Cyprus-based retail FX broker Forex Time (FXTM) has increased its range of trading instruments to include a larger number of currency pairs as part of a corporate drive toward boosting its clients’ ability to diversify their trading opportunities in the FX market.
A noticable trend among many retail FX brokerages recently has been the addition of spot precious metals to their product range. FXTM is following this dynamic, with traders now able to trade XAUEUR (Gold vs. Euro), XAUGBP (Gold vs. British Pound), and XAGEUR )Silver vs. Euro).
Commerical opinions vary on the best means in which to provide a trading environment for precious metals, with some of the large banks having merged gold trading into their FX trading operations earlier this year following the downsizing of many commodities desks.
Banks view gold as a highly liquid asset when traded as a spot transaction, and automation is prevalent to the degree that it has been considered likely to displace traditional gold bullion traders, and major banks including Deutsche Bank, UBS, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley were joined in April by one of the world’s largest FX dealers, Barclays, which announced its intention to retain its gold trading business whilst hiving off most of its international commodities interests.
FXTM’s introduction of precious metal trading in conjunction with FX instruments reflects the retail FX industry’s emulation of the bank perspective, with Australian brokerage Pepperstone having also gone down this route recently.
Whilst the direction appears similar, the reason for consolidating precious metals into FX trading platforms for retail firms is likely to have arisen from a different circumstance to that which drove the banks toward this decision. FX firms have experienced low volatility for a period which has spanned across almost an entire year, with trading activity only now beginning to resume to satisfactory levels, therefore by adding non-FX asset classes, firms can attract business that has not been subjected to low volumes in the same way that FX has.
In addition to the precious metal instruments, FXTM has added a range of pairs which are geared toward the lucrative Asia Pacific region. These include GBPNZD )British Pound vs. New Zealand Dollar), USDCNH (US Dollar vs. Offshore Chinese Renminbi), and EURCNH (Euro vs. Offshore Chinese Renminbi).
These assets are available on FXTM’s standard account, which retains FXTM as the market maker in all transactions.
With the company’s ECN accounts, a series of European non-majors have been added which can be traded against major currency pairs, as well as mainstream Asian currencies such as Hong Kong dollar and Singapore Dollar against the US dollar.
Precious metals trading in the three instruments which have been added is available across standard and ECN accounts.
For the full list of new instruments from FXTM, click here.