Are you sick of Greek deadlines? Another cliffhanger on Friday of last week caused Retail brokers to continue to operate in “risk off” mode heading into the weekend. This past week we saw Admiral Markets and ThinkForex lower leverage before the weekend gap risk for EUR pairs as Greek politicians met with Eurogroup leaders in tense talks to try to resolve the country’s debt crisis as the indebted country seeks it’s third bailout in 5 years.
Revenues along with volumes continue to see strong performance, with profits backing up the increased activity of traders as they seek enhanced opportunities within the FX market. Japanese giant Invast Securities reported revenues rising 33.5% MoM in June 2015, and retail focused operator Plus500 reported H1 2015 revenue figures much higher then 2014’s for a 19.6% increase YoY.
In a follow up, two weeks ago LeapRate reported on Playtech plc, the publicly listed software development company founded by Teddy Sagi as it continued it’s FX acquisition spree, buying AvaTrade for $105 million. We learned last week that the Playtech shareholders will vote on AvaTrade deal on July 28th, LeapRate expects this deal to become official on this date and easily be approved.
Be sure to check out last week’s featured stories as well as a complete run down of the week below:
– Tradency connects retail traders to institutional hedge funds – Exclusive launch on LeapRate TV
– EXNESS reports record Forex volumes of $232B in June 2015
– Caplin Systems goes through recapitalization – LeapRate Exclusive
– cTrader and cAlgo evolve with cloud hosted trading accounts and enhanced ergonomics
– U.S. Retail Forex assets up 1.18% in May; Interactive Brokers gains share…
– Advanced Markets onboards UBS as prime broker
– FXStreet and University of Essex Online announce third intake of students
– Nadex registers 53% YoY increase in trading volumes in Q2 2015
Weekly Forex Industry Rundown for July 6th – July 12th
June Volumes
– Saxo Bank reports 5.7% increase in average daily volumes in June 2015
– Singapore Exchange sees FX futures volumes grow 13% MoM in June 2015
– ICE joins exchange-traded FX surge with 23.21% increase in ADV in June
– GAIN Capital posts record retail trading volumes of $375.7B in June 2015
– Thomson Reuters spot FX volumes down 1.8% MoM; 4th monthly decline in a row
Interviews/Features
– Great execution debate: Tom Higgins, CEO of Gold-i delves into how FX will be traded in future
– A New Look for BMFN
– Canadian Dollar Outlook – An Overview of Growth Prospects: Guest Editorial
– Tom Higgins, CEO of Gold-i takes a close look at how to structure and price exchange-traded retail FX
Warnings/Fines/Fraud Watch
– Chinese citizen charged with noncompetitive trading of Eurodollar contracts on CME
– Belgium’s FSMA blacklists dozens of FX and binary options brokers
– CySec issues 15,000 euro fine to Fidelisco Capital Markets Ltd
– Hong Kong regulator warns regarding FX clone BGCForex
– Con man rips off London hedge fund in ‘Friday Afternoon scam’, makes off with £742,668
– Cypriot regulator withdraws license of Cedar Finance’s parent P.M. Investment Capital
– Swiss FINMA warns of binary options broker Get Binary
– North Carolina man charged with $1 million penalty for commodity pool ponzi scheme
Legal
– ESMA extends short selling ban of Greek securities for seven more days
– FSCS to delay further payment to Alpari UK clients until at least late July
– First LIBOR trader charged to face trial says he only wanted “to do job perfectly…”
– Cypriot regulator amends procedure for activation of CIF licenses
– ACI FMA Global President Marshall Bailey comments on FCA update
– French online traders complain about losing $7.2 million in 2014
– Danish FSA review of Saxo Bank’s handling of CHF incident: Only two specific criticisms
– FXPRIMUS client funding processes to be overseen by Boudica Client Trust
Financial
– KVB Kunlun shares down (another) 27% Monday as traders dump stock
– Two GAIN Capital key figures sell $47,750 worth of stock
– BRICS c-banks sign operational agreement on Pool of Conventional Currency Reserves
– First Derivatives issues 78,532 ordinary shares
– Bank of Russia, State Bank of Vietnam discuss settlements in national currencies
– South Africa and China sign MoU for Renminbi clearing
– GAIN Capital shares drop to five month low following Jefferies price target cut
– Bleeding continues at KVB Kunlun, shares down 16% to lowest level in 2015
– Allianz Global Investors takes its stake in IG Group below 5%
– Playtech shareholders to vote on AvaTrade deal on July 28th
– Plus500 reports H1 2015 figures: 19.6% increase in YoY revenues to $127m, customer acquisition costs rise
– Monex Group to buy back up to 1.7% of its own shares to August 7
– Invast Securities sees revenues rise 33.5% MoM in June 2015
– Allianz Global Investors raises stake in IG Group again
– Investment giant BlackRock reduces stake in FXCM to 2.9%
Executive Moves
– Former Citi executive Michael Mirarchi becomes CEO and Director of FXPrimus subsidiary CapMarFX
– MarketsPulse appoints new CEO as founder Rachely Esman becomes Chairman
– Liquidity Bridge over Troubled Water: Mark “Elvis” O’Neill appointed Sales Director at Fastmatch
– John Jackson resigns from CMC Markets board of directors
– Jonathan Davidson joins FCA as Director of Supervision – Retail and Authorisations
– LCH.Clearnet appoints Head of US Repo Clearing
– Barclays CEO Anthony Jenkins clears his desk for the last time after dispute with the board
– Former ICE executive Natasha Solis appointed Director of Sales and Business Development at Rival Systems
Retail Offerings/Services
– DMM Option enhances trading opportunities for EUR/USD
– Hantec Markets reinstates margin and leverage terms following Greek vote
– Xero to offer P2P Forex invoice payments through hook up to Midpoint
– Latest version of MultiCharts offers “Simulated Broker” feature
– Alpari launches new ECN accounts for MT4 platform
– Tickmill unveils renewed IB program
– TradeToolsFX adds features to its Binary Options MT4 platform
– Hantec Markets to double margin requirements this weekend due to Greece uncertainty
– Leverate partners with MTE Media to provide education based marketing tools
– Gold-i brings the latest Thomson Reuters rate feed to MT4 brokers
– Blackwell Global fortifies China presence with Beijing office
– Greek uncertainty prompts Admiral Markets to change margin requirements
– FxPro slippage statistics for Q2 2015: 44.9% positive
– ForexTime raises maximum leverage on ECN Zero accounts to 1:1000
– ThinkForex axes leverage on EUR trades to 50x ahead of Greek bailout talks
– Rakuten Securities to add TRY/JPY to trading instruments menu
– ChartIQ launches trading and charting app Technician
– eToro limits leverage ahead of crucial Greek debt talks
Institutional Offerings/Services
– Global banks, service providers and market infrastructures create new hub for end-to-end margin processing
– ITG launches ‘Best Market Server 2.0′ automatically hedging Forex exposure in real time
– Fidessa’s Canadian clients can now access Bank of America Corp global trading suite
– EBS Direct adds Metallinvestbank and Standard Bank as liquidity providers
Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency
– MTGOX extends deadline for compensation claims
– Bitcoin tech company BitFury obtains $20 Million in funding
– Block26 leads seed round in Bitcoin wallet platform Airbitz with $450,000 investment