Expansion of Yuan trading range band should increase Yuan volatility, and bring out more Chinese retail FX traders. China is a hot and much-sought after market for retail FX brokers (part of the reason we posited for the FXCM-Gain acquisition) -- and it is likely to heat up even more. Bloomberg News has reported, quoting UBS…
Read moreCySEC details disclosure rules required to prove funds in segregated bank accounts in fact belong to individual investors. As we reported earlier, the Central Bank of Cyprus has agreed to NOT apply the dreaded 'haircut' to bank balances above €100,000 at Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus, for bank accounts where the ultimate beneficiaries are smaller…
Read moreCME Group reports Gold Options and Gold Futures volumes annihilated all previous records on Monday. As we first reported earlier this week, Monday was one of the best-ever days for Retail FX brokers, as Gold's plunge from the $1500s to the $1300s precipitated general volatility in all financial markets. Well, it seems that data from…
Read moreCFTC fines Alcocer and InovaTrade more than $38 million and permanently bans them. The CFTC has received a federal court order requiring Michael Alcocer and his company InovaTrade to pay a fine of more than $38 million. Alcocer (as well as his company) was also permanently banned from trading or registration with the CFTC. Not much is…
Read moreFollows ASIC review of City Index Australia involving weaknesses in handling client money. Australia's financial regulator ASIC has announced that it is requiring City Index Australia to appoint an independent expert to review its business and develop a plan to rectify certain deficiencies. The independent expert will report regularly directly to ASIC for the next 18…
Read moreFirst major (planned) competitor to FXall, EBS, Hotspot FX et al to actually launch. France's Tradition S.A. today announced the formal launch of ParFX, its new spot FX ECN. The launch follows a period of testing with many global banks and independent software vendors. The platform is now open to all banks able to settle via…
Read moreMobile taking over in both FX and Binary Trading at online brokerage firms. MetaQuotes Software, the maker of the MT4 and MT5 "MetaTrader" platforms, announced that it had hit a milestone of more than 1 million mobile users of MT4 and MT5 mobile platforms -- more than double the 500,000 users it reported just five…
Read moreIn a month where most FX brokers saw a slight decline, Alpari continued to plow forward, driven by its home market in Russia. Forex Industry News... Global FX broker Alpari has reported its best ever month in March, with total group volumes coming in at $238 billion -- just eclipsing February's $237 billion at Alpari. These…
Read moreCameron and Tyler Winklevoss have poured their Facebook fortune into Bitcoins. Reports have surfaced that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, better known as the Winklevoss Twins or simply as the 'Winklevii' (thanks to Homer Simpson) have come to own a whopping 1% of all the Bitcoins on the market, worth in the neighborhood of $15 million.…
Read moreThis has little to do with 'regulatory efficiencies', and a lot more to do with personalities, cash – and China! One thing that FXCM CEO Drew Niv is known for is being a shrewd acquirer. Other than FXCM's 2010 acquisition of ODL which didn't go quite as planned, FXCM has made some smart acquisitions at reasonable…
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