Pepperstone Changes Margin Requirements for MT4/MT5 Users

Pepperstone is making big changes to its margin requirements. According to the new changes, retail traders of the broker will have to hold 50% hedge portions on all instruments they are trading in.

These changes will only apply to accounts that are currently trading said instruments through the MT4 or the MT5 trading platforms. The changes will begin applying starting from June 5th. People who are using the cTrader platform won’t be affected, according to Pepperstone’s announcement.

Pepperstone clients received an email that stated: ” As a retail customer, you will be required to post a margin of 50% on the hedged portion of any instrument (on MT4 and MT5) …“For cTrader, there will be no change to your current trading conditions, where total margin requirements are equal to the maximum margin requirements …”

According to Pepperstone’s statement, these changes will only apply to the FCA-regulated UK branch of the broker for now and it is unclear whether the company will begin applying the same rules to its other branches.

I very much wonder what caused this. Do you have any theories or additional information?