September 26, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

CFTC bans and issues $1.3 million fine to introducing broker iFinix Futures

iFinix and CEO Benhope Marlon Munroe falsified bank statements and didn't meet minimum capital requirements. The CFTC has imposed a permanent trading and registration ban against introducing broker iFinix Futures (which also did business under the name Pro-Active Futures) and its principal Benhope Marlon Munroe for providing falsified bank account documents to the NFA during its audit of iFinix, in…

Read more
September 26, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

DCM Capital follow up – platform shut, management moves on

DCM was close to a deal with Straticator; founder and Saxo Bank alum Paul Hawtin has moved on to Investment Management. LeapRate Exclusive... A quick follow up to one of our more followed stories from earlier this year, that of UK forex and spreadbetting broker Derwent Capital Markets (DCM) and the attempted auction of DCM to…

Read more
September 25, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Swissquote buys MIG Bank to create the dominant Swiss forex broker

MIG Bank monthly forex volumes averaged $60 billion in the first half of 2013. This will once be known as the week of retail forex acquisitions. After seeing Gain Capital close on its purchase of GFT, Oanda acquire social and copy trading service Currensee, and FXCM buy FX research shop Faros Trading, comes potentially the…

Read more
September 25, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

IG and AxiTrader top Australia CFD broker survey

Investment Trends annual report places IG #1 overall and AxiTrader as the #1 domestic Australian CFD broker. Research shop Investment Trends has released its annual review of its home CFD market in Australia, and it contains some interesting findings. Mainly, it seems as though Australia has gone mobile -- Australian CFD traders had the highest level…

Read more
September 25, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Alpari August global forex volumes top Russia volumes for first time in 2013

Alpari saw significant growth in international volumes in normally-slow August. Some follow-up to our earlier piece on Alpari's record August volumes... The folks at Alpari have been nice enough to break out for us Alpari Russia volumes versus rest-of-the-world (mainly Alpari UK). Historically, more than 50% of the Alpari Group's volumes have come from Russia,…

Read more
September 25, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Oanda buys social trading service Currensee

Currensee had been built with about $20 million of venture capital funds. We'll have more on this later, but for now here's the press release: September 24, 2013 06:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time  OANDA Announces Acquisition of Forex Copy Trading Network Currensee Acquisition Reaffirms OANDA's Commitment to Growth and Market Leadership TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OANDA, a pioneering global…

Read more
September 24, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Gain Capital (finally) closes acquisition of GFT

Acquisition will actually be net cash positive for Gain Capital. Forex broker Gain Capital (NYSE:GCAP) has announced that it has closed its previously announced acquisition of rival GFT. The deal, first announced in April, followed a month-long flurry of activity which saw FXCM make a takeover bid for Gain, which Gain Capital fought off by…

Read more
September 24, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

MMA Forex update #2 – CEO Awan remains jailed, blames Gulf News

Questions also surround whether MMA Group's claimed airline MMA Airline actually exists. This is probably either one of the best con jobs or worst smear jobs of all time. Or perhaps both. This is what we (think we) know about the supposed defrauding of clients of Dubai Forex broker MMA Forex, issues at its parent…

Read more