Australian retail FX broker Pepperstone has today announced the addition of the South African rand and Japanese yen (ZARJPY) cross-currency pairs to its MetaTrader 4 platform in order that its clients can directly access it from the interbank market.
Although Pepperstone is located in Australia, which is a veritable springboard for the Asia Pacific nations, with Hong Kong, Singapore and China on its metaphorical doorstep, the company is ensuring that it maintains an interest in serving order flow from other regions, a direction further demonstrated by the company’s future plans to add MetaTrader 5, a platform whose popularity is relatively confined to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Pepperstone’s rationale behind this addition is that the combination of the South African Rand (ZAR) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) is attractive to traders due to its swap benefits and the ability to engage in the practice of carry trading.
Carry trading is a strategy which involves the buying of high interest bearing currencies against other currencies where the interest rate is very low, this way the trader earns interest through swap payments each roll-over.
Due to the South African Central Bank’s official cash rate of 5.75% versus that of the Bank of Japan’s cash rate of 0.25%, traders using the carry trade strategy can look to this pair as a possible addition to their portfolio.
For Pepperstone’s full announcement, click here.
