Trading Conditions

General

• The client can trade 2 types of options:
  • Binary Options — conventional up/down type binary options on FX currency pairs.
  • Touch Binaries — binary options on FX currency pairs with 2 remote strike prices set around the open price of the option.
• Dukascopy binary trading platforms are designed only for manual trading by the client. Use of any robots, spiders or other automated data entry system for submission of orders is expressly prohibited.

Contracts duration and timing

• Binary options and Touch Binaries can only be traded intraday. No option will have an expiry time later than the settlement time, which is 21:59:59 GMT during winter time (20:59:59 GMT during daylight-saving time).
• A 2-seconds countdown period is applied to every Binary Option and Touch Binaries market order (i.e. non-pending) before starting the execution. This means that if a client requests, at 12:00:00, the opening of an option with duration of 3 minute, the execution will actually start at 12:00:02 and expire at 12:03:02, provided that execution criteria were met. It is not possible to cancel or to modify the option during the countdown period (Option is in PROCESSING status).
• The client shall preliminarily decide the duration of each Binary Options contract. The duration shall be defined in a number of hours and minutes between 3 minutes and 22 hours 59 minutes (maximum possible duration available only if the option is set right after the settlement break time). Touch Binaries contract duration always lasts until the settlement time. Limits of contract duration applicable by default are listed below. Dukascopy reserves the right to amend these limits at its entire discretion, without prior notice.

  Instrument	Min contract duration	Max contract duration
  EUR/USD	3 m	22 h 59 m
  USD/JPY	3 m	22 h 59 m
  GBP/USD	3 m	22 h 59 m
  USD/CAD	3 m	22 h 59 m
  AUD/USD	3 m	22 h 59 m
  EUR/JPY	3 m	22 h 59 m
  USD/CHF	3 m	22 h 59 m
  GBP/JPY	3 m	22 h 59 m
  NZD/USD	10 m	22 h 59 m
  EUR/GBP	10 m	22 h 59 m
  EUR/AUD	10 m	22 h 59 m
  GBP/AUD	10 m	22 h 59 m
  EUR/CAD	10 m	22 h 59 m
  GBP/CAD	10 m	22 h 59 m
  CAD/JPY	10 m	22 h 59 m
  GBP/CHF	10 m	22 h 59 m
  GBP/NZD	10 m	22 h 59 m
  AUD/JPY	10 m	22 h 59 m

• Dukascopy reserves the right to apply individual limits on minimum contract duration for selected trading accounts as well as for separate trading instruments.
• Binary options and Touch Binaries are unavailable for execution daily from 22:00 GMT to 23:00 GMT winter time (21:00 GMT to 22:00 GMT US daylight-saving time). Pending options placed during settlement time must have a start time later than the above break end time to be placed in EXECUTING state when trading resumes.

Trading amounts and exposures

• Amount of trading orders submitted by the client is subject to limitations on single contract amount, total exposure on a single instrument and overall exposure of the account.
• The number of pending and active contracts cannot exceed 100 at a time.
• Exposure is calculated on the total amount of contracts in ACTIVE status, irrespective of their side (Call or Put) and underlying instrument. For instance, an active Put contract for 100 USD and an active Call contract for 200 USD build up a total exposure of 300 USD.
• Limits on contract amounts and exposures applicable by default, depending on the base currency of the trading account, are listed below. Dukascopy reserves the right to amend those limits at its entire discretion and without prior notice.

  Day limits (07:00 - 16:30 GMT)

  Base currency	Min contract amount	Max contract amount	Max exposure
  USD	1	1'000	5'000
  EUR	1	900	4'500
  CHF	1	800	4'200
  GBP	1	800	4'000
  JPY	100	140'000	700'000
  CAD	1	1'300	6'600
  SGD	1	1'300	6'600
  PLN	1	4'000	20'000
  HKD	1	8'000	40'000
  AUD	1	1'500	7'300
  DKK	1	7'000	35'000
  MXN	1	17'000	85'000
  NOK	1	10'000	50'000
  NZD	1	1'600	8'000
  SEK	1	10'000	50'000
  TRY	1	30'000	150'000
  ZAR	1	18'000	90'000

