ICAP's EBS losing ground to FXall and Thomson Reuters in the FX ECN business. With competitors showing mixed results in what is usually a slow December FX trading season, ICAP's EBS unit reported its lowest monthly volumes since 2005 (!!), at $91.8 billion (average daily volume) 12% off last month and 4% below last year…
Read moreFXall hits the $100 billion-per-day mark for just the second time ever. For the second month in a row, we see divergent results from Thomson Reuters (volumes down 8%) and its recently-acquired subsidiary FXall (volumes up 5%) in December. And with FXall hitting (exactly) the $100 billion-per-month volume level for just the second time ever,…
Read moreFirst peek at December FX industry volumes is looking good. CME Group, which runs the world's largest derivatives marketplace, announced that FX contract volumes (mainly Eurodollar futures contracts) in its system were up by 7% in December from November, and up 14% from last year December, to an average of 826,000 contracts daily. The EURUSD's bull run, from 1.29…
Read moreAndrey Dashin's new Cyprus FX firm onboards most of Alpari FS management. LeapRate Exclusive..... Well it seems as though Alpari's decision to shut down its Cyprus operation Alpari FS -- at around the same time that Andrey Dashin's new firm ForexTime Ltd received a CySEC CIF license to begin operation -- has provided ForexTime Ltd the opportunity to…
Read moreAll Alpari FS clients to be transferred to Alpari UK. In something of a surprise move, Alpari announced that as of February 8 it will transfer all client accounts legally situated with Alpari's Cyprus subsidiary Alpari FS, and move them to Alpari UK. Following February 8 Alpari FS will cease providing services to clients. Alpari…
Read moreNew Government's policy of currency devaluation bringing back traders. In our discussions with Japanese retail FX brokers over the past few weeks, it seems that they are seeing a healthy increase in domestic trading, mainly around the USDJPY pair. Japan's new government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has made strengthening Japan's economy by (in part)…
Read moreGermany's BaFin cites inadequate capital at FXdirekt. Germany's financial regulator BaFin announced Friday that it is shutting down leading German-based online FX broker FXdirekt Bank, due to inadequate capital following decreased client trading levels and losses suffered by the firm in the second half of 2012. FXdirekt had been the subject of some very negative…
Read moreIncreased volatility brought traders back in November, but just marginally. LeapRate's Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, was fairly flat in November, with global retail FX trading activity up 1% to $179 billion per day. However this marks the fifth consecutive month where volumes remained well below last year's levels, with the year-over-year declines in…
Read moreLeverate hires ex Saxo Bank and FXCM exec to head Asia. Forex software platform provider Leverate announced today that it is opening a Hong Kong office next month, to be headed by ex Saxo Bank and FXCM exec Arthur Le. (Note that Saxo Bank is an investor in Leverate). Leverate's Sirix social platform has been…
Read moreGetco likely to divest Knight's non-core assets, including Hotspot FX. Although it has not yet been formally announced, sources close to the situation (and as reported by CNBC) reported that Knight Capital's board will select Getco's offer to buy the company, after Getco raised the cash portion of its bid to $3.60 per Knight share.…
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