FAQ

Dukascopy Bank SA accepts all types of clients: institutional clients, banks, professional hedge funds and private clients.

Yes, all the accounts have direct access to SWFX - Swiss FX Marketplace. The access to SWFX ensures that all clients are trading on same price feed independently on size and type of the account.

Yes. Your account can only be activated when we have received the original account opening documents duly executed.

Please note that no certification is required in case you provide/show your original identification document to a Dukascopy Bank SA's representative.

How to certify a copy of my passport or other Identification Document (ID)
You may get a certification from the following persons / entities / offices:

• Notary Public
• Solicitor (only in UK)
• Police
• Member of Judiciary
• Town Hall / Senior Civil Servant
• Embassy, Consulate or High Commissioner of the country of issue of the document
• Financial intermediary (e.g. a bank or a regulated securities dealer / broker / money exchanger)
• Commissioner for oaths (e.g. UK former territories, Canada, Malaysia)
• Justice of Peace (only in Australia and New Zealand)
• Post Office (only in UK, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Australia and where this is usual practice)

IMPORTANT:

• The list above is not exhaustive; feel free to contact us for further information relating to your country especially if you encounter difficulties to get a certification.
• Dukascopy Bank SA may refuse a certification at its own discretion, do not hesitate to consult your Relationship Manager beforehand.
• To be accepted by Dukascopy Bank SA, your certification of passport / ID photocopy must be as follows:
  1.The certification should contain:
  • the text "Certified true copy of the original"
  • the certifier's name, signature and date of signature, position or capacity (e.g. notary public), contact details such as address, phone number, official company / institutional stamp clearly impressed.

  2. The passport / ID must contain a specimen of signature of its holder. If your signature has changed, please sign with your current signature on your copy of passport / ID and ask the certifier to write "Signed in my presence".
  3. The photocopy and picture must be clearly readable and be a clear likeness of the original.
  4. The certification should be on the same page as the copy of passport / ID or if there are several pages they should be sealed together.
  5. The passport / ID must be valid (not out of date) at the time the copy is done.
  6. The passport / ID must contain the place of birth of its holder.
  7. In case your family name is no longer same as your passport / ID, you must provide us with a certified copy of your marriage certificate or equivalent document.

Should you have any questions or difficulties in providing certified copies, please contact your Relationship Manager at Dukascopy Bank SA.

No. Dukascopy Bank SA only accepts wire transfers for the funding of an account. However, credit card payments are accepted by Dukascopy Europe IBS AS, a wholly owned European subsidiary of Dukascopy Bank SA.

Yes, our representatives are available on a 24h basis from Sunday 9 PM GMT till Friday 9 PM GMT in summer and from Sunday 10 PM GMT till Friday 10 PM GMT in winter.

All fees are mentioned on the webpage

These orders allow traders to act as liquidity providers by placing individual bids and offers right into the SWFX – Swiss Forex Marketplace. Bids/Offers are very similar to limit orders and used to buy or sell a currency at a specified price or better. But in addition to limit orders, Bids/Offers have several advantages. As all Bids/Offers are placed directly in the marketplace, they can be taken by other liquidity consumers, thus allowing the trader to avoid a spread cost. The required margin for Bids/Offers is reserved instantly when the order is accepted, that means, less time is needed to process the execution. Additionally, traders can specify the time period (Good Till Canceled / Good For / Good Till) allowed for the system to work the order. All together, these features make Bids/Offers valuable tools for intraday trading.

Stop Order
A stop order is a pending order to buy or sell currency once the price of the currency pair reaches a specified price, known as the stop price. When the stop price is reached, the stop order becomes a market order. A buy stop order is always placed above the current market price, while a sell stop order is placed below. Stop orders can be triggered either by ask or bid price, thus giving traders more flexibility in execution control. For stop orders slippage value of 25 pips is applied by default. If any slippage value is indicated by the trader, the stop order becomes a stop limit order. That is, if the stop order will fail to execute within the specified slippage range, the order will be automatically transformed into a limit order.

Limit Order
A limit order is a pending order to buy or sell currency at a specified level or better. A buy limit order can only be executed at the limit price or lower and triggered by ask side, and a sell limit order can only be executed at the limit price or higher and triggered by bid side. Limit orders may fail to execute because the market price may quickly bounce back from the limit price before your order can be filled.

When entering a conditional order you should pay your attention to the current market price, the desired price and inequality sign that you set up in your order.
If an order conditions correspond to the current market price the order will be executed immediately.

