Daily Options

All our Daily Options are quoted on an 'bid/offer' price, and charge a slightly commission of $10 per side.

Daily Options Information Table

Notes to table

Our Daily Options are cash settled and cannot be exercised by or against you or result in delivery of the underlying security.

1) Daily Options on FTSE , Wall Street and DAX are settled against the official settlement levels of the cash FTSE, cash Wall Street and cash DAX markets.

2) Daily Currency Options are settled against the spot rate concerned at 14.00 Chicago time each day. These levels will be derived from the official settlements in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) currency futures contracts at 14.00 Chicago time. On days when the CME market is closed/closes early, contracts will be settled basis the middle of our quote for the spot rate concerned at 14.00 (Chicago time) on the day of expiry.

3) Our spread on Daily Options depends on a range of factors including the level of the price quotation and the time to expiry.

4) Positions not already closed by the client expire automatically at the close of the cash market concerned (in the case of FTSE and Wall Street) or at 14.00 Chicago time (in the case of spot FX). No spread is charged on automatic closings.

5) 24 hour trading for Daily Options begins one hour after the previous settlement and finishes one minute before the close of each market.

6) The margin requirement for buying a Daily Option is the opening price (or premium) multiplied by the contract value (per point in the underlying market). This is the maximum possible loss on the position.

The margin requirement for selling a Daily Option is variable.

7) Brent Crude Oil Daily Options can be traded from 10.05 to 19.30 (London time).

Weekly Options

We quote Weekly FX Options that settle each Friday at 10am New York time

The details of our Weekly Options contracts are given in the following table:

Weekly Options Information

Notes to table

Our Weekly Options are cash settled and cannot be exercised by or against you or result in delivery of the underlying security.

1) Positions not already closed by the client expire basis the middle of our quote for the spot rate concerned at 10.00 New York time on the relevant Friday

Stock Index Options

These contracts are available in addition to our Daily Options

The details of our Stock Index Options contracts are given in the following table:

Stock Index Options Information

Notes to table

Our Stock Index Options are cash settled and cannot be exercised by or against you or result in delivery of the underlying security.

1) Positions not already closed by the client expire automatically on the date indicated.

Call Options settle at the settlement price less the strike price, or at 0, whichever is greater.

Put Options settle at the strike price, less the settlement price, or at 0, whichever is greater.

2) Australian Stock Index options settle basis the Special Opening Quotation of the S&P/ASX 200 Index on the last trading day calculated to one decimal place. The Special Opening Quotation is calculated using the first traded price of each component stock in the S&P/ASX 200 Index on the last trading day, irrespective of when those stocks first trade in the ASX trading day. This means that the first traded price of each component stock may occur at any time time between ASX market open and ASX market close (including the Closing Single Price Auction) on the last trading day. Should any component stock not have traded by ASX market close on the last dealing day, the last traded price of that stock will be used to calculate the Special Opening Quotation.

3) Wall Street options can be dealt until 15.00 (Chicago time) on the last trading day and settle basis the Special Opening Quotation (SOQ) of the DJIA (calculated to two decimal places) on the 3rd Friday of the contract month, as reported by the CBOT. Note that this is the day after the last trading day. The SOQ is calculated from the sequence of opening prices of the 30 DJIA stocks on the NYSE.

4) S&P 500 options can be dealt until 15.15 (Chicago time) on the last trading day and settle basis the Special Opening Quotation of the S&P 500 Index on the 3rd Friday of the contract month as reported by CME. Note that this is the day after the last trading day.

5) FTSE options settle basis the Exchange Delivery Settlement Price (EDSP) as reported by LIFFE on the last dealing day. The Exchange Delivery Settlement price is based on an intraday cash market auction of the FTSE 100 Index which commences at 10.10 (London time) on the last trading day. Uncrossing of the component stocks should be finished by 10.30 (London time).

6) DAX options settle basis the final settlement value of the DAX as reported by Eurex on the last trading day. The settlement value is based on prices of the component shares of the DAX as determined in an intraday auction starting at 13.00 CET in the electronic trading system Xetra.

7) The margin requirement for buying a Stock Index Option is the opening price (or premium) multiplied by the contract value (per point in the underlying market). This is the maximum possible loss on the position.

The margin requirement for selling a Stock Index Option is variable, but will never be less than half the margin required for an equivalent sized CFD in the underlying market, and never more than the margin required for an equivalent sized CFD in the underlying market.

8) 24 hour dealing 24-hour dealing starts at 23.00 London time on Sunday and finishes at 21.15 London time the following Friday. Ask dealers for information about public holidays.