Last week forex market activity and volatility across all financial instruments was not unprecedented, but it certainly has been challenging from a risk management perspective for retail forex brokers. LeapRate brought the perspective of Michael Davies of Sucden Financial, a leading liquidity provider to forex brokers, as to what has indeed happened in the past week and how brokers have handled things. Moreover, due to ‘Black Friday’ market action, Hotspot FX ECN saw its second best ever day for volumes.
Other popular stories last week included Markit acquiring DealHub to enhance Forex offering while Nasdaq announced its new exchange traded FX platform is now ready to be tested by banks and possibly go live for launch in 2016.
Also check out LeapRate’s rundown of South African FX broker ACM Gold’s current problems with the FSB (regulator) in South Africa which apparently stems from its connection with Colin Davids, a popular Pastor with a taste for the high life financed by promising outsized Forex trading returns.
Check out last week’s featured stores and run down below:
Forex Industry Rundown for the Week of August 24th, 2015
Features
The return of volatility and what is means for forex brokers – Guest Post
This has got to be good for STP brokers… Sucden Financial on this week’s volatility
Hantec Markets on what could be the catalyst that signals market bottom?
ACM Gold’s license suspension, the Pyramid Pastor and Seized Assets – LeapRate Exclusive
Broker Updates
FxNet hikes spreads for USD/RUB, EUR/RUB amid Russian ruble volatility
Swissquote launches Fxbook, Advanced Trader apps for Apple Watch
RoboForex’s CopyFX introduces proportional copying mode
Lightspeed Trading announces a positive Monday for systems and clients
US online brokerages saw execution problems and outages Monday under weight of market mayhem
Alpari and FC Zenit prolong partnership into new season
TradeKing agrees to acquire US futures and Forex broker MB Trading
Dukascopy creates new Gold-denominated XAU accounts
Hirose UK releases new version of Lion Binary Options mobile app
Service Provider Offerings
New MT5 app for Android devices enhances security, market analysis capabilities
Darwinex to remove low & medium risk DARWINs from platform
MT4’s new build to support web trading
Institutional Offerings/Services
Moscow Exchange to update SPECTRA trading system
Markit acquires DealHub to enhance Forex offering
CQG now connected to Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX’s) premium ultra-low latency protocol
Orc now connects to Borsa İstanbul
Nasdaq Futures opts for OptionsCity’s settlement price solution
Nasdaq set to launch new forex trading platform in 2016
DGCX waives trade fees for India Gold and Rupee Quanto futures contracts
Thai bourse launches new clearing and depository systems
CFTC to permit U.S. participants direct access to ICE Futures Canada and Montréal Exchange
Standard Chartered is now live as liquidity provider to FXSpotStream
London Stock Exchange and NYSE experiencing technical problems – LeapRate Exclusive
Financial
anyoption sees average revenue per user rise 7.5% in Q2 2015
GMO Click’s Board of Directors approves quarterly dividend of ¥6.38 per share
Thomson Reuters joins share buyback parade with $370 million private purchase
Optimal Payments’ revenues jump 40% in H1 2015, Skrill integration proceeds as planned
Tradition sees revenue, profit grow in H1 2015
Plus500 posts net profit of $40.6M in H1 2015, regardless of regulatory setbacks
Playtech reports robust H1 2015 results for its financial division
Plus500 updates on planned AIM trading cancellation
Andy Green purchases £49,748 worth of shares in IG Group
Volumes
CBOE sets options trading volume record
Alpari registers Forex volumes of $93.6B in Russia and CIS in July 2015
Hotspot FX sees second best ever day for FX volumes on Black Monday – LeapRate Exclusive
Warnings/Fraud Watch
Hong Kong’s SFC warns against Forex firm Kaiser Brokers
South Africa’s regulator warns against unauthorized FX broker GDSMI
Hong Kong’s SFC warns of unlicensed Forex broker TFX Global
Canadian securities regulator OSC warns against SpotFN and Broker Capital
Belize’s watchdog warns against MahiFX’s clone
Swiss FINMA adds Sony Online Investment to warning list
Hong Kong’s watchdog warns of cold callers
Japan’s FSA warns against binary options broker TFO
ACM Gold introducing broker Go Direct issued FSB warning
US court imposes total penalty of $3.7M on Forex Ponzi scheme architects
Legal
Swiss, Jersey financial market regulators sign MoU
Deutsche Bank widens scope of Russian money laundering probe
China’s securities regulator notifies leading brokerages of investigation
XM.com, FIBO Group to cease offer of services to Australian clients
Russian financial experts discuss Forex regulation
CFTC Approves NFA’s tightened rules for Retail Forex Brokers
New Zealand’s regulator orders deregistration of 28 firms from FSPR in fiscal year 2015
Progress report on LQD Markets’ insolvency confirms client money deficit of $2.84M
Executive Moves
Muna Dandan joins Dubai Financial Services Authority as General Counsel
Wall Street vets Richard Schaeffer, former NYMEX Chairman, and fellow board member David Greenberg join AMERCANEX
Playtech appoints Paul Hewitt as non-exec director
Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency
Technical issues and outages at leading exchanges led to Bitcoin flash crash – LeapRate Exclusive
Coinbase to allow UK and Spain clients to purchase bitcoin from 3D Secure cards
5 Reasons to be Bullish on Bitcoin