What is Delta Index Agri-Trading?

Delta Index Agri-Trading is a online facility that allows you to trade the complete range of Agricultural Commodities with the view to managing the price risk your business.

Who is it for?

Delta Index Agri-Trading is specifically designed for you!

• Cereal Growers who wish to hedge the future downward price movements of their crop for sale in a falling cereal market.
• Large Feed Purchasers such as Pig, Poultry and Dairy/Beef farmers who wish to hedge the potential increase in their feed bills in a rising Protein, Cereal and Corn market.
• Grain/Feed Merchants, Co-Operative’s and other grain/feed market participants wish to manage the price risks in their business in a cost effective, capital efficient and flexible manner.

Price Hedging what is it.

Managing cereal price risk using derivatives such as futures are possible ways of managing cereal price risk and minimising volatility in cereal prices.

What Markets does it cover?

The main markets available to clients of Delta Index Agri-Trading are as follows

• Liffe Feed Wheat Futures Contracts (London)
• Liffe Milling Wheat Futures Contracts (Paris)
• Liffe Rapeseed Futures Contracts
• Liffe Corn (Maize) Futures Contracts
• CBOT Corn Futures Contracts
• CBOT Oats Futures Contracts
• CBOT Soyabeans Futures Contracts
• CBOT Wheat Futures Contracts A wide range of other markets are available on request.

Why do it through Spread Betting?

The main advantages for clients of trading through a Spread Betting Account are as follows.

• You can trade both Long and Short With a financial spread bet, you have the advantage of being able to trade on whether a commodity is going to rise or fall.

If you believe that a commodity is going to rise in value, you buy it – this is known as going long.

If on the other hand you believe that a commodity is going to go down in value you sell it – this is known as going short.

As in all financial markets there is a difference between the buying and selling prices.

• Huge Range of Markets available! (Commodities, Currencies, Shares)
• Market Prices Transparent
• Tax free Profits or No Capital Gains Tax or Stamp bill on Delta Index Agri-Trading transactions.
•  No Fees - Just the spread 
• Capital efficient. Low ‘Initial Margin Requirements’ deposits required you to only put a fraction of your exposure on deposit.
• No Foreign Exchange Risk on markets denominated in foreign currencies.
• No Foreign Exchange Costs on markets denominated in foreign currencies.
• Fast Simple Execution
• Short to medium term view
• One to One training at set-up and Online/Phone trading support to help you get started!

What are Initial Margin Requirements (IMR’s)?

You must maintain minimum ‘Initial Margin Requirements (IMR’s)’ Margin for the markets that they trade.

Margin is the amount of money you have to set aside on your trading account as collateral in order to be able to open a leveraged financial spread betting position. Margin requirement varies by market and is expressed as a proportion of your position value.

Margin is not a cost as the money is merely an amount held on deposit as security on the trade in the event that the markets move against you. The initial margin requirements (IMR) for each market group can be found in our Product Information Guides as well as on the XDeal trading screen. These requirements are reviewed regularly and are subject to change. You can calculate the margin required for a particular trade by multiplying the mid-price of the market by the % IMR and further multiplying this by your stake.

Take a look at the example below to see how this would work when opening a Liffe Wheat position:

What are Margin Calls?

As margin requirement is expressed as a proportion of your position value it fluctuates as the price of the traded contract changes. A margin call can occur when you are required to deposit additional funds to ensure your account valuation is above the required margin level to support your open positions. The amount required in this situation is calculated as follows:

• Account Valuation €X
• Current Margin in Use (IMR) - €Y
• Additional Margin Required: €Y-X

You can monitor your account online on the Account Summary page of the XDeal trading screen – the important figure here is Trading Resources. If this figure has gone into negative territory you have gone into margin. When this happens you have several options:

1. Deposit more funds into your account to cover your open positions (find out how to do this here).
2. You can close some or all of your positions to free up your trading resources.
3. You can reduce the size of some or all of your positions to free up your trading resources.

It’s important to note that any margin calls you may receive from Delta Index must be dealt with promptly in order to maintain your positions. As markets can move fast and positions may go against you, clients should ensure that they always have enough funds to cover open positions. Delta Index cannot guarantee phone calls to alert you to your margin requirement and your position may be closed if we do not hear from you.

If you have received a margin call and after reviewing your account you find that the markets have moved in your favour and you are no longer in margin we require no further action on your part in this situation. However, you may consider it appropriate to free up some trading resources, through any of the options mentioned above, to prevent your account from going into margin again.

For more information on margin calls please see our Terms and Conditions.

How do you control your risk?

Trading Risk can be controlled using a variety of Trader Tools facilities such as 

‘New’ Orders

A new order is used to open a bet at a level in the market which has not yet been reached. New orders may be placed above or below the current Delta Index quote within the minimum distance constraints.

Any order activated by 'gapping' or fast market action will be filled at the first price at which Delta Index could reasonably be expected to attain (See Term 13 in our Terms and Conditions). No orders are guaranteed. A new order will not be cancelled by any other actions on an account and will only expire when it is cancelled, when the relevant market expires, or when it expires due to any Good For The Day (GFTD) instruction.

The new order functionality is useful for placing orders at critical market points; it will ensure that you do not miss an opportunity. When a new order is executed, it automatically creates a new stop loss order if you have automatic stop losses enabled. You may then add a limit order to the bet if you wish.

 Stop/loss orders close your position at the risk amount

Clients can leave an instruction with us to close a position at a certain pre-specified profit or loss.

The stop loss order is used to limit clients risk on a trade is automatically generated when a new position is opened.

The level is defaulted at 50% of the margin required for the position however we encourage all clients to adjust this as soon as the new position is opened. Stop loss orders will be triggered automatically when the target price is hit and the existing position will be closed. If the position is closed manually or by hitting another order, the associated stop loss order will be automatically cancelled. Note that stop loss orders are not guaranteed and there is a risk that gapping may occur. In this event, orders will be filled on a best efforts basis.

Limit orders close your position at an agreed profit level

Clients can leave an instruction with us to close a position at a certain pre-specified profit.

Limit orders may be added while a new position is been opening or at any time afterwards while the position remains open. A limit order is an order to ‘take profit’ if the position moves in your favour. Target levels may adjusted at any time. Note that if the position is closed manually or by an alternative order, the associated limit order will be automatically cancelled.

What training and support are available

Delta Index Agri-Trading provide one-to-one training to our clients at account set-up and provide telephone/online support thereafter.

Our team are here from 7.00am to 9.15pm and whilst we do not offer advice on any given contract, we will help you make decisions about your overall strategy.