A look back at some of the most intriguing and popular Forex industry news stories from the week prior at LeapRate. To make sure that you receive timely access to all LeapRate news throughout the week, sign up to our Forex Industry Newsletter or Follow us on our social and RSS channels which you can find on the right.
Be sure to check out last week’s featured stories as well as a complete run down of the week below:
[dropcap color=”#3f3f3f” font=”times”]L[/dropcap]ast week’s first top story which generated many comments from our readers concerns trading and maxing out your account on high leverage, with some brokers even offering up to as much as 1000x to 2000x. So it begs the question, can a true STP/ECN broker realistically offer 500:1 leverage? Secondly, volumes for the month of November have come in so far as a down month, with venues and brokers mostly reporting lower metrics, a standard-bearer of volume, Thomson Reuters has seen its lowest spot Forex volume month in three years. Finally from the last week, we take note and highlight a rare glimpse into the financials behind a smaller brokerage company with Gulliver FX Limited, the UK Forex broker owned by Yahoo Japan Corporation, which last week filed its financial report for the full year to March 31, 2015, shedding light on the circumstances that led it to the decision to cease operations.
Forex Industry Rundown for the Week of December 7th-13th, 2015
Broker Updates
EXNESS extends partnership with Infiniti Red Bull Racing
ETX Capital goes live with new website, logo and branding in the UK – LeapRate Exclusive
Hirose Financial opens new office in Malaysia
RoboForex updates WebTrader, adding Bar charts, new languages
Forex Club applies for Russian Forex dealer license
Playtech’s appeal against CBI decision on AvaTrade deal is successful
OANDA Europe partners with Seer Trading Systems to offer algorithmic testing and execution platform
Saxo Bank offering new tiered Forex volume based price plan
Can an STP/ECN broker really offer 500:1 leverage?
FXCM’s upgraded DailyFX goes live, aiming to offer unique experience to traders
GAIN Capital starting to benefit in the latest USA Retail broker asset report
One Financial Markets to offer Lex van Dam trading education products
Swissquote updates Fxbook Mobile app, improves compatibility with Apple Watch
OANDA releases updated fxTrade mobile app for Android devices
TeleTrade applies for Russian Forex dealer license
Plus500 gets green light from FCA to onboard clients to its UK unit
FXCM releases statement on ongoing discussions with Leucadia and stock repurchase program
Service Provider/Vendor News
NetDania mobile app to receive new upgrades…
Darwinex to launch its new investor platform on Wednesday
PFSOFT to launch new platform – PTMC
OpenFin to open-source its financial desktop HTML5 container technology
MT4 build 940 to improve work on high-resolution screens
Tradermade Systems Ltd. rolls out FX Navigator powered by TraderMade
Latest version of TradeStation Mobile app supports option spreads
TradingView starts displaying major economic events on charts
O-SYSTEMS releases updated mobile trading app
Institutional Offerings/Exchange Venues
TriOptima announces completion of first unlinked JPY interest rate swaps compression cycle in JSCC
TAIFEX to launch incentive program on Yuan futures for institutional investors in Q1’16
“CBOE Options Institute At SGX” officially commences operations
TAIFEX sees Yuan FX futures volumes tumble in November 2015
Pragma and MarketFactory announce completion of Forex solution for mutual banking client
Financials/Banking
Should tech companies go public earlier? Google thinks so
ESMA extends Greek bank share short selling ban to December 21
Hong Kong’s SFC receives 2,416 license applications in Jul-Sep quarter
JPMorgan hikes stake in Plus500 to 10.03%
ICE set to close acquisition of Interactive Data Corporation around December 14th
Boston Prime bankruptcy coming to a close, final claims due by January 5
Yahoo’s Gulliver FX Annual Report: £2.96M in losses, poor customer growth
CME set to pay annual variable dividend of $977M in Jan 2016
Fixnetix acquisition by CSC: $110 million – LeapRate Exclusive
Morgan Stanley takes stake in Plus500 to 6.81%
Invast Securities sees revenues hit lowest level since August 2014
Market/Macro News
OPEC inaction = Currency volatility: Loonie at 11 year low versus USD
EUR/USD back above 1.10 for first time in over a month
Volumes
Thomson Reuters November FX spot volumes lowest in three years
DGCX marks 10th anniversary with 41% jump in November trading volumes
Crude oil price volatility leads to record volumes day in WTI futures and options at CME
ICE joins CME in reporting crude oil volume records amid volatility
GAIN Capital sees lowest retail Forex volumes since February 2015 in November 2015
GMO Click registers 7.3% MoM drop in operating revenues in November 2015
Warnings/Fraud Watch
CFTC bars and fines Garen Ovsepyan and his FX companies Sharpe Signa and Haeres Capital
Forex trader gets banned and fined in British Columbia over fraud, unregistered trading
FCA warns against clone of retail forex broker IIB International
Cypriot regulator warns against FX, binary options software provider Airsoft
SEC unveils Oxford City Football Club sports investment fraud
Legal
New Hong Kong regulations to allow investors to claim damages over unsuitable products
Virtu Financial Europe, Euronext Paris get €5M fines in France for market rules violation
E*Trade fined $65,000 in Australia for order handling infringement
Central Bank of Ireland fines MKW Futures for overstating own funds position
Foreign Exchange Professionals Association adds new membership categories
NFA fines Chicago-based XFA $75,000 and relegates it to introducing broker status
ASIC sanctions D2MX over failure to put in place price movement automated filters
NFA further tightens reporting requirements on U.S. Forex brokers; new disclosures must be made public
Executive Moves
FXecosystem adds Fixnetix veteran Matt Dangerfield as CTO
Fidessa appoints Paul Dex to enhance derivatives platform sales
BGC Partners names Yann Le Gallais Managing Director, Head of Swiss offices
BGC Partners appoints Nicole Shaughnessy as Managing Director, Environmental Products
Bitcoin/Digital Currency News
Bitcoin venue Coinbase Exchange introduces volume rebates
Is Craig Wright the real Satoshi Nakamoto? Australia police raid home of supposed Bitcoin creator
Russia’s Sberbank willing to join R3 consortium and develop blockchain tech
Bitcoin’s wild weekend: Bitcoin prices rise and then drop more than 10% Saturday after topping $475
Top Bitcoin Myths – #9: Bitcoin has no intrinsic value