Trading Operation Regulations

1. Term and Definitions

  • Balance — the amount of money on the Client's trading account not including open positions; the state of a trading account including all closed positions and all non-trading operations.
  • Dividends (adjustment for dividends) — a non-trading operation performed by the Company in order to accrue/withdraw dividends with a long/short opened position on CFDs on Stocks as of the day of shareholder register recording.
  • Available Market Price — a quote at which the Company executes the Client's order. Reliability of a quote is defined solely by the Company based on market data received from liquidity providers and counterparties.
  • Closing of Position — a trading operation of selling (buying) for the purpose of repayment of obligations under an earlier opened position and fixation of the financial result.
  • Quote — indicative information on the current rate of the instrument shown in the form of Ask and Bid prices.
  • Leverage Level — the maximum possible ratio between margin requirements for opening/maintaining an open position and the volume of the trading operation/position, as defined by the settings of the Client's trading account.
  • Log-file — a part of the Company’s server meant to record the data transferred by the Client and the Company to each other in the course of trading and non-trading operations.
  • Lot — standardized trading volume of operations with an instrument. The nominal volume of one lot is indicated in the specification on the Website and/or in the trading platform.
  • Margin Requirements (Margin) — the amount of funds blocked on the Client's trading account in order to maintain all their open positions. Margin Requirements for each instrument are specified on the Company’s Website and are indicated on the Company’s server.
  • Initial Margin Requirements — the amount of free funds on a trading account required for opening a position.
  • Unrealized (Floating, Current) Financial Result — the financial result on open positions with the current cost of instruments, considering accumulated swaps.
  • Non-Market Quote — a quote recognized by the Company as wrong. The Company is entitled to delete information on a non-market quote from the quote base. All trading operations performed at a non-market quote shall be annulled and executed pending orders cancelled.
  • Non-Trading Operations — operations not directly related to the performance of trading operations, including:
    • depositing/withdrawing funds from the Client's account;
    • adjustment for dividends;
    • compensations and balance adjustments related to dispute settlement;
    • payments from the Company related to promotional actions including bonus programs;
    • debiting/accrual within services rendered by the Company used by the Client.
  • Trading Operation Volume — the volume of a trading operation expressed in lots.
  • Banking Day — a time interval from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 (server time UTC+2), ending at 22:59:59 on Friday, excluding weekends and holidays.
  • Opening of Position — the result of approval by the Company’s server of a trading order for the opening of a position. After the position is opened, the Client shall:
    • perform opposite trading operations to close the position with an equal total volume in the same financial instrument;
    • maintain margin level at least at the level set by the Company.
  • Pending Order — an order for the performance of a trading operation upon meeting certain pricing terms in the quotes flow, executed at an indefinite future moment according to the order execution procedure. Types of pending orders:
    • Buy Stop — opening of a long position at a greater price than the Ask price at the moment of order placement.
    • Sell Stop — opening of a short position at a lower price than the Bid price at the moment of order placement.
    • Buy Limit — opening of a long position at a lower price than the Ask price at the moment of order placement.
    • Sell Limit — opening of a short position at a greater price than the Bid price at the moment of order placement.
    • Stop Loss — closing of an earlier opened position at a less favorable price for the Client than at the moment of order placement.
    • Take Profit — closing of an earlier opened position at a more favorable price for the Client than at the moment of order placement.

