Retail versus professional client status

The protections you hand back when you elect to be treated as a professional client.

Elective professional clients lose negative balance protection, retail leverage caps and, in most cases, access to the Ombudsman. That single sentence does more work than any amount of marketing language about "regulated and trusted", a phrase which appears on the websites of firms with no UK permissions at all.

The rest of this page is written for the moment it matters: when you are about to deposit, when something has gone wrong, or when a broker's answer does not sound right. Each point below is a rule you can check for yourself against public sources.

You normally need to meet two of three criteria: significant trading frequency, a portfolio above the threshold, and relevant professional experience.

In practice this is where the difference between firms shows up. Two brokers can both be authorised and still handle the same situation very differently, because the rule sets a floor rather than a standard. When we score a firm on regulation and safety, we look at how far above that floor it chooses to operate: how clearly it names its entity, how specific its disclosure is, and how it behaves when a client disputes something.

Higher leverage and occasionally better pricing or rebates. For most traders that is a marginal benefit against a very large downside.

In practice this is where the difference between firms shows up. Two brokers can both be authorised and still handle the same situation very differently, because the rule sets a floor rather than a standard. When we score a firm on regulation and safety, we look at how far above that floor it chooses to operate: how clearly it names its entity, how specific its disclosure is, and how it behaves when a client disputes something.

The margin close-out rule, negative balance protection, some risk warnings and, in many cases, FSCS and Ombudsman eligibility.

In practice this is where the difference between firms shows up. Two brokers can both be authorised and still handle the same situation very differently, because the rule sets a floor rather than a standard. When we score a firm on regulation and safety, we look at how far above that floor it chooses to operate: how clearly it names its entity, how specific its disclosure is, and how it behaves when a client disputes something.

You can ask to return to retail status, but do not assume it is instant. Positions opened at professional leverage do not resize themselves.

In practice this is where the difference between firms shows up. Two brokers can both be authorised and still handle the same situation very differently, because the rule sets a floor rather than a standard. When we score a firm on regulation and safety, we look at how far above that floor it chooses to operate: how clearly it names its entity, how specific its disclosure is, and how it behaves when a client disputes something.