Swiss National Bank uses negative interest rates to defend EURCHF 1.20, Franc falls LeapRate

December 18, 2014 BY LeapRate Staff

Swiss National Bank uses negative interest rates to defend EURCHF 1.20, Franc falls

Apparently the SNB has decided it can't defend EURCHF 1.20 just by intervention.

December 18, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Paul Boyle OBE, Chief Audit Officer of Aviva plc & former executive of Financial Services Authority, joins Plus500

Paul Boyle OBE is currently Chief Audit Officer at Aviva plc, a position that he has held for the last four years, and, in August 2012, was appointed to the Group Executive Committee. Prior to this, Mr. Boyle was Chief Executive of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

December 18, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

MONEX Group survey depicts optimism for US dollar

Around 80% of U.S. respondents (60% in the previous survey) and around 60% of Hong Kong respondents (40% in the previous survey) estimate the US dollar to be the most appreciating currency over the next few weeks according to the MONEX Group retail survey

December 18, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

FXCM Chief Dealer William Ahdout sells a further $1.75 million of company shares

Further to last week's sale of shares, William Ahdout has realized the cash value of a further 106,288 shares, whilst David Sassoon and Nicola Santoro Jr also sell a proportion of company stock

December 18, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

EBS selects Delta Stream for Data Analytics as a Service

EBS has selected Delta Stream to provide data analytics to further optimise the trading experience within its platforms. The managed service will be hosted by First Derivatives and following a rapid deployment is expected to be live by Q2 2015

December 18, 2014 BY Mike Fox

Forex Madness: Currencies during FOMC

The art of trading...courtesy of twitter handle @nanexllc, the chart shows visually what currency pairs look like on a chart when superimposed on top of each other during a volatile session. How does your platform look? — Eric Scott Hunsader (@nanexllc) December 17, 2014

December 18, 2014 BY Mike Fox

Barclays admits its £500 million allocation for FX rigging fine won't be enough

CEO Antony Jenkins stated Wednesday, "Banks didn't have strong enough compliance departments. We've moved to strengthen ours. As I've always said, changing culture takes time. We're making progress - the industry has come a long way on both topics but we have work to do."

December 17, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Bitcoin exchange Netagio launches USD and EUR books

For the first time, retail customers and institutional investors from 114 countries are able to buy and sell Bitcoins for USD and EUR as well as GBP continuously and securely via Netagio's peer to peer platform

December 17, 2014 BY Mike Fox

Reuters: Global forex reserves set to post first quarterly drop since 2008/09

Global foreign exchange reserves may have fallen in the third quarter for the first time since the financial crisis as central banks stepped up interventions to prevent their currencies from falling too sharply. As the U.S. Federal Reserve gears up to raise interest rates next year, dollar-funded "carry trades", in which traders borrow in low…

December 17, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

ESMA high frequency trading report - HFT responsible for 24-43% of equity trades

Despite government-level disdain for high frequency trading, based on a sample of 100 stocks from nine EU countries in May 2013, a report by ESMA finds that HFT activity ranges from 24% to 43% of equity value traded, using alternative methodologies.