  Night limits (16:30 - 07:00 GMT)

  Base currency	Min contract amount	Max contract amount	Max exposure
  USD	1	500	2'500
  EUR	1	450	2'250
  CHF	1	400	2'100
  GBP	1	400	2'000
  JPY	100	70'000	350'000
  CAD	1	650	3'300
  SGD	1	650	3'300
  PLN	1	2'000	10'000
  HKD	1	4'000	20'000
  AUD	1	750	3'650
  DKK	1	3'500	17'500
  MXN	1	8'500	42'500
  NOK	1	5'000	25'000
  NZD	1	800	4'000
  SEK	1	5'000	25'000
  TRY	1	15'000	75'000
  ZAR	1	9'000	45'000

• Dukascopy reserves the right to apply individual limits on contract amounts, single instrument and/or overall account exposures for selected trading accounts as well as for separate trading instruments. Currently, the following trading instruments have 2000 USD (or approximate equivalent in other base currencies) Max exposure limit: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, EUR/JPY, USD/CHF, GBP/JPY and 500 USD (or approximate equivalent in other base currencies) Max exposure limit: USD/JPY.

Options in Pending status

• Clients have the possibility to place pending entry options on FX currency pairs (Binary Options) to be executed at a specific date and time of the current week. Pending options cannot be placed for dates and times further than the current week.
• To be valid, a pending option shall contain at least:
  1. the direction of the option contract (Call/Put);
  2. the concerned underlying instrument;
  3. the desired contract amount/premium to be paid;
  4. the duration the option contract shall last if open;
  5. the triggering date and time.
  The client may additionally, without being obliged to do so, indicate a price condition and/or the minimal acceptable base payout percentage. At the triggering time entered by the client, the system checks whether the pending option may be executed based on the conditions set by the client and Dukascopy requirements (existence of available margin, absence of same-instrument options with the same maturity time, approval of the Terms and Conditions, etc.) or if the pending option shall be rejected.
• Clients can cancel orders in PENDING status at any time. Orders in PROCESSING and EXECUTING status cannot be cancelled by the client.

Order Execution Policy

• For Binary Options the strike price is fixed at the moment when the option contract starts/is executed and is based on the ASK price, of this moment, for Call options and on the BID price, of this moment, for Put options.
• For Touch Binaries there are two strike prices: Profit and Loss strike levels. Profit strike level is set by the client. Client can define the Profit strike level by the distance from the contract opening price (distance is calculated from Ask price for CALL options and from Bid price for PUT options). Loss strike level is automatically set in the opposite direction to Profit strike level on the same distance from the Ask price for Call options and from the Bid price for Put options at the moment when the option contract starts (turns to EXECUTING status). Dukascopy reserves the right to apply minimum and maximum Profit/Loss strike levels for separate trading instruments as well as to amend those at its entire discretion, without prior notice.
• The strike gets hit by the ASK price for Put options (Short positions) and by the BID price for Call options (Long positions).
• In order to be considered a Binary Option to mature In-the-money (ITM) the option's underlying instrument price at the time of expiry should reach and exceed the strike price (e.g. the ASK should be under the strike for Put options and the BID should be above the strike for Call options on FX currency pairs). Maturing at a price that exactly matches the strike (but does not go under or above) is considered as an Out-of-the-money (OTM) outcome.
• In order to consider a Touch Binary to be maturing In-the-money (ITM) the option's underlying instrument price at any time prior to the expiry should reach or exceed the Profit strike level (e.g. the ASK should hit the Profit strike level for Put options and the BID should hit the Profit strike level for Call options on FX currency pairs). If the option's underlying instrument price at any time prior to the expiry should reach or exceed the Loss strike level, it is considered as an Out-of-the-money (OTM) outcome. If the option's underlying instrument price does not reach neither of the strike prices until its expiration point , Touch Binary option is cancelled without settlement (maturity without any trading gain or loss) and the contract amount is returned to the client.
• At least one price update (tick) should appear between the moment of the opening of an option contract and the maturity of this contract. Otherwise, the option contract is cancelled without settlement (maturity without any trading gain or loss) and the contract amount is returned to the client.
• At the maturity of a Binary Option and Touch Binaries contract the relevant price determining if the option is ITM or OTM is the price of the last available tick at the expiration, including the exact time of the expiration (the level of precision is the millisecond).
• The source of the underlying FX prices is the quotations available on Dukascopy trading platforms (SWFX Marketplace).
• Order execution is subject to the availability of liquidity in the system and the availability of margin on the account at the moment when the contract is being accepted for processing. In case contract amount exceeds the available margin and provided that all other applicable limits are respected (exposure, contract amount etc.) the order is automatically filled partially to the extent permitted by the size of the available margin.
• Confirmations of executions, partial fills and rejects are displayed electronically in the client reports. Dukascopy may charge fees for providing any other form of confirmation and account statement.

