It was another week of record hits to our site, as Forex industry news at LeapRate uncovered some big industry-changing stories before anyone else.
We of course broke the story of the planned IronFX-FXDD merger and reverse takeover into a public company, after which a number of other blogs seemed to pop up with me-too ‘Exclusive’ stories of their own on the subject – such as opinions as to whether this is real or not, whether this can or will happen or not, whether this is a ‘merger’ or not, incorrect analysis of what was ‘really happening’ here, ad infinitum…
We also broke the story of Baidu’s new ban on ads by Binary Options brokers and increases in CPL/CPA rates, which could reshape the industry, at least as far as China goes.
Our most popular guest post of the week covered How to build trust on a Forex broker website.
And on the interview front we got to speak this week with ICM Capital co-founder Shoaib Abedi on how to get noticed in a crowded FCA regulated broker market, and to AxiTrader Chairman & (now ex-) CEO Goran Drapac on new CEO Rajesh Yohannan – who he’s replacing, Goran’s own new role…
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Some of the most popular, shared and commented-on posts this past week on LeapRate included:
Formal statement issued on IronFX-FXDD merger and Nukkleus reverse takeover. It seems that our uncovering of the planned IronFX-FXDD-Nukkleus merger and reverse takeover has caused quite a stir in the Forex industry. Once again, we have tried to bring our readers the key facts. Which remain very simple. The three companies – IronFX, FXDD and the publicly traded Nukkleus Inc (OTCMKTS:NUKK) – and their shareholders have agreed to a multi-step transaction in which the three will ultimately combine their businesses (i.e. merge) and be publicly traded, and have stated as such in a formal SEC filing.
Baidu bans ads by Binary Options brokers. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that Chinese search engine giant Baidu has decided to ban all ads by Binary Options brokers on its network. Baidu is allowing existing campaigns already begun by Binary Options providers to conclude, but apparently is not signing up any new Binary Options customers nor initiating new campaigns from existing Binary Options advertisers. And it all ties into a Chinese student who died recently from a rare form of cancer. Also, what does it mean for Forex advertisers in China? Read all about it, exclusively at LeapRate.
CMC Markets full year FY16 Revenues up 18% to £169M, volumes $250B monthly. FCA regulated online trading firm CMC Markets has made its first major financial results announcement as a public company since CMC’s IPO back in February. And it is a good one. We’d remind LeapRate readers that we can’t really see yet the ‘IPO effect’ in the numbers – that is, did CMC Markets business grow as a result of being a public company. CMC has a March 31 fiscal year end, so the results are for the year ended March 31, 2016. As CMC went public in February of this year, only a month or so of the results were achieved post-IPO.
Morgan Stanley sells down Plus500 Ltd stake to below 3%.
Swiss National Bank still intervening massively to stabilize the EURCHF exchange rate.
TechFinancials invests $1.5M in APAC binary options joint venture.
ADS Securities expands to full-service brokerage in Hong Kong with SFC Type 1 & 2 licenses.