Example: Current market price EUR/USD 1.4310, your conditional order is Buy if >=1.4305. The order will be executed immediately.

MIT is a limit order with a specified slippage value. In comparison to limit orders, the MIT order may have a higher probability of execution within the slippage range.

Market order is an order to buy or sell currency immediately at the available market price. Market orders are executed according to available bids and offers in the market depth, which indicates volumes available for each price level. When a trade is placed at the market and the order amount is greater than volume of the price offered on the platform, the execution of the remaining amount is split according to the next levels of the market depth. For market orders a slippage value is applied by default unless another value is selected by the trader. Should the market price slip more than the specified level, the market order will be automatically rejected without further resubmission.

If you have two positions (long and short) for the same instrument you may use the "Merge" function. No volume commission or any other fees will be charged for the merge as there is no trade involved in this case.

Login details are sent to new clients via email during the day in which the account has been activated. Usually it happens when client funds and requested documents were received by Dukascopy Bank SA.

The Dukascopy Bank SA’s "Cost of Carry" is always up-to-date.
You may also check the last update date in the very right column of the table.

There is an EMERGENCY LINE. Dukascopy Bank SA is ready to help at any open market time. Dukascopy Bank SA’s emergency line: +41 (0) 22 799 4848

Yes, it is possible to trade over the phone by calling +41 (0) 22 799 4848.

You should call +41 (22) 799 4848.

Due to security reasons, orders can only be placed via the platform interface or by calling the emergency line +41 (22) 799 4848.

While all features and functions of the live platform are available in the demo platform, traders should keep in mind that simulation cannot replicate real trading marketplace conditions. One important distinction is that the volume executed through the simulation does not affect the marketplace, while in real trading volumes have effect on the marketplace, especially when the deal size is large. Furthermore, traders can have a very different psychological profile depending whether they trade in Demo or Live platforms. This aspect may impact the evaluation performed with the Demo account. Traders are advised to use caution and avoid complacency about any conclusion they would have drawn from the use of the Demo platform.

For JAVA version of the platform:
- direct Internet connection (no proxy allowed);
- Java v.5.0+;
- CPU 1500MHz+;

For WEB version of the platform:
- FireFox 1.5+ (Recommended)or Microsoft IE v5.5+ or Opera 8+.

Dukascopy Bank SA offers a leverage ratio up to 1:100 during business days and 1:30 during weekends.

Dukascopy Bank SA guarantees the execution of Stop Loss orders. However, during fast markets or gaps, there is probability of a large slippage.

Equity protection functionality provides traders with control of risk of loss. Traders are given the possibility to automatically close all positions beyond a certain equity drawdown level.

To protect the funds with equity protection please use 'Stop Loss Level's function located in Portfolio section of the trading platform, or in the clients reports for managed accounts. All open positions will be closed, all pending orders will be canceled and trading blocked if equity on the account is equal or less than 'Stop Loss Level'. Please be informed that equity on the account after closing of all open positions might be below 'Stop Loss Level' depending on market conditions.

No, all trading orders are executed automatically, execution is STP (Straight-Through Processing). In case of an order placed by telephone, the order is entered manually into the trading system for automated execution.

Yes. An ECN trading environment is recognizable by the addition of the following attributes: existence of a marketplace where traders can trade against each other, displaying of the market depth including clients’ place bid and place offer orders, variable spreads, STP execution with no dealing desk and competition between various bids and asks placed on the marketplace, same price feed for all participants.

Notwithstanding the fact that the SWFX – Swiss Forex Marketplace is an ECN, Dukascopy Bank SA is the counterparty of all clients’ trades. Dukascopy Bank SA sends orders to the interbank market in its own name for hedging purposes. Not all clients’ trades necessarily result in orders sent straight to the interbank by Dukascopy Bank SA. The small size of a trade may have an incidence on the ability of Dukascopy Bank SA to hedge clients' trades with its counterparties since the latter may not accept trades under a certain minimum size. Therefore, Dukascopy Bank SA may be obliged to cumulate a certain number of executed trades prior to be able to hedge them in the market. However this depends on hedging counterparties’ minimal lot size and current exposure of already cumulated trades. All traders receive the same data feed and same execution quality whatever the size of their trades.

The trading platforms give the trader the option to limit or fully exclude slippage on all market orders. It is to be noted that decreasing tolerance to slippage increases probability of order rejects.