Chained option contracts

• Clients have the possibility to link a chain of additional option contracts to any contract being placed for execution.
• There are 2 types of contract chains:
  • Winning chain — every next contract of the chain is started only if previous contract expires with In-the-money (ITM) outcome, otherwise chain is automatically canceled. Amount of every next contract in the chain is a sum of previous contract amount plus previous contract payout received (applying rounding rules).
  • Martingale chain — every next contract of the chain is started only if previous contract expires Out-of-the-money (OTM) outcome, otherwise chain is automatically canceled. Amount of every next contract in the chain is a doubled sum of previous contract amount.
• The direction of the option contract (Call/Put), underlying instrument, duration of the option contract and strike distance (for Touch Binaries) are identical across all contracts in the chain.
• The maximum number of additional contracts in the chain is limited to 3, i.e. any order placed may be followed by a maximum of 3 additional consecutive contracts.
• Every consecutive contract in the chain is automatically started after final execution of its previous parent contract and only if the condition of the chain is met.
• Pending contracts in the chain can be canceled at any time before they turn to PROCESSING and EXECUTING status.
• Every contract in the chain is considered as an independent order in terms of execution and is subject to availability of liquidity, free margin on the account as well as to other standard policies and limitations in accordance with Trading Conditions.

Abusive practices

• The trading of binary options shall be individual. Any voluntary or involuntary coordinating, copying or grouping of trading orders by or between several clients on more than one client account, including but not limited to the use of trading signals, messenger, PAMM technology or collective trading decisions/orders placed on several client accounts at once, is regarded as a breach of the present Trading Conditions, in particular, a breach of the above exposure limits, and gives Dukascopy the right to cancel part or all concerned trades together with their associated profits and losses, at its entire discretion.
• Dukascopy may, at its own discretion and without having to provide any justification, refuse to open an account or close an existing account, including but not limited when there is reasonable suspicion that any account is traced to the same contacts, IP address or/and demonstrated identical trading behavior. Such accounts may also be frozen, with the subsequent cancellation or reversal of associated profits and losses received through such accounts.
• It is prohibited to attempt abusing Dukascopy binary trading platforms in an attempt to make illegal profits or to profit by applying practices such as price manipulation, exploitation of confidential information (insider trading) or by taking advantage of the server latency.
• Reasonable suspicion that the client performed abusive trading such as, but not limited to, manipulations or insider trading, gives Dukascopy the right, at its absolute discretion, at any time and without prior written notice, to take one or more of the following actions:
  • Restrict the client's trading activity by applying individual trading conditions or suspending access to selected trading instruments.
  • Temporarily or permanently suspend access to the trading account.
  • Cancel or revoke any open or pending contract with associated profits/losses (if any) gained through abusive trading or the application of artificial intelligence in the trading account.
  • Terminate the Agreement without prior notice to the client.
  • Take legal action for any losses suffered by the company.
• The rights described in this Section shall be in addition to any other rights which Dukascopy may have against the Client under any agreement or under applicable law.

Trading rescission

• Trading on the Dukascopy binary platforms or partly on one or more binary instruments may be cancelled with no advanced notice. The client will have no claim or right of indemnification for damages allegedly caused by trading rescission, whether for carried out transactions or for transactions allegedly intended to be carried out.
• Trading rescission may be applied either to all trading accounts at once or on individual basis.