Margin Information

Margin information

Review our margin requirements and information for retail clients to trade with Totality.

General charges and fees

Please refer to the trading platform (and pre-trade tickets) for the prevailing charges and fees, in the event of any perceived inconsistencies or introducing/bespoke arrangements.

Margin requirements: FX

To find FX margin information, search for a specific instrument in our platform and open its product overview. Select the info button (i) on the top right, then go to the Instrument tab.

^{Rates are standard retail FX margin rates; actual margin levels may vary depending on client classification.}

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Negative balance protection

The negative balance protection applies to accounts that open a FX or CFD position on or after 9:00 AM AEDT, 17 March 2021. For any loss after any/all collateral on the open FX or CFD position, including cash deposits and unrealised profit/loss on Futures and Options, are protected against negative balance.

Margin ceiling for retail clients

The margin ceiling is a restriction (or limit) on opening new exposure that would bring the total portfolio initial margin requirement above AUD 800,000 to prevent from opening new exposure but will be able to maintain the existing position (s) as long as margin utilization remains below 100%.

Initial and Maintenance Margin

Initial margin and maintenance margin are designed to protect you against adverse market conditions, by creating a buffer between your trading capacity and margin close-out level.

Initial margin: a pre-trade margin check on order placement, i.e. on opening a new position there must be sufficient margin collateral available on account to meet the initial margin requirement for the entire margin portfolio.

Maintenance margin: a continuous margin check, i.e. the minimum amount of cash or approved margin collateral that must be maintained on account to hold an open position(s). Maintenance margin is used to calculate the margin utilisation, and a close-out will occur as soon as you do not meet the maintenance margin requirement.

FX Vanilla Option margin calculations

The margin requirement on FX options is calculated per currency pair, (ensuring alignment with the concept of tiered margins as per FX spot and forwards) and per maturity date. In each currency pair, there is an upper limitation to the margin requirement that is the highest potential exposure across the FX options and FX spot and forward positions, multiplied by the prevailing spot margin requirement. This calculation also takes into account potential netting between FX options and FX spot and forward positions.

On limited risk strategies, e.g. a short call spread, the margin requirement on an FX options portfolio is calculated as the maximum future loss.

On unlimited risk strategies, e.g. naked short options, the margin requirement is calculated as the notional amount multiplied by the prevailing spot margin requirement.

Tiered margin rates are applicable to the FX options margin calculation when a client's margin requirement is driven by the prevailing FX spot margin requirement, and not the maximum future loss. The prevailing FX spot margin levels are tiered based on USD notional amounts; the higher the notional amount potentially the higher the margin rate. The tiered margin requirement is calculated per currency pair. In the FX options margin calculation, the prevailing spot margin requirement in each currency pair is the tiered, or blended, margin rate determined on the basis of the highest potential exposure across the FX options and FX spot and forward positions.

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Example 1: Short call spread or limited risk strategy

You sell a call spread on 10M USDCAD at strikes 1.41 and 1.42.
The current spot rate is 1.40.
The margin requirement will be the maximum future loss of 71,429 USD (10M x (1.42 – 1.41) = 100,000 CAD / USD @ 1.40).

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Example 2: Unlimited downside risk

You sell a 10M USDCAD put option. You have an unlimited downside risk. The margin requirement is therefore calculated as the notional amount multiplied by the prevailing spot margin requirement.

The prevailing spot margin rate is determined by the highest potential exposure, which is 10M USD.
Thus, the prevailing spot rate is the blended margin rate of 2.2% ((1% x 3M USD + 2% x 2M USD + 3% x 5M USD) / 10M).
The margin requirement is therefore 220,000 USD (2.2% x 10M USD).

