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1. Who is Windsor?
Windsor is an Investment Firm, located in Limassol, Cyprus. Established since in 1988, Windsor is a principal broker offering a wide range of financial instruments to many institutional and private investors on the international market. With over 20 years of experience, Windsor has proved to be a reliable broker with a vast clientele based in Europe, Middle East, Gulf, North Africa and the Far East.
2. Is Windsor a regulated financial services company?
Windsor Brokers Ltd is licensed and regulated by CySEC (The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) holding license no. CIF 030/04. Windsor is authorized by the FSA (The Financial Services Association – UK, ref. no. 463727) and is registered with BaFin (Germany) and the AMF (France). Windsor conforms to the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2007 L144 (I)/2007 – implementing mainly the European Union Investment Services Directive 2004/39/EC, MiFID.
Windsor is also member of CIFSA, (The Cyprus International Financial Services Association), which aims to promote and maintain high ethical standards among members in the provision of financial services to their clients.
Moreover, Windsor is a member of the Investors’ Compensation Fund, a fund established by the authorities offering protection to investors and clients of investment and credit firms in Cyprus.
3. How safe is my money?
An additional prerequisite of CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission), is that all clients’ funds are held in segregated accounts, meaning completely separate from Windsor’s accounts. Clients’ funds are kept by Windsor in first class banks.
4. What are the risks involved in trading?
To view the risks involved in trading, kindly refer to our Risk Disclosure Statement.
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5. Do I need to have any previous trading experience?
Previous experience is not required. Experience can be gained by using Windsor’s Demo account. As a next step, Windsor gives clients the opportunity to open a Micro trading account where they may trade under real-time prices and market conditions with the minimum investment.
6. Does Windsor offer Demo accounts?
Windsor gives the opportunity to test our trading platform – the Windsor Direct 4 (based on Metatrader 4) for a free trial period of 30 days for testing purposes, enabling clients to familiarize with the financial instruments traded, trading procedures and the risks involved in trading financial instruments. Click here to Open a Demo account
7. What instruments can I trade at Windsor?
- Forex Currency Pairs,
- Spot Precious Metals
- Future (OTC) Currencies
- Future (OTC) Indices
- Future (OTC) Precious Metals
- Future (OTC) Energies
- Futures (OTC) Commodities
- CFD Indices
- CFD Energies
- CFD USA
To view the complete list of instruments with their symbols, contract sizes, pip values, margin requirements, spreads on orders from Market price, transactions and trading times, you may refer to our Contract Specifications Table.
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8. What is Forex?
The foreign exchange (‘currencies, Forex or FX’) is a market where participants buy, sell, exchange and speculate on currencies. In particular, it consists of trading one currency for another, ex: EURUSD. This means trading the Euro against the US dollar. Forex and related markets is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, where the average trade consists of trillions per day.
Trading foreign exchange may have various advantages because of its transparency, direct dealing, significant trading volumes, extreme liquidity and the great number of participants in the market including governments, central banks, banks, financial institutions, corporations, private investors, etc…
In addition, due to the different time zones of the major financial centers, starting from New York to Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Europe, the Forex market is open 24 hours a day (except on weekends), usually from Sunday 00:00 until Friday 23:15 Cyprus local time (GMT+2 Winter time, GMT+3 Summer time).
a. Currencies that are traded against the US dollar are called Majors and make up the greatest number of foreign currency trades.
- USD (US Dollar)
- EUR (Euro)
- GBP (British pound)
- JPY (Japanese yen)
- CHF (Swiss Franc)
- AUD (Australian dollar)
- CAD (Canadian dollar) Ex: AUDUSD/EURUSD/GBPUSD...
b. Currencies that are traded against each other, excluding the US dollar, are called Crosses:
Ex: CADJPY / EURAUD / GBPCHF…
When trading Forex, whether majors or crosses, the first currency (called base currency) represents the direction and the second currency (called counter currency) indicates the profit or loss.
Windsor Brokers offers trading in 27 currency pairs.
More info? View: Forex Trading Model, Contract Specifications Table.
9. What is a Lot?
A lot is the standard unit size of a transaction.
Depending on the financial instrument traded, the lot size is determined; i.e. a standard lot traded at Windsor, for Forex trading, usually consists of a contract size of 100,000 (units of the base currency).
The contract size is then proportionate as per the lot indication - standard, mini or micro lot. As a result, a standard contract size of the GBPUSD is 100,000 GBP then the mini lot consists of a contract size of 10,000 GBP and the micro lot consists of 1,000 GBP accordingly.
For details on all instruments traded at Windsor, please refer to our Contract Specifications Table.
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10. What is Spread?
Spread is the difference between the Bid and Ask prices.
When trading any financial instrument, you are offered two prices; the Bid price and Ask price. The Bid price is the selling price and the Ask price refers to the price offered for buying.
