Hi Traders,
This thread is where we will try and keep traders up to date with any company announcements, changes that affect current traders, new currency pairs added as well as any changes to market hours.
Feel free to ask any questions about announcements you see posted here.
Thanks,
Peter
Updated Market Hours - Independence Day, Friday 4th July 2014
Friday the 4th of July is Independence Day in the United States and this will temporarily influence Market Closing Hours for Precious Metals.
Throughout this US holiday, Pepperstone will continue to provide standard support and funding hours.
Currency Market Hours will not be impacted by this holiday.
Please find the amended precious metal trading hours below:
Thanks, and happy Independence Day!
Peter
Pepperstone is proud to announce the addition of two new currency pairs: USDRUB and USDTHB.
These pairs give Pepperstone traders the ability to access new regions previously not available to the majority of MT4 traders. Included below is a breakdown of what to expect from these new pairs from a historical and current perspective.
Russian Ruble (USDRUB)
The Ruble, in one form or another, has been the official currency of Russian and Soviet countries for around 500 years.
The modern Ruble was born out of the turbulent 90’s that saw the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the resulting Russian crisis of 1998. The crisis period saw several speculative attacks on the value of the Ruble before the Russian government was eventually forced to devalue the currency and default on its debts when its foreign exchange reserves were depleted. This allowed the currency to float and ended the peg to the US dollar.
In 2014 the Ruble has seen increasing volatility in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis and associated uncertainty – making the currency an exciting pair to trade in the current geopolitical environment.
Thai Baht (USDTHB)
Following the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, the Thai government was forced to abolish the pegged exchange rate policy that had historically tied the Thai Baht to the US Dollar, enabling a freely floating market exchange rate. The Thai Baht now floats onshore as the THB and offshore as the THO.
Through intervention in 2006, the Bank of Thailand enabled an onshore-offshore differential of 10% variation between the two markets. More recently, political unrest in Thailand has seen increased volatility in daily trading ranges, which translate into increased trading potential for retail investors.
To view these exciting new pairs within your MT4 Platform simply Right Click on Market Watch and select ‘Show All’.
Kind regards,
Peter
Islamic or Swap Free Accounts
Pepperstone is proud to announce the release of Islamic trading accounts, also commonly referred to as Swap Free accounts. This account type was designed to comply with Sharia law.
Traders needing this account for religious beliefs can now take advantage of Pepperstone’s institutional grade STP account. Our Standard swap free account type provides access to Pepperstone’s Interbank spreads and superior liquidity with No Commission.
To open an Islamic account, please complete the online application form and choose the Islamic account in the account type drop box. If you have any questions or issues regarding this announcement, feel free to ask here or contact us via our website.
Thanks,
Peter
Pepperstone is announcing a new currency-cross pair: ZARJPY
This addition gives Pepperstone traders direct access to this highly sought after cross from the interbank market.
The combination of the South African Rand (ZAR) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) is attractive to traders due to its swap benefits and the ability to “carry trade”.
Carry trading is a strategy of buying a high interest bearing currencies against another where the interest rate is very low, this way the trader earns interest through swap payments each roll-over.
Due to the South African Central bank’s official cash rate of 5.75% versus that of the Bank of Japan’s at 0.25%, traders using the carry trade strategy can look to this pair as a possible addition to their portfolio.
To view this exciting new pair within your MT4 Platform simply Right Click on Market Watch and select ‘Show All’.
If you wish to learn more about swap payment / charges, please see the Pepperstone Swap Rate page.
Kind regards,
Peter.
Pepperstone has just released two new commodity pairs for trading: XBR/USD and XTI/USD.
XTI/USD is a spot commodity pair based on West Texas Intermediate crude oil, or WTI, which is a light ‘sweet’ oil traded in Cushing, Oklahoma – the sweetness referring to the oil’s low sulphur content. XTI/USD can be considered US Oil, and is heavily affected by developments in Northern America.
Since the early 2000’s and especially following the global financial crisis, a combination of lower interest rates, improved technology and sustained higher oil prices made previously unused oil fields economical for drilling. This opened up vast areas of the country for exploration, and sparked a boom in areas such as North Dakota, and completely reversed the decline in US oil production volumes.
This development in US oil production caused a diversion between WTI and Brent Crude between 2011 and 2014, which saw WTI trade over 20 dollars per barrel lower. The massive supply shock of the renewed US oil production caused stockpiles to increase, depressing the price of WTI against other worldwide prices.
XTI/USD opens for trading at 01:00 server time and trades through to roll-over each day.
XBR/USD is a spot commodity pair based on Brent Crude Oil, while Brent technically refers to oil produced in the North Sea it is often referred to as UK Oil. Brent Crude is used as the pricing benchmark for two thirds of the world’s oil production.
Brent Crude has been trading higher than WTI due to the large supply increase in Northern America and the associated bottleneck in transporting the oil to other areas. However, this has been exacerbated by the decline of North Sea oil production and continuing oil scarcity outside of the US.
XBR/USD opens for trading at 03:00 server time and trades through to roll-over each day.
Pepperstone is happy to announce spot-trading on two additional metals: Platinum and Palladium.
Platinum is a semi-precious metal which is currently more valuable per ounce than Gold. While Gold is ever so slightly rarer in the earth’s crust, Platinum is produced in much smaller quantities. Platinum’s properties as the least reactive known metal and its lustre makes the silver metal highly sought after. Platinum’s major uses are found as a catalyst in cars and as jewellery. You can find Platinum in your trading terminal as the symbol XPT/USD
XPT/USD opens for trading at 01:00 server time and trades through to roll-over each day.
Palladium is a similar metal to Platinum in appearance and function, and is often used as a replacement for the dearer metal in jewellery and industrial uses. Palladium is produced almost entirely in Russia and South Africa and while the silver metal is the fifth rarest element in the earth’s crust, its production volumes exceed that of Platinum. Palladium finds most of its use, like Platinum, as a catalyst as well as in electronics and jewellery. You can find Platinum in your trading terminal as the symbol XPD/USD.
XPD/USD opens for trading at 01:00 server time and trades through to roll-over each day.
Kind regards,
Peter
On Sunday the 2nd of November 2014, the Pepperstone MT4 Server time will move one hour backwards to GMT +2 hours.
Pepperstone bases MT4 Server time on “5pm New York”, the internationally recognised end-of-day in the forex markets. US Daylight Saving Time will finish this Sunday the 2nd of November 2014. With the US turning clocks one hour backwards the Pepperstone MT4 Server Time will also move one hour backwards.
How does this affect me?
The only noticeable change that you will experience is that the Market Watch time in MT4 will now be set at GMT+2. This might not affect your trading at all - however, depending on your timezone, this may cause the market to open hour later on Monday. The MT4 server time will still open at 0:00 on the charts.
What action must I take?
If you are using an EA with a GMT offset setting, then you must change the GMT offset to +2 prior to the market open on 2nd of November.
If you do not use an EA with a GMT offset, no action is necessary.
I’ve know about this broker since many years ago. Its pretty interesting place for hangout
Interesting, and at the same time rather risky 
