Swiss regulator FINMA investigating several banks for possible manipulation of foreign exchange markets. Much of the behind-the-scenes chatter in the forex world this past weekend has revolved around the investigation announced Friday by Swiss financial regulator FINMA into the possible manipulation of foreign exchange markets by a number of unnamed banks. The excitement began after a very…
Read moreWhat is wrong with Saxo Bank? The folks at Saxo Bank picked an interesting time to start publishing their forex trading volumes. After hitting a high of $427 billion in January, Saxo Bank has seen its forex trading volume metrics decline steadily in seven of the following eight months, including the five most recent months…
Read moreIG Group and ETX Capital already allow (greymarket) trading of Twitter shares. It seems as if those who bought in (very) early to Twitter are already ahead.... Social microblogging site Twitter has finally made final its IPO prospectus, which includes its plans to value the company at about $12.8 billion. As we wrote earlier, several…
Read more... however that was off a weak August base. Year-over-year, EBS volumes are down 27%. Is this an indication of forex industry weakness during September, or indicative of problems specifically at ICAP and its EBS forex ECN unit? Our take? Probably a little bit of both. After August EBS volumes were at their lowest levels…
Read moreMonex volume metrics still well below January-June levels, but more than double last year. Monex Group of Japan, a mid-size Japanese forex broker which also owns TradeStation and IBFX in the US, reported September forex trading volumes which rose nicely from slower summer levels, but which were still well below what Monex saw during a…
Read moreCySEC issues 10 new CIF licenses during Q3, most all to binary and forex brokers. As we've written before, the EU-Cyprus bailout crisis and subsequent bank account 'haircut' which occurred this spring has not dampened traders' enthusiasm for engaging with Cyprus-based brokerages. And as such we continue to see a number of startup (and existing)…
Read moreAustralia's leading retail forex broker hires ex-ODL and FCStone exec to replace Quinn Perrott. LeapRate Exclusive... LeapRate has learned that AxiTrader, the largest retail forex brokerage in Australia, has gone outside the ranks and hired Alex Mackinnon as its new CEO (or in Australia-speak, its new Managing Director). Mackinnon replaces Quinn Perrott, who remains with…
Read more... although CME's volume metrics remain well below last year (-20%). CME Group, which runs the world's largest derivatives marketplace, announced that September FX futures volumes increased by 11% from August, averaging 825,000 contracts per day.On a year-to-year comparison, however, CME is running about 20% behind last year, when last September volumes topped 1 million contracts…
Read moreIs this payback for 4XP running "We're not in Cyprus" ads during the EU-Cyprus bailout crisis? Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has sent out a release warning investors against Forex Place Ltd (also known in the industry as 4XP), and their website www.4xp.com, stating that they are not and have never been licensed by CySEC. A…
Read moreCFTC gives Yieldbroker until November 1 to finalize its SEF application. While US financial regulators promised that they were going to be completely rigid and strict with the planned implementation of Dodd-Frank Act requirements such as that of SEFs, the exceptions keep coming. First, we learned that the CFTC is delaying enforcement of many of…
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