What happens if the stock I am trading is suspended/delisted?

The exchange will release information when a stock is suspended/delisted. If a stock is suspended/delisted, we would have to wait for the stock to become tradeable again – which is outside of IG’s control.

If you have an open position on a stock that delists and is in liquidation, we’ll close your position at a level of zero and typically open a new position – called a ‘proceeds line’ – on your behalf which is untradeable, has no price and brings no value to your account. Once the company confirms there is no return to shareholders, which can take years, we will close your proceeds line position at the level of zero.

However, we won’t start this procedure as soon as a company announces it is delisting. The stock status will first need to be reviewed by our corporate actions and risk departments.

How do suspended/delisted shares affect my CFD account?

When a stock is suspended/delisted, our corporate action and risk departments may review it to ensure its correctly margined internally. If the news surrounding the company is uncertain, we may increase the margin requirements for leveraged position. If you have with an open position on the stock and we plan to increase its margin requirement, we’ll contact you.

The margin requirement will remain at 100% until there is further news in the underlying market which we will then reflect in due course.

Overnight interest fees and short borrowing fees are still charged for suspended/delisted shares as we still pay these fees to our trading partners. These positions will remain open until the shares are declared worthless, or its residual value is liquidated and paid out.
For clients with long positions, you may choose to close off your long position at price zero with no commission to avoid paying any future funding costs. By choosing to close at zero, you agree to forgo any future benefits of the shares. To close off the position, please contact our helpdesk.

For clients with short positions, we are unable to close off the short positions and the position will remain in the account until the shares are declared worthless, or its residual value is liquidated and paid out.