Additional Terms and Definitions

  • Quotes Flow — a sequence of market data in the form of indicative quotes received from liquidity providers and market data providers, retransmitted to the Client's trading platform.
  • Realized Financial Result — the amount of funds (in the currency of the trading account) accrued to or withdrawn from the Client's balance as a result of closing a position.
  • Market Order — an order to perform a trading operation at the prices available at the moment of order delivery.
  • Company’s Website — a source of information on trading conditions under which the Client's trading orders are processed. The highest priority of performance standards and trading conditions is defined by the specification of the Company’s trading server.
  • Free Balance — the funds on the Client's trading account that may be used as security for new trading operations.
  • Trading Operation — a conversion operation with a non-deliverable financial instrument performed between the Client and the Company. It implies buying or selling an instrument without transfer of ownership. A trading operation may result in opening, closing, partial closing of a position, or closing by two or more opposite positions with mutual settlement of obligations.
  • Company’s Server — a hardware and software complex containing relevant trading conditions that ensure processing of Client orders and requests, online provision of information on price adjustments of financial instruments, accounting of obligations between the Client and the Company, and execution of other Agreement terms.
  • Equity — a weighted estimation of the funds on a trading account, including unrealized profit or loss.
  • Stop Out — the process of compulsive closing of one or several positions on the Client's account due to insufficient margin security to maintain open positions.
  • Spread — the difference between Ask and Bid prices.
  • Swap — funds withdrawn from or accrued to the current unrealized financial result for rolling over (prolonging) an open position to the next day.
  • Ticket — a unique identification number assigned to any operation in the trading platform to define and track operations on the Client’s account.
  • Trading Time — the period during which trading with a financial instrument is allowed and the trading server processes Client requests and orders.
  • Expert Advisor — an automated trading system designed to automate trading operations in the Trading Platform.
  • Trading Order (Trading Operation) — an order submitted by the Client to make a transaction with a financial instrument.
  • Trading Account — an internal record account opened by the Client with the Company, where obligations of both parties arising from trading and non-trading operations are recorded.
  • Trading Platform — specialized software and hardware through which the Client and the Company agree via the Internet on the terms of trading operations, and where agreed/canceled orders are recorded. The Trading Platform provides party authentication and ensures confidentiality and integrity of messages through cryptographic protection.
  • Telephone Password — a code word set by the Client through the Personal Page, required for unambiguous identification when performing trading operations via telephone.
  • Margin Level — the ratio of equity on the trading account to margin requirements, characterizing sufficiency of funds for maintaining open positions.
  • Stop Out Level — the margin level at which the Stop Out procedure is initiated.
  • Hedging (Locking) — the ability to hold positions under one instrument that are opened in opposite directions.
  • Hedged Margin — margin security required by the Company to open and maintain locked positions. Hedged Margin for each instrument is indicated on the Company’s trading server and in the contract specification on the Website.
  • Ask Price — the higher price in a quote at which the Client may send a market request to buy. It is also the activation price of all pending orders involving buy operations.
  • Bid Price — the lower price in a quote at which the Client may send a market request to sell. It is also the activation price of all pending orders involving sell operations.
  • Market Execution — the order execution technology which implies executing the Client’s order at the available price at the moment of execution on the Company’s trading server.

2. General Provisions

2.1. These Regulations define the general procedure and terms of processing Client orders and requests, under which PNM Investments Company (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) provides services for performing margin trading operations with non-deliverable over-the-counter instruments on trading and investment accounts.

2.2. Contracts for Difference (CFDs) are margin-leveraged products carrying a high level of risk. Performing operations with CFDs may not be suitable for all Clients. Clients should not perform trading or investment operations unless they:

  • understand the principles and nature of the operations;
  • understand the extent of potential losses.

Clients must ensure that trading CFDs is suitable for them given their circumstances, financial resources, and investment objectives. If in doubt, Clients should seek independent advice. All trading and investment operations are performed by Clients at their own risk.

2.3. These Regulations define:

  • rules and terms of trading operations;
  • market order processing and execution procedure;
  • pending order processing and execution procedure;
  • procedure and terms for placement, modification, and deletion of pending orders;
  • Company’s actions regarding Client open positions in cases of insufficient funds for margin security.

2.4. The terms of trading and investment operations are defined in these Regulations, the Client Agreement, the Risk Acknowledgement and Disclosure Statement, and other applicable documents (including trading platform manuals and the relevant sections of the Company’s Websites). All documents are governed by the laws of the Republic of Mauritius. In case of any inconsistency between documents, the laws of the Republic of Mauritius shall prevail.

2.5. Trading conditions for Clients — including available instruments, trading times, available request and order types, commission sizes, and rollover terms for open positions — are set by the Company’s servers corresponding to each trading account. Conditions may also be determined by:

  • the services used by the Client;
  • individual agreements with the Client;
  • restrictions imposed by liquidity providers and Company counterparties.

Information regarding trading conditions for a specific account type shall take precedence in case of conflict with other published information. The Company shall take all necessary measures to keep information on its Websites up to date and to notify Clients in a timely manner of any changes to trading conditions.

3. General Principles

Quotes / Prices

3.1. For all trading instruments, the Company shall issue quotes online based on prices/liquidity received from counterparties and liquidity providers. Any Client reference to quotes from other trading or information systems shall be unauthorized.

3.2. The Company may choose not to issue quotes in the following cases:

  • absence of prices/liquidity from counterparties or liquidity providers;
  • absence of technical capability;
  • obvious breakdown and/or quotation errors on the part of the Company’s server or counterparties.

3.3. Spreads are not fixed and depend on market conditions and price/liquidity flow from counterparties and liquidity providers.

