Folionet offers two types of accounts, each designed to suit your investment needs. Both of them allow you to trade with only a $0.98 processing fee.
Investing on margin means that you are borrowing money from Folionet to buy stocks. This lets you invest more money (your own money plus borrowed money) for greater potential of gains or losses. It also gives you flexibility with your cash: If you see an opportunity in the market and you want to invest more, you can invest right away without needing to make a deposit from your bank.
When you open a Folionet margin account, you will receive extra buying power. This represents the money that you can borrow from us to invest.
What are the risks of margin?
With margin investing, the returns on any stocks bought on margin directly affect your account value, whatever they are positive or negative. If the stock loses value, the losses will be deducted from your account value – not the funds you borrowed – so it is possible for margin to increase your losses. The risks are resumed as follows:
Interest Rates: they may vary in time (can go up or down). In case of a rise, the cost of the loan may go up in price.
Stock Movement: if the shares in your portfolio substantially decrease in value, an alert can be triggered representing a margin call. You may need to sell positions to reduce the loan value.
What are the requirements to use margin in your account?
Federal regulators require that you have $2,000 in your account and a suitable investment profile to use margin. Suitability is determined by asking you a few questions about your experience, risk profile, among others.You can enable margin by contacting our support team
support@folionet.com
How do I pay for margin lending?
Margin accounts do not have fees. You only pay interest if you have invested all your cash and are therefore using margin lending. The charges for using margin lending will be deducted from your account monthly. The interest rate you will pay is indicated on this website and it’s prorated based on the number of days that margin funds are used.
For example, if you use $1,000 of margin and the interest rate is 9%, the daily interest will be calculated as follows:
1000*9%/360= $0,25 daily.
How do I know when I am using margin?
You will start using margin once the cash in your account has been fully invested. This means that if you have upgraded to a margin account and you have cash in your account, you will not start using margin right away.
For example, suppose that you have $2,500 in your account – $2,000 in stocks and $500 cash. If you buy an additional $1,000 of XYZ stock, you will use your $500 in remaining cash and the remaining $500 would be on margin.
Once you buy your first shares on margin, we will update your account display to show the amount of margin you are using. You will see a negative amount in the cash field. This will represent the borrowed amount.
How do I stop using margin?
There are two ways to stop using margin:
1. First, you can deposit money into your account to reduce the margin you are borrowing.
Using the previous example, you could stop using margin by depositing $500 in the account.
2. Second, you can sell shares to reduce the amount of money you are borrowing.
Using the previous example, you could sell $500 worth of shares and apply the cash to reduce your margin to zero. You can sell any position in your account since margin is a feature for your entire account.
When you open a Folionet cash account, you will be able to place trades for only a $0.98 processing fee. You will not have access to the funds instantly when selling. Due to US regulation, funds will become available to use again after 48 business hours.