Forex industry news at LeapRate was certainly dominated this week by regulator-related issues. LeapRate was first to report that ACFX – one of the leading Cyprus-based retail forex brokers – had its CIF license suspended by CySEC, and has been given one month to rectify things. The post generated a flood of comments, with many LeapRate readers airing their views generally on regulatory related issues.
We reported exclusively on AvaTrade’s creation of a new Israel-based subsidiary to serve Israel-based clients, in advance of new Israeli regulations set to take effect in July covering different aspects of online trading.
Our most popular guest posts this week dealt with two seminal questions in the retail forex space. Yael Warman at Leverate asks Is it Gambling or is it Trading?, while MediaGroup’s Bart Burggraaf deals with Why Google is Still the Number 1 Marketing Channel for Brokers.
And on the home front, we’re pleased to report that SimilarWeb’s updated March figures had us leap (no pun intended) more than 35,000 ranking spots, with their estimate of LeapRate’s monthly traffic sitting at 147,000 (they’re not too far off, well done SimilarWeb!). In all metrics they cover – time-on-site, pageviews-per-visitor, bounce rate… – we far outrank our competitors. Once again, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for helping LeapRate become the leading Forex industry news source. We value your loyalty and trust, and will continue working hard for you.
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Some of the most popular, shared and commented-on posts this past week on LeapRate included:
CySEC suspends ACFX license for one month. Our breaking of the story that ACFX has had its CIF license suspended by CySEC, later picked up in other blogs, seems to have elicited a very large and visceral response among our readers. In the few hours since the story broke we had a record number of hits and (more importantly) comments on the article, with our readers providing their views on both what happened and what’s going on generally in Cyprus financial regulation. (We believe that at least one of the comments was actually left by someone at the regulator). It seems to be a very hot and emotional topic: Will CySEC really do what it need to do to clean up the industry in Cyprus, even if it means that some of the bigger brokers and employers are shut down? What does this all mean for the other leading Forex brokers on the island? Read what everyone in the FX industry has to say, and let us know what you think.
AvaTrade moves Israeli clients to new subsidiary ATrade in advance of ISA regulation. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that retail forex broker AvaTrade has set up a new subsidiary company in Israel under its ATrade brand, and is in the process of moving all of its Israel-based clients accounts to the new subsidiary. LeapRate was sent a copy of a letter which was sent out earlier this week to all AvaTrade clients in Israel outlining the changes. So what are the main changes required by the new Israeli Forex regulation? When will the changes come in to effect? What limitations on leverage, bonuses, and deposit methods will AvaTrade clients in Israel now have? All the details available now exclusively at LeapRate.
IG and CMC Markets continue to lead crowded Australia retail forex market. Australia-based research firm Investment Trends has recently published a retail FX report for its home market. The Investment Trends 2015 Australia Foreign Exchange Report is based on a survey of 13,910 online investors including 3,967 active FX traders. So which brokers lead in Australia retail forex market share? Which brokers made the most market share gains in 2015? Is there a high level of switching brokers among Australia traders? Get all the facts and figures, always first at LeapRate.
Why Google is Still the Number 1 Marketing Channel for Brokers. Google built its empire on a simple idea: show people an ad relevant to what they search for. Search Engine Marketing, and Google Adwords in particular, takes a lot of time and resources to properly employ, but set up correctly it can still be a money printing machine for Forex brokers. In order to run an effective global pay per click campaign, Brokers need to invest significant resources in producing, managing and optimising campaigns. So what strategies can brokers employ as Forex keywords remain very expensive, and competition seems to keep increasing? Read more in a special guest post from MediaGroup Worldwide’s Bart Burggraaf, exclusively at LeapRate.
Tradeworks raises $500,000 from Singapore based strategic investors and Innovationsfonden. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that Copenhagen-based algo trading tools developer Tradeworks has raised a total of more than $500,000 from two strategic investors based in Singapore, as well as from the Danish Innovation Fund, Innovationsounden. Participating in the fundraising by Tradeworks, and joining the company’s Board as non-executive directors, are Singapore based Joo Seng Wong and Henrik Nielsen.
Is it Gambling or is it Trading?
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