Professional Clients

The professional client classification implies that you possess the requisite qualifications for trading complex financial products and understand the risks involved in trading them. As a result, professional clients may enjoy certain ‘freedoms’, as opposed to retail clients who are subject to enhanced protection.

If you have been classified as a professional client, we will not impose any product restrictions on you.

We will not impose:

• The leverage restrictions that retail clients are subject to.
• The decreased stop-out levels that retail clients are subject to.
• The product restrictions that may apply to some financial products.

We will not be required:

• To provide you with any standardised risk warnings.
• To offer negative balance protection, meaning that you may incur losses exceeding your deposits.

Also, you waive your right to be compensated through the Investment Compensation Fund (ICF).

To be categorised as a professional client, you must meet at least two of the following criteria:

Traded volume: In the last four quarters, you have made 10 trades a quarter on average with significant volume.

Explanation. For volume traded, you can also take into account the volume you traded with EBH or other investment intermediaries in your home country or abroad.

Portfolio: You own a portfolio of financial instruments and cash worth more than EUR 500 000.

Explanation. Savings, bank deposits, securities or portfolios with other investment intermediaries and banks in your home country or abroad can be taken into account for the financial portfolio.

Experience: You have worked for more than a year in the financial sector in a position that requires knowledge of relevant financial products.

Professional clients are treated differently because they are assumed to have sufficient experience and knowledge in protecting themselves and in bearing with the investment risks.

If you satisfy at least two of the following criteria: Traded Volume, Portfolio Size, Experience (please click here for more details), you can apply to become a professional client by contacting our client support or emailing us at [email protected]. Be sure to supply the supporting documentation.

Upon submitting your application, you will be required to provide scanned copies of two of the following three documents:

• A signed and stamped trade report showing that you conducted at least ten trades of considerable size in CFDs, Futures, Options, Warrants, per quarter during the past four quarters. A significant trade size is considered a trade with a notional value of EUR 100 000 for CFDs on currency pairs or EUR 50 000 for CFDs with other underlying assets.
• A bank account statement or a statement from a broker or a mutual fund statement showing that your portfolio is worth at least EUR 500 000 or more. Acceptable examples are cash deposits, stock and bond portfolios, trading accounts, mutual funds.
• An official letter from your employer stating the sector, your position and years of employment.

IMPORTANT! To speed things along, please ensure that the copies you are submitting are high quality and legible.

Being a professional client, you retain the right to request a different categorisation at any time.