The difference between the Bid and Ask is called Spread and varies for each financial instrument traded. The measurement between the two prices is usually referred to as:
- pips [for Forex Currency Pairs].
- cents [for Spot Precious Metals].
- ticks [for Future (OTC): Currencies, Precious Metals, Commodities and CFDs USA].
- points [for Future (OTC): Indices, Energies, CFD Indices and CFD Energies].
An advantage of trading currency pairs at Windsor is the low spreads offered, which is as low as 2-3 pips on majors.
click here to view Spreads Table.
11. What does a "long" or a "short" position mean?
A 'long' position or ‘going long’ is a market position where the client buys a financial instrument with the intent to sell it at a later stage, at a higher price.
A "short" position or ‘going short’ is a market position where the client sells a financial instrument with the intent to buy it at a later stage, at a lower price.
12. What is Margin and Leverage?
Margin is a guarantee for holding an open position. The amount is blocked from the client’s trading account when opening a new position and returned (unblocked) to the client’s trading account once the position is closed or hedged.
Leverage is the use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital, such as margin, to increase the potential return of an investment. Windsor offers trading with as low as 1% margin or a 1:100 leverage. A client can either buy or sell a Standard contract (1 standard lot) worth US$ 100,000 by using only US$ 1,000 as a margin (leverage 1:100). In the same way, a client may buy or sell portion of a Standard contract, a Mini contract (1 mini lot) worth US$ 10,000 with a margin requirement of US$ 100 only (leverage 1:100).
Each client is required to monitor the margin requirement of his/her trading account. For example, for opening majority of financial instruments, for 2 standard lots, the trading account must have at least US$ 2,000 available for trading. This applies when the equity/margin ratio is 100% (leverage 1:100). In case of an adverse market move, when the available margin in the account falls below US$ 2,000, the trading account will be under the 100% required margin and will be on Margin Call.
Margin call is a demand for additional funds from the client to bring the equity of the trading account to a required minimum level and to prevent the trading account from a possible adverse movement in price of the financial instrument, at the market.
Equity to margin should not fall under 5% for major financial instruments on weekdays and should not fall under 50% on weekends for the majority of financial instruments traded with Windsor (leverage 1:100).
For further details, please refer to our Trading Mechanism.
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13. What are CFDs?
A CFD (Contract for Difference) traded with Windsor are equity derivatives allowing investors to take positions on any CFDs, offered by Windsor for trading, and speculate on share price movement. It is therefore an agreement between two parties to exchange the difference between the price of the opening and the closing of the contract (hence the name – contract for difference). Upon closing the contract, the profit or loss is calculated by multiplying the difference between the buying and selling price with the number of shares. The major benefit of trading a CFD is the fact that the client can trade on margin – meaning client can trade a full portfolio of CFDs without having to tie up large amounts of capital. At Windsor, we offer the following CFD contracts for trading:
- CFD Indices
Big Dow Jones with spread |
- CFD Energies
Light Sweet Crude Oil |
- CFD USA
29 of the major USA company shares (i.e. Ford, Yahoo, eBay, etc…) |
More info? View: CFD Trading Model, Contract Specifications Table, Trading Mechanism.
14. What are Futures?
A future contract is a contractual agreement to buy or sell a specified commodity or financial instrument at a predetermined price, on a set date in the future.
Futures can be traded both on the trading floor of a futures exchange or through an electronic platform (OTC).
Trading futures is made by buying or selling futures contracts which are standardized according to the type of the financial instrument, quantity and expiry date of each instrument. A future contract is specified with the month during which the delivery or settlement is to occur i.e. if the product is gold and delivery is in July then the price quoted/traded is for July Gold.
All futures traded include therefore, a specific termination date consisting of the contract name, expiry month and year. The standard symbols used for each traded month, by Windsor are:
[Jan: January] - [Feb: February] - [Mar: March] - [Apr: April] - [May:May] - [Jun: June] -
[Jul: July] - [Aug: August] - [Sep: September] - [Oct: October] - [Nov: November] -
[Dec: December]
Future contracts traded with Windsor are OTC (Over-the-counter Market), which is a market where financial products such as foreign currencies, indices and other financial instruments are bought and sold outside the actual exchange.
At Windsor, we offer the following Future (OTC) Contracts:
More info? View: Futures OTC Trading Model, Contract Specifications Table, Trading Mechanism.
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15. How long does it take to execute a deal?
Clients can expect deals to be executed within seconds up to few minutes depending on the financial instrument in question. However, one of the major advantages of our trading platform, the Windsor Direct 4 is the Instant trading on Forex currency pairs, Spot Precious Metals and CFDs as well as Market Execution for Futures (OTC) instruments.
