours for BTCUSD, BTCEUR, BTCJPY, ETHUSD, ETHEUR, and ETHJPY are:
| Monday | 17:00 – 15:55 CT (18:00-16:55 EST) |
| Tuesday | 17:00 – 15:55 CT (18:00-16:55 EST) |
| Wednesday | 17:00 – 15:55 CT (18:00-16:55 EST) |
| Thursday | 17:00 – 15:55 CT (18:00-16:55 EST) |
| Friday | 17:00 – 15:55 CT (18:00-16:55 EST) |
Please note that the underlying crypto market remains open on weekends and any Crypto FX exposure should be managed and adjusted before the FX trading session closes on Friday evening.
Saxo Crypto FX Trading hours follow the CME Group holiday calendar which is available on the CME Group public website, as well as under the Holiday Overview.
Saxo FX Metals Trading hours follow the CME Group holiday calendar which is available on the CME Group public website, as well as under the Holiday Overview.
Additional trading conditions for FX Forward Outrights
When the value date of an open forward outright position equals the current spot value date, it will be treated as a normal spot position. From that point on, positions held at the end of a trading day (17.00 Eastern Standard Time) are rolled forward to the next available business day. Read more about Financing.
Closed forward outright positions are netted out when the value date of the position equals the current spot value date i.e. the position is changing from a forward position to a spot position.
Holiday Overview
During holidays, markets and exchanges around the world are closed at certain times. Saxo Bank's operating hours over this period are given below. Please note that even during these hours some markets and exchanges may not be available.
Historic swap points*
*Please note that this table may include instruments that are not tradable with Saxo Bank. A profile with a markup of +/- 0.45% is used in the tables.