3.4. All quotes communicated to the trading platform, Company’s Websites, or partners are indicative.

3.5. If a non-market quote enters the quotes flow, or if an unscheduled gap occurs due to hardware/software failure, the Company may synchronize the quotes base with other sources, including:

  • quotes base of the server feeding other types of trading accounts;
  • quotes base of counterparties or liquidity providers.

3.6. Information on spreads published on the Company’s Websites is purely informative and based on statistical and historical data.

Trading Operations

3.7. Agreement on trading operation terms is achieved as follows:

  • The Client sends an order for a trading operation (a proposal to the Company) on specified terms, or sends requests to modify the order.
  • The Company executes the Client’s order (consent to perform the operation on specified terms) and processes Client requests, reports, extracts, and confirmations.

All approvals of trading operation terms shall be recorded via the Company’s trading platform and server.

3.8. Important terms of a trading operation are:

  • instrument;
  • type of trading operation;
  • volume of the trading operation;
  • price.

3.9. If trading operations for a certain instrument are terminated, the Company may unilaterally close Client positions at the latest price available on its server and delete pending orders.

3.10. The Company retains the right to unilaterally change trading terms or restrict/expand the list of instruments.

Types and Processing of Orders and Requests

3.11. Orders may be:

  • Market orders;
  • Pending orders.

3.12. Submission of an order means the Client intends to perform a trading operation under specified terms.

3.13. Orders may be submitted during Company business hours by:

  • trading platform (as specified in these Regulations);
  • phone (as specified in these Regulations);
  • Company services that unambiguously identify the Client’s order.

3.14. All orders/requests shall be checked for correctness and compliance with trading terms before processing, including sufficiency of funds.

3.15. Orders/requests are processed on a first-served basis. Completion times are not guaranteed. Processing may be recorded in server log-files later than subsequent requests.

3.16. Market and pending orders require reasonable time for processing/execution.

3.17. A request or order is deemed processed only when a relevant record is made in the Company’s server log-file.

3.18. Trading operations are performed on the basis of processed/executed Client orders, subject to these Regulations.

3.19. A trading operation is performed only upon the Company’s approval of all important terms.

Leverage Level / Margin Requirements

3.20. At account registration, maximum leverage is set according to account type.

3.21. The Company may change maximum leverage at its discretion, upon prior notice.

3.22. Minimum margin requirements for opening/maintaining positions are defined in instrument specifications for each account type and indicated in the trading platform.

3.23. Minimum margin requirements for certain groups of instruments do not depend on maximum leverage set on the Client’s account.

3.24. Margin requirements for maintaining open positions are reserved on the Client’s account at the moment of opening.

3.25. The Company may change margin requirements upon prior notice.

3.26. New margin requirements may apply to both open and new positions.

3.27. The Client must independently monitor margin levels on their account.

3.28. If equity-to-margin ratio falls below the Stop Out level, the Company may fulfill Client obligations by closing positions without prior notice. Stop Out level depends on account type.

3.29. The Company shall not be liable for Stop Out resulting from untimely receipt of funds on the Client’s account.

Rollover

3.30. If positions remain open at the end of a trading day (23:55–00:00, platform time), the Company shall perform a rollover (swap) procedure. Positions are rolled over by way of withdrawal/accrual according to swap calculation rules of the platform and server settings for the relevant account type.

Fees

3.31. Clients shall pay fees for trading operations according to the size/rules defined by the Company’s server for their account type.

Dividends

3.32. For open CFD positions on Stocks at the end of the trading day prior to the ex-dividend date, the Company shall adjust for dividends on the register date as soon as the first trading quote is received. Dividend adjustments follow terms published on the Website.

Reasons for Rejecting Client Requests

3.33. The Company may reject a request to open/close a position or execute a pending order if:

  • Free Margin is insufficient;
  • the order is received at a non-market quote;
  • instrument prices change occasionally (illiquid market), including during market opening before the first quote appears;
  • abrupt/unstable price changes occur (fast market);
  • technical failure of the Trading Platform or liquidity provider rejection occurs;
  • the number or total volume of positions exceeds limits set by the Company’s server;
  • the situation contradicts these Regulations or other Company documents.

Reasons for Restricting Services

3.34. The Company may prohibit automated trading (e.g., Expert Advisors), limit services, or block trading on accounts without prior notice if excessive load on servers or deterioration of services to other Clients occurs. Such activity includes, but is not limited to:

  • sending significant numbers of requests (over 500/hour on average);
  • sending requests without sufficient funds;
  • sending frequent authorization requests to the platform.

