Forex Weekly Look Back: CEO Alex Pusco talks ActivTrades social trading platform development, SEC Chairman plans to tackle ‘gamification’

Looking back at the most intriguing and popular industry news from the past week between 3rd and 7th May on LeapRate.

Total trading volumes across Moscow Exchange’s markets reached RUB 95.7 trillion in April 2021, registering a 5.86%MoM increase (RUB 90.4 in March 2021). Most sections of the market reported small growth, compared to March 2021: Derivatives Market (-15.85%MoM), Equity & Bond Market (+0.18%MoM), Precious Metals Market (+2.9%MoM) FX Market (+5.64%MoM) and Money Market (+15.95%MoM).

Deutsche Börse AG announced that it has agreed to acquire the remaining 49% stake Clearstream Fund Centre from UBS, for CHF 390 million. With this deal Deutsche Börse will become the sole shareholder in the Zurich-based fund distribution platform. On 30 September 2021, the German market place organizer closed the acquisition of a 51% stake in Clearstream. The deal is expected to bring a low to medium double-digit million Euro book gain to Deutsche Börse.

FX technology provider Integral released its trading volumes across its trading platforms for April 2021. The company reported a decrease in April following the heights of March but still registered a steady growth on yearly basis. The company registered average daily volumes (ADV) of $43.3 billion in April. This represents a 19.2% MoM rise compared to March when it reached $53.6 billion. The April ADV was 26.4% YoY higher compared to the same period last year.

Alex Pusco, founder and CEO of ActivTrades, sat down with LeapRate to discuss the company’s 20 year anniversary, market insights and further enhancing its product offering. Alex Pusco’s career started as a personal broker for high-net-worth individuals, using the internet to expand his client base. This path led to the creation of one Europe’s first online trading platforms – ActivTrades. The Swiss entrepreneur moved the sales hub of ActivTrades to London in 2005.

The likes of Citadel Securities and Robinhood Markets were big names during the trading frenzy surrounding GameStop earlier this year. Following on from the frenzy, US regulator – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – is making plans to clean up the unprecedented trading methods. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler recently revealed his thoughts surrounding online brokerages that dominate the execution of equity orders for retail investors.

Global trading company eToro has announced signing a three-year sponsorship deal to become a major partner of Rugby Australia. The deal will have eToro as the naming rights partner of all inbound tests including The Rugby Championship. The company will also be major Wallabies partner until the end of 2023. The eToro logo will appear on all official branding and on back right of shorts on the Wallaby kit.

Technology provider Edgewater Markets has revealed the strategic hire of former TOKKYO FX Global Head of Liquidity Management Jesse Hadley as its new Director of Liquidity and eFX Management. In his new position at Edgewater Markets, Hadley will lead the European eFX, API and eTrading efforts. He will work on developing, executing and sustaining the company’s strategic initiatives and operations from Edgewater’s London office.

Launched by Christian Frahm in November 2020, United Fintech has just revealed the appointment of George Govier as Sales Executive. Govier joins the company after five years at Goldman Sachs serving in Prime Brokerage, within the Global Markets Division, helping European hedge fund clients to launch new funds with the bank. Govier is based in London and at his new position, he will have a European remit, with a focus on sales of all products from within United Fintech’s portfolio of fintech firms, currently including NetDania and TTMzero.

PrimeXM has just released its monthly metrics for April 2021. The broker reported a total of $897.59 billion in total trading volumes registered last month across the 3 major Data Center locations. The monthly metrics are following the recent trend among brokers of falling in April after the record highs of March 2021. PrimeXM’s trading activities in April dropped 15.18% MoM compared to March when it reached $1.06 trillion.

Union Standard International Group has announced that it is changing their name changing our name to United Strategic International Group. The brokerage firm is currently is in the middle of liquidation in Australia and its licensed entities operate in United Kingdom, South Africa, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The Group subsidiaries will also rebrand as United Strategic International LLC (USG SV), United Strategic International (Pty) Ltd (USG SA), and United Strategic International Limited (USG UK).

