DislikedWhile client funds are segregated from pepperstone's corporate funds, there is no segregation between clients. So they could use your cash to meet my margin call. I can't find any broker that will hold your money in an account in your name and truly segregate it from everything.Ignored
And even then there's additional costs to setting up an account that way (it's called custodial banking services, or bank guarantee.)
So instead, brokers like Pepper enforce margin liquidations before the trading account goes debit (negative.)
Under regular trading conditions, this works just fine and gives traders enough room to trade as they please. However, when something can potentially spook the market well beyond what regular margin monitoring can protect against, Pepper takes steps like raising margin requirements in to protect accounts from going debit (not only to protect the trader's account, but fellow trader's assets and Pepper themselves from getting into trouble.)
Actually that whole EUR/CHF margin adjustment we had a little while back is a great example... I said a few times that it was a good thing Pepper made that move, and the concerns you bring up now are exactly why I was 100% ok with their decision to raise margin requirements on that pair at the time.
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