September 25, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Alpari August global forex volumes top Russia volumes for first time in 2013

Alpari saw significant growth in international volumes in normally-slow August. Some follow-up to our earlier piece on Alpari's record August volumes... The folks at Alpari have been nice enough to break out for us Alpari Russia volumes versus rest-of-the-world (mainly Alpari UK). Historically, more than 50% of the Alpari Group's volumes have come from Russia,…

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September 25, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Oanda buys social trading service Currensee

Currensee had been built with about $20 million of venture capital funds. We'll have more on this later, but for now here's the press release: September 24, 2013 06:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time  OANDA Announces Acquisition of Forex Copy Trading Network Currensee Acquisition Reaffirms OANDA's Commitment to Growth and Market Leadership TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OANDA, a pioneering global…

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September 24, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Gain Capital (finally) closes acquisition of GFT

Acquisition will actually be net cash positive for Gain Capital. Forex broker Gain Capital (NYSE:GCAP) has announced that it has closed its previously announced acquisition of rival GFT. The deal, first announced in April, followed a month-long flurry of activity which saw FXCM make a takeover bid for Gain, which Gain Capital fought off by…

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September 24, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

MMA Forex update #2 – CEO Awan remains jailed, blames Gulf News

Questions also surround whether MMA Group's claimed airline MMA Airline actually exists. This is probably either one of the best con jobs or worst smear jobs of all time. Or perhaps both. This is what we (think we) know about the supposed defrauding of clients of Dubai Forex broker MMA Forex, issues at its parent…

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September 24, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

360 Trading Networks (360T) granted latest SEF license

Multi-bank multi-asset platform provider 360T looks to expand its institutional business in the US. The CFTC has granted its most recent SEF license to Frankfurt-based trading platform company 360 Trading Networks (known better in the industry as 360T). This is a little different than most of the other SEF application approvals made so far --…

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September 23, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

FXCM strengthens institutional offering by acquiring research shop Faros Trading

Faros clients are mainly hedge funds, institutional money managers, corporations, and family offices. Just a few days after acquiring Alpari US's retail assets, global forex leader FXCM has made an acquisition on the institutional side of its business, buying Faros Trading. Faros is a leader in FX intelligence, market coverage, and execution services to the institutional foreign…

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September 23, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Twitter IPO greymarket trading launched at IG.com

IG joins ETX Capital in making a greymarket in Twitter shares. LeapRate Exclusive... LeapRate has learned that UK spreadbetting leader IG.com has quietly launched greymarket trading in shares of Twitter. Those traders who do not want to wait for Twitter's actual IPO, recently announced and planned for later in Q4, can already take a position…

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September 23, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Alpari exits US market, sells US clients to FXCM

Very little money changed hands, for FXCM to acquire Alpari US's $10 million in client assets. As we predicted would happen, all but the largest US retail forex brokers are one by one deciding to exit the US market, and focus their efforts elsewhere. The problem has nothing to do with the true dynamics of…

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September 22, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

CySEC withdraws CIF license of MT4 forex broker Sama Brokers

Forex broker focused on Arab world seems to have scaled back most of its operations since early summer. Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has issued a warning that it has withdrawn the CIF license of Sama Brokers. Sama is a Limassol-based MT4 forex broker, which has traditionally focused on serving the Middle East and Arabic speaking…

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September 21, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

SEF applications approved for trueEX and ICE IntercontinentalExchange

What is an SEF exactly? The CFTC has granted two more (temporary) SEF licenses, this time to trueEX and ICE IntercontinentalExchange. trueEX is an interbank exchange for interest rate swaps. And ICE is, of course, the large publicly traded (NYSE:ICE) US commodities exchange, which operates regulated exchanges and clearing houses for energy, agricultural, credit, currency, emissions,…

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