Risk Disclosure

1. Purpose

This document explains the risks of trading the products we offer. It does not describe every risk, and it is not a substitute for your own judgement or for independent advice.

It forms part of, and must be read together with, the Client Agreement (Terms of Business), the Order Execution Policy, the Negative Balance Protection Policy and the Weekend Risk Policy.

Please read Section 3 before you trade.

2. What you are trading

We offer contracts for difference and other margined transactions on foreign exchange, stock indices, precious metals, energy and other commodities, cryptocurrencies, and dated futures.

You never own the underlying asset. A contract for difference is a contract between you and us that settles the difference in price. You acquire no currency, no metal, no commodity, no shareholding, no voting right, no dividend entitlement and no digital asset.

3. The risks that matter most

3.1 You can lose your entire deposit. These are high-risk leveraged products. Most retail clients who trade them lose money.

3.2 You can lose more than your deposit. Because you trade on margin, your losses are not limited to what you put in. If the market moves sharply against you — across a weekend, on a news event, or in thin liquidity — your positions may be closed at prices far worse than the level at which they should have closed, leaving your account below zero.

3.3 What happens if your account goes below zero. A negative balance is a debt you owe us.

• If you are a retail client, we will automatically credit your account to bring it back to zero, up to USD 100 per occurrence.
• Any shortfall above USD 100 remains payable by you in full. We may set it off against other funds you hold with us, and we may demand payment and pursue recovery, including through legal proceedings and the recovery of our costs.

Our Negative Balance Protection Policy sets this out in full, including the circumstances in which the protection does not apply at all.

3.4 There is no compensation scheme. Neither of our companies participates in any statutory or regulatory investor compensation or deposit guarantee scheme in any jurisdiction. If we were unable to meet our obligations to you, no scheme would pay you.

4. Leverage

Leverage means the margin required to open a position is small relative to the value of that position. It magnifies gains and losses equally.

• A small adverse price movement can produce a loss large relative to your deposit.
• We may change margin requirements at any time, including on positions you already hold — for example ahead of a weekend, a holiday, or an expected event. A change may itself trigger a margin call or a stop out.
• The higher the leverage, the smaller the market move needed to close you out.

5. Margin, margin calls and stop out

You must maintain sufficient margin at all times. Your margin level is your equity as a percentage of the margin your open positions require.

Understand what stop out is and is not. It is an automated function operated for our protection. It is not a guarantee that your loss will be limited to your equity at that level. In a fast or gapping market, positions close at the next available price, which may be far worse. That is how an account ends up below zero.

We are not obliged to make a margin call, to contact you, or to do so within any particular time. Monitoring your account is your responsibility. The absence of a warning does not mean your account is adequately funded.

6. Weekend and gap risk

Markets close at the end of the trading week and reopen at whatever price conditions then dictate. Between those two moments you cannot trade, adjust or close a position.

A market can reopen at a price materially different from the last traded price — a gap. A position that looked adequately funded at the close can be through its stop out at the reopen and closed far beyond it. Stop-loss orders do not protect you across a gap.

Our Weekend Risk Policy describes how we monitor accounts before the close and what we may do. That monitoring is a precaution operated for our own risk management. It is not a service, it is not continuous, and you must not rely on it.

The same applies to public holidays, market suspensions and any other closure.

7. Volatility, spreads and slippage

• Prices can move sharply and unpredictably. Economic, political and regulatory events can cause sudden movements.
• Our spreads are floating, not fixed. They widen — sometimes substantially — in volatile conditions, around economic releases, at market open and close, and in thin liquidity.
• Your order executes at the next price available to us, which may be better or worse than the price you saw. This is slippage, and it occurs in both directions.
• In illiquid conditions an order may fill only in part, or across several prices, or not at all.

Past performance tells you nothing about future results.

8. Risk-reducing orders have limits

Stop-loss, stop-limit and take-profit orders are useful but do not guarantee protection.

• A stop-loss order is not a guaranteed price. It is an instruction to close when a level is reached; the close happens at the next available price, which in a fast or gapping market may be far worse.
• Hedging and offsetting strategies reduce some risks and introduce others. They do not eliminate risk, and they carry their own spreads, commissions and financing costs.

9. Cryptocurrency instruments

Cryptocurrency CFDs carry risks beyond those of our other products.

• Exceptional volatility. Price movements of tens of percent within a day are not unusual.
• They can move when you cannot act, including outside conventional market hours.
• Underlying markets are largely unregulated and fragmented, with wide price differences between venues, and are vulnerable to manipulation, exchange failure and liquidity withdrawal.
• Margin requirements are typically higher and may change at short notice.
• Events with no equivalent in other markets — protocol changes, forks, network failures, regulatory action against an asset — can affect price sharply.

You do not own any digital asset and have no rights in respect of one.

10. Dated instruments

Some instruments we quote have an expiry date.

• A position still open at expiry is closed automatically at our quoted price at expiry, whether or not that suits you. There is no delivery, and no rollover unless we say otherwise.
• Liquidity in a dated instrument commonly deteriorates as expiry approaches, which can widen spreads and increase slippage.
• It is your responsibility to know the expiry date of any instrument you trade. Expiry dates are in the Contract Specifications.

