It has now been nearly a year since ESMA (in its infinite wisdom) ruling on leverage came into effect - and its been very harsh on many of us brokers, as well as traders. The logic behind why ESMA did this is fair, there was too much risk in the market from both the broker…
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The CEO of Saxo Capital Markets, Andrew Edwards recently made the following observations about the rules and limits on the marketing and sale of contracts for differences (CFDs) introduced by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on 30th July 2018. CFDs are instruments used by traders to speculate on whether an asset with rise…
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UK online trading leader IG Group Holdings plc (LON:IGG) has just issued an update ahead of entering its close period following the end of the first half of the financial year ending 31 May 2019 (FY19). Revenue in the first half is expected to be around 6% lower than in the same period in FY18,…
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Prokopios Katsaros, Head of Brokerage at Cyprus-Based Prime Brokerage TopFX, has joined LeapRate for an interview, sharing details about the company's 2-in-1 broker solution, its partnership with Forex software provider Spotware, and more. LR: Hi Prokopios, and thanks for joining us today. Please let us know a little more about TopFX’s 2-in-1 solution for brokers, and…
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Social trading focused broker ayondo, which went public earlier this year on the Singapore Exchange, has announced fairly disappointing results for the third quarter of 2018. Overall, ayondo revenues totaled just under CHF 4.0 million (USD $3.98 million) in Q3-2018, down 15% from Q2 and off 23% from last year's Q3, from before when the…
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European financial regulatory body ESMA has come out with more details on its decision to extend its CFD leverage cap for a second three month period. The new ESMA rules governing leveraged CFD and Forex trading came into effect on August 1, with ESMA announcing at the end of September that it would renew the…
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How much did ESMA's new leverage cap affect the Q3 results of leading UK CFD broker Plus500? Who is behind the launch of Fondex, a new CySEC-licensed Retail FX brand? What is Finotec's (latest) new strategy, following a net loss in 2017? How will Swissquote be enabling its clients to participate in ICOs? Which major…
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The "ESMA effect" is certainly beginning to be felt by some of the leading Forex and CFD brokers. FCA regulated online CFDs broker Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) has issued a Trading Update for Q3, indicating that Revenues fell by 40% from the previous quarter to $100.1 million (and were just about a third of record Q1 revenues…
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Not too surprisingly, pan European regulator ESMA has decided to extend its CFD and Forex leverage cap (and related rules) beyond the three month trial period which will end on November 1. However, ESMA did give 'something back', relaxing one of the more annoying marketing related rules it instituted (see bold text below). Interestingly, the three…
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London based online FX, CFDs and spreadbetting broker CMC Markets Plc (LON:CMCX) has issued a Trading Update ahead of the close of the company's Fiscal 2019 second quarter at the end of September, indicating that it is forecasting a greater-than-expected drop in Revenues for the full year (which ends for CMC on March 31, 2019). CMC…
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