Regulations

• What has changed with the addition of the ASX to the platform?

  We have updated our Financial Services Guide as well as the terms in our client agreement along with this latest offering (the “Revised Terms”). Among other things, the changes made are meant to provide greater clarity on the following:

  1. The financial services we and our partners provide in relation to the trading of Australian securities and ETFs listed on the Australian Securities Exchange/Cboe Australia;
  2. Your obligations to ensure that the information and data which you have provided to us are up to date;
  3. Our data collection, use, and disclosure practices;
  4. How we and our partners handle the funds and assets (including any rights which follow) which you have entrusted with us;
  5. The relationships between us and our partners;
  6. The risks you may face when using our services; and
  7. How we handle dormant accounts and unclaimed assets.

  We encourage you to read and review the Revised Terms in their entirety here. The changes take effect immediately. By continuing to use our services, you shall be taken to have agreed to the Revised Terms.

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• Will I be covered under SIPC protection?

  Syfe Australia is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd., an Australian Financial Services Licensee. Alpaca Securities LLC, a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), currently serves as the sub-custodian for your US securities account. In the event that a SIPC-member fails and is placed in liquidation under the Securities Investor Protection Act, SIPC protects the securities customers of its members up to US$500,000 (including US$250,000 for claims for cash). SIPC does not protect against any decline in the value of your securities. For details, please see www.sipc.org.

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• What is 'pattern day trading' rule and how does it affect me?

  The “Pattern Day Trading” (PDT) rule is only applicable to the US market. The Singapore market does not follow any PDT rule. 

  'Pattern Day Trading' (PDT) rule states that the customer should not execute four or more "day trades" within a rolling 5-business days period. FINRA rules define a “pattern day trader” as any customer who executes four or more 'day trades' within a rolling five business days period, provided that the number of day trades represents more than six per cent of the customer’s total trades in the account for that same five business day period.

  A day trade is considered as the opening and closing of the same position within the same day. If three day trades have been executed within a rolling five business day period,by default, the fourth pattern day trade will be blocked to avoid PDT violation.When this happens, you will not be able to execute sell order on a security bought on the same trading day.

  Day trade count are on a cumulative basis. Think of it as a counter that keeps getting updated based on the number of day trades made within 5 rolling business days.
  
  

  Example:You make your first day trade on Monday. Your "counter" is 1. You make your second and third day trades on Thursday. Your "counter" becomes 3. Since the fourth day trade is blocked by default, you won't be able to make another day trade on Friday. 

  The following Monday, your "counter" is reset to 2 (the first day trade made the previous Monday is no longer counted, as it is now outside the rolling 5-business days period). As such, you can make one more day trade on Monday before the PDT restriction is triggered. If you try to make 2 day trades, the sell order of the last trade will not be executed.
  
  

  Day trade count includes pending orders that you have placed. For example, if you’ve purchased a stock and then set a sell limit order on that same stock on the same day, that order will count as a day trade in our system, regardless of whether or not it gets executed. However, if the trade is not executed on the same day, it won’t actually count as a day trade for regulatory purposes, and your day trade count will be reset on the next day.

  Pattern Day Trader (PDT) is a FINRA requirement and hence, all brokers registered with FINRA need to abide by this. The rules also require the firm to designate you as a pattern day trader if it knows orhas a reasonable basis to believethat you will engage in pattern day trading. For example, if the firm provided day-trading training to you before opening your account, it could designate you as a pattern day trader.

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• What is 'good faith violation' and how does it affect me?

  A good faith violation occurs when you buy a security and sell it before paying for the initial purchase in full with settled funds. Only cash or the sales proceeds of fully paid for securities qualify as "settled funds".
  
  Liquidating a position before it was ever paid for with settled funds is considered a "good faith violation" because no good faith effort was made to deposit additional cash into the account prior to the settlement date.
  
  If you incur 3 good faith violations in a 12-month period, we will restrict your account. This means you will only be able to buy securities if you have sufficient settled cash in the account prior to placing a trade. This restriction will be effective for 90 calendar days.

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