Brokers move to limit amateur traders’ Brexit losses

Brokers move to limit amateur traders’ Brexit losses
Matthew Allen
Jun 20, 2016 – 10:30

Banks and professional traders are lining up to take advantage of volatility created by Britain’s vote on EU membership. Amateur investors are also looking to cash in during the June 23 vote, but this has made some online platforms wary of the losses they could rack up.

Swissquote, one of Switzerland’s largest online brokers with more than 230,000 client accounts, understands better than most the risks of “armchair investors” getting in over their heads. Last year it had to write off CHF25 million ($26 million) in bad debts when account holders were caught out by the central bank’s abandonment of the franc-euro peg.

With the Brexit vote looming,...