Services may resume once causes of excessive activity are eliminated.

Order Validity

3.35. For 24-hour instruments, all pending orders are GTC (“Good Till Cancelled”) and remain valid indefinitely, unless the Client sets an expiry.

3.36. For session-traded instruments, the Company may cancel unactivated pending orders at session close.

3.37. Pending orders may be cancelled if account balance cannot execute the specified volume at current price.

3.38. If a pending order is queued but a deletion request is executed, the Company may delete the pending order.

Data Archiving

3.39. If a trading account is inactive and moved to archive:

  • The Company may transfer inactive accounts to archive. Access and operations will be blocked, but history and balance are saved.
  • Retrieval requires a Client request via the Personal Page.
  • Retrieval may take up to seven business days.

3.40. The Company may archive trading and non-trading operations displayed in the platform for periods exceeding six months.

4. Procedure and Terms of Market Order Execution

4.1. A trading operation is deemed performed upon the Company’s approval of all important terms set in the Client’s order.

4.2. An order for a trading operation may be issued by the Client only within the trading time of the relevant instrument.

4.3. Necessary conditions for issuing a market order are:

  • instrument;
  • type of trading operation;
  • volume of the trading operation.

4.4. The approval of the trading operation price during execution of a market order by the Company implies the use of Market Execution technology.

Processing and Execution of Orders for Opening a Position

4.5. When an order to open a position is received, the trading account is checked for sufficient free margin:
a) A new position is nominally added to the list of positions.
b) Margin requirements needed to maintain the entire position are calculated, including the nominally added position.
c) The amount of free funds is calculated, including the nominally added position.
d) If:

  • the amount of calculated free funds ≥ 0 → the position is opened.
  • the amount of calculated free funds < 0 → the Company may reject the order to open the position.

4.6. The Client’s order for opening a position shall be deemed processed, and the position opened, once a relevant record is made in the Company’s server log-file.

4.7. A unique ticket is assigned to each open position in the trading platform.

Processing and Execution of Orders for Closing a Position

4.8. When sending an order to close a position, the Client may specify a volume smaller than the initial position volume. In this case:

  • The position will be partially closed in the specified volume.
  • A new open position will be created for the remaining unfulfilled obligations, with a new ticket assigned.

4.9. If there are two or more locked positions in the open positions list, the Client may issue an order to close counterpositions. In case of partial fulfillment of one position:

  • A new open position will be created for the remaining unfulfilled obligations, with a new ticket assigned.

4.10. The Client’s order for closing a position shall be deemed processed, and the position closed, once a relevant record is made in the Company’s server log-file.

5. Procedure of Setting, Modification and Terms of Execution of Pending Orders

5.1. Trading operations of opening and closing a position may be performed by way of pending orders. A unique ticket is assigned to each pending order for opening a position.

5.2. Important terms of a pending order are:

  • instrument;
  • order type;
  • volume of a trading operation;
  • price of activation of the pending order.

5.3. A pending order is processed only upon activation, i.e., when market conditions specified by the Client are met. A trading operation by way of a pending order is deemed completed only upon the Company’s approval of all important terms.

5.4. Pending orders are executed on a first-served basis at the prices available at the moment of execution. The execution price may differ from the activation price stated in the order, either to the Client’s advantage or disadvantage.

5.5. Requests for setting, modification, or deletion of pending orders may be issued only during trading time on the relevant instrument.

5.6. A request for setting, modification, or deletion of a pending order may be rejected if, at the time of the request:

  • obligations on the relevant open position are already fulfilled (position closed) or are in the process of fulfillment;
  • the relevant pending order is already being processed;
  • the relevant pending order has already been deleted.

5.7. Processing and execution of pending orders is performed only during trading time on the relevant instrument.

Processing and Execution of Pending Orders for Opening a Position

5.8. When market conditions specified in the order are achieved, the order is processed and the trading account is checked for sufficient free margin:
a) A new position is nominally added to the list of positions.
b) Margin requirements to maintain the entire position are calculated, including the nominally added position.
c) Free funds are calculated, including the nominally added position.
d) If:

  • calculated free funds ≥ 0 → the position is opened;
  • calculated free funds < 0 → the Company may reject the order to open the position and delete the pending order.

5.9. A Client’s pending order for opening a position is deemed processed, and the position opened, once a relevant record is made in the server log-file.