Deutsche Börse published its monthly volumes report for April 2021. The volumes for last month fell, compared to March and on a year-over-year basis. The company reported a 28.7% MoM decrease in turnover to €147.1 billion in April 2021 (€206.4 billion in March 2021). The numbers down by 14.9% YoY in comparison to April 2020 when it reached €172.8 billion. €118.4 billion of the total turnover in April was attributable to Xetra, down by 30.02% MoM, compared to the €169.2 billion in March.

Licensed MetaTrader 5 application developer Dynamic Works has integrated Syntellicore CRM with multi-server PAMM offered by Brokeree Solutions, the Estonia-based provider of technology solutions for forex brokers. The integration will allow brokers to incorporate the benefits of the turn-key money management solution with the customizable back-office system available to fully licensed brokers and white labels.

The multibank FX streaming aggregation and a matching service provider FXSpotStream announced its April trading volumes. The company reported an ADV of $48.705 billion, down 10.92% MoM compared to March when it reached the second-highest point ever of $54.674 billion. On yearly basis, the April ADV marked a 43.35% YoY increase. FXSpotStream’s Overall Volume surpassed $1 trillion for the third time in the company’s history in April 2021.

Financial technology provider ParagonEX has just announced the launch of its fully customizable trading platform, allowing its broker clients to decide on every detail of the platform’s look and feel. The customization options will cover every element of the trading platform, which will allow for endless customization, per broker or per end user. ParagonEX’s new platform allows each broker using it to have a unique appearance, displaying elements of their choosing and it is way to create a distinct brand identity, but also cater to the profile and mix of their end users.

Forex Weekly Look Back

Canada-based payments processor, Nuvei, are rumoured to be in the process of acquiring Simplex.  This Israeli start-up company works to provide crypto companies with a fiat infrastructure. Though the acquisition is yet to be officially confirmed, there have been reports that the companies are in definitive talks surrounding a deal worth around $250 million, paid in cash.

Confluence and J.P Morgan have announced plans to enhance their already established partnership by delivering a new solution covering multi-asset portfolio analytics. By the beginning of the third financial quarter of this year, Confluence’s performance and risk solution, Delta, will have successfully expanded its coverage to span U.S.-based securitised products. The solution will not only be fuelled by J.P Morgan’s analytics, but it is also set to be available via the company’s own platform.

Authorised by CySEC liquidity provider Match-Prime has joined the Gold-i Matrix NETwork to distribute its multi-asset liquidity to Gold-i’s global client base of retail brokers, hedge funds and banks. Operating since October 2020, Match-Prime has quickly gained recognition in the industry and has already connected several brokers to its liquidity pools. The company offers Forex & CFD Brokers deep, multi-asset liquidity for over 1000 instruments and equities with ultra-fast connectivity.

CME Group saw the launch of its new micro Bitcoin futures at the start of the week, providing a smaller-size option of its current derivatives contract of the cryptocurrency. Launching in the US, the Chicago-based company has decided to offer the new product to respond to the rapidly escalating demand surrounding cryptocurrency derivatives.

PostFinance and Swissquote have just revealed that they are set to present their digital banking app Yuh next Tuesday, 11 May 2021. The project is a result of the collaboration of the two financial companies and was announced back in November 2020. The joint venture’s goal is to consistently adopt fresh approaches in mobile banking. Both companies that participated in the development of Yuh – PostFinance and Swissquote – are providers of online financial services with a wealth of experience in the Swiss market.

As concerns for China’s expanding carbon footprint increase, the country is said to be focussing its attention on crypto mining. Crypto mining operations in China may now be subject to much more watchful supervision in the near future, as its government is beginning to worry about the energy consumption related to the mining of bitcoin in particular. On April 27th this year, Beijing officials issued an emergency notice which detailed that it would be conducting thorough checks on any data hubs which had affiliations with bitcoin and any other crypto mining ventures.

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