11. Currency risk

If you trade an instrument denominated in a currency other than your account currency, your profit or loss is affected by the exchange rate as well as by the instrument's price. A correct view on the instrument can still produce a loss after conversion. Conversions are made at rates we reasonably determine.

12. Charges — including swaps that change daily

Your trading costs include spreads, commissions and, for positions held overnight, swap or financing charges.

• Swap rates are received daily from our liquidity providers and change daily. They may be positive or negative on either side of an instrument.
• Over time, swap charges on a held position can become substantial and can exceed what you expect.
• Swaps may be charged at a multiple on a particular day of the week to account for weekends and holidays.
• Charges are in the Contract Specifications and shown on the platform. It is your responsibility to understand what you are paying before you trade.

13. Off-exchange trading and counterparty risk

13.1 All positions are off-exchange. They are not traded on a regulated exchange, not cleared through a clearing house, and cannot be transferred to another provider. There are no standardised daily price limits, and there is less transparency and less regulatory oversight than for exchange-traded products.

13.2 We are your counterparty. Every position is a bilateral contract between you and your Contracting Entity. Our platform is not a marketplace. This means you carry our credit risk: if we were unable to meet our obligations, you would be an unsecured creditor and — as Section 3.4 states — no compensation scheme would pay you.

13.3 Our conflict of interest. Our primary model is to pass the risk arising from your trading to our liquidity providers, and we seek to avoid holding a directional position against our clients. However, we are authorised to deal on our own account, we operate a dealing desk, and in limited circumstances we retain the risk of a position rather than passing it on. Where we do, your loss on that position is our gain and your profit is our loss. Clause 6 of the Client Agreement and Section 3 of the Order Execution Policy explain this and how we manage it.

13.4 We may cease quoting an instrument at any time, which may prevent you from closing a position when you want to.

14. Which of our companies holds your account

"GCC Brokers Limited" is the name of two separate companies, and the protections available to you depend on which one holds your account.

If your account is held with the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines company, there is no regulatory supervision of your account and no regulator to whom you can escalate. Your rights are contractual only — our policies, including negative balance protection, apply to you as a matter of contract rather than of regulation, and your recourse is against the company under the Client Agreement.

The Client Agreement identifies which company holds your account, and we will confirm it in writing at any time on request.

15. Electronic trading and platform risk

You accept the risk of loss caused by failures of hardware, software, connectivity or systems — ours, yours, or a third party's.

15.1 On your side: failure of your device, software or internet connection; incorrect platform settings; delayed platform updates; and unfamiliarity with how the platform works.

15.2 On the platform: you should understand the following behaviours, which regularly cause unintended outcomes:

• Only one instruction is processed at a time. If you send another instruction before the first has returned a result, you may execute a transaction you did not intend.
• Closing an order window does not cancel an instruction already sent to the server.
• The quote history on your terminal is not the authoritative record. The server's record is. On a poor connection, quotes may never reach your terminal at all.
• Where an order has already executed and you send an instruction to modify both the pending order and its attached stop-loss or take-profit levels, only the modification of the attached levels takes effect.

15.3 At times of peak load, or in fast markets, execution may take longer and it may be difficult to reach us by telephone.

15.4 You should maintain an alternative means of contacting us so that you can manage your positions if the platform is unavailable to you.

16. Communications

• You bear the risk of loss caused by not receiving a notification from us, or receiving it late.
• Unencrypted email is not secure and can be intercepted.
• Notices are sent to the contact details registered on your account. Keeping them current and monitoring them is your responsibility, and a notice is effective whether or not you read it.
• You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure. Clause 15.2 of the Client Agreement sets out how responsibility is allocated.

17. Introducing brokers and third parties

We may work with introducing brokers, affiliates and other third parties who refer clients to us.

• They are independent. They are not our employees, agents or partners, and any agreement you have with them is separate from your agreement with us.
• We are not responsible for anything they tell you — including any advice, forecast, performance claim or assurance about returns. Treat any such claim with caution and bring it to us directly.
• Your account is held with, and all transactions are executed by, your Contracting Entity under the Client Agreement.
• We may pay them for referring you. We will disclose the nature of such arrangements on request.

The same applies to third-party tools, signals, expert advisors and copy-trading services. We do not verify them and we are not responsible for their performance.

18. We do not give advice

We deal with you on an execution-only basis. We do not provide investment, tax, legal or accounting advice, and nothing we say or publish is a recommendation. Market commentary, analysis, research, educational material, calculators and third-party content are general information only.

We do not assess whether a particular trade is suitable for you. Every trading decision is yours. If you are in any doubt, seek independent advice before you trade.

19. Legality where you are

It is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that trading with us is lawful in the jurisdiction where you are resident and from which you access our services, and to meet any tax obligation arising from your trading. We give no assurance on either point.

20. Acknowledgement

By opening an account, funding it or placing an order, you confirm that you have read and understood this Risk Disclosure, that you accept the risks it describes, and that you are willing to bear the loss of the funds you deposit and — subject to Section 3.3 — more.

Do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose.