As FX brokerage firms have increased their spending lately on FX news, analysis and data feeds, the competition to provide value-added information into the market has been heating up. The latest salvo fired in this ongoing competition has been made by Thomson Reuters, which is introducing intraday FX analysis and commentary to its Reuters FX Buzz service.
As FX trading volumes have waned due (mainly) to low volatility among the main currency pairs the past few months — leading clients to lose interest in trading — Forex firms have actively been adding new products as well as new services in order to bring clients back, and to encourage trading. One increasingly popular service being added is social networking, either in-house or via third-party FX social media platforms such as Currensee, Tradeo and FX Junction. Another area in which FX brokerages have been active is adding more quality news and commentary feeds, giving their clients more insight into the goings-on in currency related news — and more incentive to make informed trading decisions (and to pull the trigger on trades).
In the past, Forex brokerage firms were often content to just say they “offered news”, and were happy to outsource from “specialist FX info providers”, which essentially just aggregate FX-related news from around the web and repackage it as a feed-for-fees for clients, adding little or no original content of their own.
However as the race for clients heats up in a slow-growth environment, Forex brokerage firms are increasingly turning to “real” news firms such as Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones, which in addition to news-from-around-the-web, include their own value-add content. (Full disclosure – Dow Jones is an advertiser on LeapRate). For example, Dow Jones owns the Wall Street Journal, the world’s leading business newspaper and financial portal.
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.