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Negative balance protection

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Strategy	Initial & maintenance margin
Long straddle Long strangle	None
Out-of-the-money naked calls	Stock Options Call Price + Maximum((X%* Underlying Price) - Out of the Money Amount), (Y% * Underlying Price)) Out-of-the-Money Amount in case of a Call option equals: Max (0, Option Strike Price - Underlying Price) Example: Short 1 DTE jan14 12.50 Call at 0.08 Underlying price at 12.30 Short Option Margin = Premium Margin + Additional Margin (0.08100shares) + ((0.1512.30)-(12.50-12.30)) * 100 shares 8€ of premium + 164.5€ of margin = 172.50€ margin requirement
Uncovered put write	Stock Options Put Price + Maximum((X%* Underlying Price) - Out of the Money Amount), (Y% * Strike Price)) Out-of-the-Money Amount in case of a Put option equals: Max (0, Underlying Price – Option Strike Price) Example: Short 1 DTE jan14 12 Put at 0.06 Underlying price at 12.30 Short Option Margin = Premium Margin + Additional Margin (0.06100shares) + ((0.1512.30)-(12.30-12)) * 100 shares 6€ of premium + 154.5€ of margin = 160.50€ margin requirement
Bull Call Spread	Maximum ((Strike Long Call - Strike Short Call), 0) Example: Long DTE Jan14 12.5 Call at 0.10 and short DTE Jan14 13.5 Call at 0.02 Maximum ((12.5 – 13.5), 0) 8€ Premium + Margin requirement 0€
Bull Put Spread	(Strike Short Put - Strike Long Put) – (Short Put price – Long Put price) Example: Short DTE Jan14 Put 12 Put at 0.08 and long DTE Jan14 11 Put at 0.02 ((12-11) – (0.08-0.02))100 shares (1 – 0.06)100 shares 6€ Premium + Margin requirement 94€
Short straddle Short strangle	If Initial Margin Short Put > Initial Short Call, then Initial Margin Short Put + Price Short Call else If Initial Margin Short Call >= Initial Short Put, then Initial Margin Short Call + Price Short Put

Strategy	Initial & maintenance margin
Long straddle Long strangle	None
Out-of-the-money naked calls	Stock Options Call Price + Maximum((X%* Underlying Price) - Out of the Money Amount), (Y% * Underlying Price)) Out-of-the-Money Amount in case of a Call option equals: Max (0, Option Strike Price - Underlying Price) Example: Short 1 DTE jan14 12.50 Call at 0.08 Underlying price at 12.30 Short Option Margin = Premium Margin + Additional Margin (0.08100shares) + ((0.1512.30)-(12.50-12.30)) * 100 shares 8€ of premium + 164.5€ of margin = 172.50€ margin requirement
Uncovered put write	Stock Options Put Price + Maximum((X%* Underlying Price) - Out of the Money Amount), (Y% * Strike Price)) Out-of-the-Money Amount in case of a Put option equals: Max (0, Underlying Price – Option Strike Price) Example: Short 1 DTE jan14 12 Put at 0.06 Underlying price at 12.30 Short Option Margin = Premium Margin + Additional Margin (0.06100shares) + ((0.1512.30)-(12.30-12)) * 100 shares 6€ of premium + 154.5€ of margin = 160.50€ margin requirement
Bull Call Spread	Maximum ((Strike Long Call - Strike Short Call), 0) Example: Long DTE Jan14 12.5 Call at 0.10 and short DTE Jan14 13.5 Call at 0.02 Maximum ((12.5 – 13.5), 0) 8€ Premium + Margin requirement 0€
Bull Put Spread	(Strike Short Put - Strike Long Put) – (Short Put price – Long Put price) Example: Short DTE Jan14 Put 12 Put at 0.08 and long DTE Jan14 11 Put at 0.02 ((12-11) – (0.08-0.02))100 shares (1 – 0.06)100 shares 6€ Premium + Margin requirement 94€
Short straddle Short strangle	If Initial Margin Short Put > Initial Short Call, then Initial Margin Short Put + Price Short Call else If Initial Margin Short Call >= Initial Short Put, then Initial Margin Short Call + Price Short Put

Collateral rates for margin trading

Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6
Collateral value of position	75%	50%	50%	25%	0%	0%

Rating definition*	Collateral percentage
Highest Rating (AAA)	95%
Very High Quality (AA)	90%
High Quality (A)	80

Portfolio, CFDs and Shares in same underlying	Value (USD)
CFDs	25,000
Shares	10,000
Margin Requirement, 10%	2,500
Collateral haircut, 25% of shares in Company	2,500
Concentration haircut = Margin requirement for CFDs	2,500
Collateral value of shares after concentration haircut	5,000
Margin Utilization = Margin Requirement/Collateral value of stock	50%

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