16. Do you charge any commission?
There is no commission charged on Forex currency pairs, Spot precious metals or CFDs trades. However, a commission of US$ 25 per Standard lot round turn is charged on Futures (OTC). This commission is proportionate according to the size of the lot traded. For example, if you are trading a portion of 0.10 of a lot (mini lot) of a Futures instrument, the commission that will be charged in your trading account will be 0.10 x US$ 25 = US$ 2.5.
17. What are Rollovers / Swaps?
For all spot positions which are held open overnight, i.e. not closed before 12:00 midnight (Cyprus Local Time). Rollover / Swaps are either added or charged on each position depending on the financial instrument and whether you are buying or selling. Rollover charges apply on Forex currency pairs, Spot Precious Metals and CFDs.
18. What types of orders are available?
To view the types of orders that you may place on the Windsor Direct 4, please refer to our Trading Mechanism.
19. How can I check the equity of my account and my deals/trades for the day?
A Daily Confirmation is sent to each client stating all activity on each trading account. Clients may also check the status of their accounts directly through the Windsor Direct 4, through the Windsor Mobile, or by calling the dealing room for an update on their account(s) anytime, 24 hours a day, five days a week, Monday to Friday.
20. Can I trade via Pocket PC?
Yes. Windsor offers the “Windsor Mobile” software for clients who wish to trade by using their Pocket PC. For more information and/or to download the Windsor Mobile software, please click here.
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21. Do you offer Interest-free trading accounts?
Yes. Windsor offers clients the possibility to trade on an Interest-free basis, according to certain conditions. For details, please contact our Sales Team.
22. What is the procedure for opening a real trading account with Windsor?
To open a Real trading account with Windsor, you must fill the Account Opening Application and carefully read the following documents: Client Account Agreement, Risk Disclosure Statement, Online Access Agreement and the Trading Mechanism.
Once you have read all terms and conditions and signed the application, you may proceed to sending your application by fax to 00357 25 500888 or by email to backoffice@windsorbrokersltd.com for approval. Once your application has been approved, you may proceed to funding your account.
For further details on how to open a Real trading account for an Individual or a Company,
click here to contact our Sales team.
23. When can I start trading?
You may commence trading as soon as your trading account has been approved and funded. Process usually takes less than 24 hours after the funds are received to your trading account.
24. How can I become a Business Introducer (BI)?
To work with Windsor through our BI Program and to become a Business Introducer for Windsor, please click here to contact our Marketing Department.
25. How much money do I need to open a trading account with Windsor?
Windsor offers two types of accounts: Standard and Micro. Minimum Deposits are US$2,000 for trading Standard lots, US$300 for trading Mini lots and only US$100 for trading Micro lots.
26. How can I fund my account at Windsor?
Clients may fund their account at Windsor via Wire Transfer and by Credit Card.
For funding via Wire Transfer, please Request a Callback in order to provide you with different options for transfers depending on your country.
Credit Cards accepted are: Visa, Visa Electron and MasterCard.
For full details regarding funding options, please refer to our Deposits/Withdrawals page.
27. How do I withdraw funds from my trading account at Windsor?
Clients may withdraw funds from their trading account at Windsor by downloading the Payment Order Instructions Form and by sending your request for withdrawal by fax to 00357 25 500888 or by email to backoffice@windsorbrokersltd.com.
28. Can funds be transferred/withdrawn from a third party to my trading account with Windsor?
Regardless of the funding method you choose, the name of the person transferring funds must always match the name of the client’s trading account at Windsor. Windsor Brokers does not accept funds for any trading account by a third party, as per Anti-Money Laundering regulations.
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29. What methods of contact are available?
- Live Chat – for direct assistance with our Sales Team
- Request a Callback – fill in the form and we will call you at your convenience
- Telephone – call us on 00357 25 500500 from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00p.m. Cyprus local time (GMT+2 winter time, GMT+3 summer time)
- Email – for further specifications in writing, click here
Windsor offers multilingual client support; English, Arabic, Iranian (Farsi), Greek, French, Italian, German, Serbian, Polish, Romanian and Chinese. Windsor team recognizes the importance of being able to communicate with clients in their language and to understand their needs.
30. When can I reach a Sales representative?
For any inquiries regarding our Company as well as our Products and Services, please feel free to contact our Sales team anytime from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Cyprus local time (GMT+2 winter time, GMT+3 summer time). Click here to view how to contact us.
31. What are the working hours of the dealing room?
Our Dealing Desk is open 24 hours a day continuously from Sunday 00:00 to Friday 23:15 Cyprus Local Time (GMT+2 winter time, GMT+3 summer time).
32. What if I have a comment/suggestion?
Our clients’ feedback is of utmost importance; therefore, if you have any comments or suggestions, kindly fill our Online Comments Form and we will take your comments/suggestions into consideration or contact you for more information if necessary.
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EUR 1.00%
GBP 0.50%
CHF 0.25%
JPY 0.10%
USD 0.25%
AUD 4.00%
CAD 0.25%
NZD 2.50%