TradeKing agrees to acquire US futures and Forex broker MB Trading

The M&A wave that has been engulfing the US Forex market for the past couple of years has spread even further today, with one more deal announced.

TradeKing Group has just officially announced that it has entered into an agreement with California-based brokerage MB Trading to acquire all of the firm’s assets. The acquisition is part of TradeKing’s strategy to create a diversified financial services firm that fits the needs of a wide variety of clients.

Financial terms of the agreement were not revealed.

Thanks to MB Trading’s renowned trading platform, TradeKing aims to offer a powerful, active trading experience for the most experienced traders, featuring the full spectrum of products, including stocks and ETFs, options, bonds, forex and futures.

“TradeKing and MB Trading clients will have access to the best products, technology and services our two firms have to offer,” said Don Montanaro, co-founder and CEO of TradeKing.

“TradeKing and MB Trading were both founded on the core principle of driving more value for the investor’s dollar. This acquisition furthers that goal by offering clients of both firms more choice and more capabilities for the same great per trade price. We intend to remain a consolidator in this space to ensure great products and technologies can continue to flourish under the TradeKing umbrella.”

The combined, post-acquisition firm will operate under the TradeKing brand with offices continuing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and El Segundo, California. The existing TradeKing management team will remain in their current roles with Steve Demarest and other key players from MB Trading joining the TradeKing team.

Commenting on the agreement, Steve Demarest, President of MB Trading said, “We chose to enter into this agreement with TradeKing because our two firms share a very similar philosophy; that is to give our clients the very best tools, technology and pricing to put them in a position to win. We know everyone at TradeKing is as committed as we are to treating our clients right and doing whatever it takes to help them succeed.”

The new owner of MB Trading pledges that clients will have more choice at the same low $4.95/trade price.

The MB Trading platform will also add Futures trading to TradeKing’s portfolio of offerings for the first time. Other benefits include the ability for qualified clients to gain direct market access, offering greater trade execution control for those active traders; access to MB Trading’s paper trading capability; and MB Trading’s Market Analysis Software offerings.

For MB Trading clients, they will continue to enjoy the active trading software they know and value, while having seamless access to all of TradeKing’s offerings, including:

  • TradeKing’s options-centric platform and tools;
  • TradeKing’s managed portfolios, offered through the TradeKing Advisors arm;
  • TradeKing’s full suite of educational content and social channels, including TradeKing Media offerings, and trading education in the style of TradeKing’s award-winning Options Playbook including regularly scheduled videos and interactive live webinars;
  • TradeKing’s groundbreaking online community, the Trader Network.

Cooley, LLP acted as legal advisor to TradeKing. Polsinelli, PC and Baker Donelson, PC served as legal advisors to MB Trading and KPMG Corporate Finance LLC served as MB Trading’s investment banking advisor.

This is not the first acquisition endeavor by TradeKing into the retail brokerage space. In July 2013, TradeKing agreed with GAIN Capital Securities Inc. to acquire the accounts as well as the rights to certain other assets of the Cleveland-based boutique brokerage, a subsidiary of Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP). Currently, TradeKing Forex acts as an introducing broker to Gain Capital Group.

To view the official announcement about the deal, click here.

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