The Trading Platform - Futures

Fees under the futures trading platform are only charged for when you make active trades. There are no standard monthly fees or inactivity charges. Fees are charged per round-turn i.e. a buy/sell trade that takes you in and then out of the market. The platform fee per contract round-turn is $19.00, plus an additional $0.04c NFA fee. This means $19.04 in total per contract opened then closed.

For example, the e-mini S&P500 futures contract moves in increments of $12.50 per 0.25 point move or per "one-tick". To then cover the costs of entering the market, the futures index will need to move favourably by 1-2 ticks and anything beyond this will be in the money in terms of making a return.

The minimum required equity balance to open a futures trading account is US$5,000. This is the equity that the trader uses to take futures contract positions. The trading account balance can fall as low as US$1,000 before trading will no longer be allowed under that account. At such time the trader will be required to top up the balance back to US$5,000.

The Trading Platform - Foreign Exchange

For foreign exchange, there are no fees as such for making trades. The costs however of trading are reflected in the requirement to cover the bid/ask spread (for more detail see forex trading page). Each currency has a different rate that you can purchase and sell it for. Therefore to make money on a forex position, it must first move favourably enough to cover this spread. The typical spread for example on the Euro is approx 3-4 pips and each pip is worth approx $10.00, and these vary for each currency. Once the currency moves strong enough in the position that you are hoping to cover the bid/ask spread, then anything beyond this will allow the trader to exit for an overall net profit. The forex trading platform will immediately show the net loss position when entering a trade which represents the spread. This will then become a net profit position if the currency moves favourably and strong.

The minimum equity balance required to open a forex trading account is US$2,000, however a balance of US$5,000 is recommended to start. Smaller "mini" trading accounts can be opened for as little as US$300, however these are only effectively to get a "feel" for the market. Otherwise larger balances can be traded under a mini account to allow partial sized contracts to be traded (i.e contracts with smaller underlying value than $100K e.g you may trade 10x mini contracts which are equivalent to one normal sized contract).

The Real Time Trade Communicator - RTTC - EFT Capital SA.

There is a flat monthly subscription fee for the Real Time Trade Communicator, which is US$149.00. This is a nominal fee with respect to the potential monthly wealth creation of the RTTC system. Through using the RTTC system in combination with the various trading platforms, traders will be able to access the preferential leveraged margins to maximise capital utilisation. These are not available to those not trading via the RTTC system.