North American Derivatives Exchange (Nadex), part of IG Group Holdings plc (LON:IGG), has just posted some operating metrics for the first quarter of 2016, with the three-month period bringing a record year-on-year growth in both number of trades and trading volumes.
The total number of trades in the first quarter of 2016 was up 64% from the first quarter of 2015, whereas the total volume in the first quarter of 2016 rose 68% from a year before.
The most heavily traded contracts were the US 500 and the EUR/USD exchange rate. Binaries on the CBOT E-mini Dow Futures and CME E-mini NASDAQ 100 Index Futures also ranked amid the popular trading instruments, as did Crude oil and Gold.
Four of the five most heavily traded binary options were Forex, including the British pound, Japanese yen, and Australian dollar, pointing to an interesting trend – FX traders see Nadex as an alternative to FX brokers.
Tim McDermott, CEO of Nadex, says,
“We’re really becoming mainstream. Part of that is our technology innovations, bringing free, powerful trading platforms to our members. But we think the main reason is that our business model levels the playing field for retail traders, by offering on-exchange, limited risk, and low-cost access to the markets.”
You can view the full announcement from Nadex by clicking here.