5.10. The ticket of the pending order shall be assigned to the open position created by that pending order.

“If Done” Execution Specifics

5.11. If market conditions simultaneously meet the terms of both:

  • a pending order that opens a position; and
  • a pending order that closes the same position,

then orders shall be executed in the following order:
a) Execution of the opening pending order.
b) Verification of activation terms for the closing pending order:

  • If conditions are met → the closing order is processed.
  • If conditions are not met → the closing order remains pending.

6. Procedure of Defining Mutual Obligations Between the Client and the Company

6.1. The Company keeps daily records of the Client's and the Company’s mutual financial obligations on the Client's open positions and funds on the Client's trading account.

  • Mutual obligations include: funds on the Client’s trading account and the current financial result (unrealized profit and loss) on open positions.
  • In case of emergency (e.g., technical failures, force majeure) where it is impossible to precisely define the unrealized profit and loss of open positions, mutual obligations shall be defined based on the Client’s funds and current financial result as of 23:59:59 server time of the preceding trading day.

6.2. The Client’s financial results (profit and loss) on executed trading operations shall be reflected on the trading account at the moment of closing each position.

6.3. The Company may fulfill its obligations on any open position(s) without prior notice if the equity-to-margin ratio falls below the Stop Out level.

6.4. Margin levels are controlled by the server. If condition 6.3 is met:

  • The server generates an order for forced closing of the position without notice.
  • Execution occurs at the price available at the time of order execution, on a first-served basis.
  • The execution price may differ from the quote at which the Stop Out order was generated.
  • Forced closing is followed by a relevant record in the server log-file.

6.5. If, after forced closing, the Client’s account balance becomes negative, the Company may:

  • accrue compensation to bring the account balance to zero;
  • use funds from the Client’s other trading accounts to bring the balance to zero.

6.6. If the Company changes the list of instruments offered for trading, it may forcibly close positions on such instruments at the latest available prices.

7. Dispute Settlement

7.1. The procedure for settling disputes when, in the Client's opinion, the Company’s actions/omissions violate the Regulations is as follows:

7.1.1. Claims must be submitted within 3 (three) business days of the occurrence giving rise to the claim.
7.1.2. Claims must be submitted via the standard form in the relevant section of the Personal Page. A unique number (TID) will be automatically assigned, and a confirmation message sent to the Client. Claims submitted in any other way (forum, e-mail, phone, fax, etc.) will not be considered.

7.2. Claims must not contain:

  • emotional evaluation of the dispute;
  • abusive comments;
  • non-printable words;
  • threats.

7.3. The Company may refuse to consider a claim if the conditions in 7.1 and 7.2 are not met.

7.4. The Company may independently initiate consideration and settlement of a dispute.

7.5. Methods of dispute settlement include:

  • compensation adjustment accrued to/withdrawn from the Client’s account;
  • restoration of wrongly closed positions;
  • deletion of wrongly opened positions or orders.

The method of settlement shall be determined solely at the Company’s discretion.

7.6. A dispute shall be settled immediately after a decision is made, but no later than 3 (three) business days thereafter.

7.7. If a dispute is not covered by these Regulations, the Company shall make a final decision based on common market practice and its own view of fair settlement.

7.8. If an action was not performed by the Client for any reason, the Company shall not reimburse the Client for lost profit or losses caused by such non-performance.

7.9. The Company shall not reimburse Clients for non-material damage (including moral damage).

7.10. The Company shall consider the Client’s claim and make a decision as soon as possible. A response may take up to 10 (ten) business days from the claim’s receipt. In some cases, the Company may extend this period.

7.11. If the Company independently initiates dispute settlement, the decision and settlement shall be made within 3 (three) business days, unless extended by the Company.

7.12. If the Company mistakenly executes a Stop Out, it may restore the closed position in compliance with these Regulations. The Client acknowledges that no claims shall be accepted regarding the inability to manage such positions during dispute consideration. During settlement, the Company may execute Stop Loss or Take Profit orders in the chronological order in which they would have been triggered if the mistaken Stop Out had not occurred.

7.13. The Client acknowledges that the Company may choose not to notify the Client that the dispute has been settled and the order executed, and the Client assumes all related risks.

8. Miscellaneous

8.1. The Client acknowledges that the Company may amend/update these Regulations at any time with 7 calendar days’ notice. Amendments/updates become binding from the effective date specified in the notice.

8.2. If any provision of these Regulations becomes invalid, the remaining provisions shall remain valid.

8.3. These Regulations form an integral part of the Agreement between PNM Investments and the Client.