Hong Kong Subsidiary Opened by MIG Bank

Switzerland’s MIG Bank has opened a new brokerage subsidiary in Hong Kong, MIG Capital Asia Limited. The office will be MIG Bank’s hub as it seeks to expand in Asia and improve its broking, foreign exchange (FX) and other services for the Asian financial markets.

via Pocket http://www.bobsguide.com//guide/news/2013/Jun/5/hong-kong-subsidiary-opened-by-mig-bank.html June 06, 2013 at 06:48PM

BGC Partners Receives Approval to Conduct Principal Bond Trading in Korea

— /PRNewswire/ — BGC Partners, Inc.

via Pocket http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/05/30/4906060/bgc-partners-receives-approval.html June 01, 2013 at 06:55PM

Raptor Trading Partnering with ROFEX for DMA in Argentina

Raptor Trading Partnering with ROFEX for DMA in Argentina

http://raptortrading.com/raptor-trading-partnering-with-rofex-for-dma-in-argentina/

ROFEX & Raptor Trading provide Direct Market Access to Argentina

* Reuters is not responsible for the content in this press release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:00am EDT

ROFEX & Raptor Trading provide Direct Market Access to Argentina

Rosario Futures Exchange (ROFEX), an Argentina-based derivatives exchange is now accessible via Raptor Trading System’s global network

 

Raptor Trading Systems Inc, a global leader in advanced connectivity platforms and solutions announced today that it is set to be the first international provider of Direct Market Access (DMA) to the Rosario Futures Exchange (ROFEX), an Argentina based derivatives exchange. This joint offering provides seamless and low latency access for global clients to directly access ROFEX.

Latin America is experiencing significant growth and increased liquidity across asset classes, this trend will continue as there is improved access to exchanges such as ROFEX. Raptor Trading’s global network provides participants with access to all major markets in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The joint offering provides global traders with low latency access to ROFEX, which can be seamlessly integrated within a client’s systems and networks.

ROFEX has long been a pioneer in the Argentinian trading space and was one of the earliest adopters of FIX. “Raptor trading will help ROFEX globally expand through it’s state of the art gateway, we are excited to work with a provider who has a strong and established client base in the region and across the globe,” said ROFEX CEO, Mr. Diego Fernandez. “This new product offering will enable clients to directly and efficiently access the Argentinian derivatives markets, with unprecedented speed and service.”

“The combined offering from Raptor Trading and ROFEX provides more than a network or trading platform it provides a comprehensive set of valuable services using the most advanced and efficient technology available,” said Teddy Lardos CEO of Raptor Trading. “ROFEX is one of the leading exchanges in the region, and Raptor Trading is proud to count them as a partner in our network.”

 

Rosario Futures Exchange (ROFEX)
Ismael Caram
Chief Operations Officer
Email: icaram@rofex.com.ar
or
Raptor Trading Systems Inc.
Sunny Kim
Global Director Sales & Consulting
Email: Info@Raptortrading.com
Phone: 410-772-7867

Integral announces plans to launch SEF

Integral announces plans to launch SEF

First Published 17th May 2013

Integral reassures customers with SEF plans in light of CFTC deadline. NDFs available now, other services to follow. Seamless user experience promised for both regulated and unregulated products.

Harpal Sandhu, CEO, Integral Development Corp

“We foresee a better, fairer market place, and we are working jointly with many broker/dealers to deliver that to our and their customers.”

http://www.automatedtrader.net/news/at/142706/integral-announces-plans-to-launch-sef

Palo Alto, California – Integral Development Corp. the provider of FX trading solutions and services, has announced that it is ready to provide its customers with a Swap Execution Facility (SEF) in time to meet stated deadlines by the U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC). This announcement follows yesterday’s decision by the CFTC on ‘Final Rulemaking Regarding Core Principles and Other Requirements for SEFs’.

“We have been working diligently in anticipation of this milestone and will continue on this path now that the final rulemaking has occurred,” said Harpal Sandhu, CEO, Integral Development Corp. “Our customers can continue to focus on building their businesses in the knowledge that we as their service provider will be ready with a regulatory compliant solution.”

As every other capability offered through FX Grid, the SEF will be provided as a cloud service. FX Grid is Integral’s inter-institutional connectivity and trading network, linking market making banks to FX market participants. Immediately, FX Inside Professional, Integral’s private FX trading system for spot, outrights, and swaps will also include Non-Deliverable Forwards (NDFs). Other instruments stand to follow as the regulatory framework is being finalized.

Integral’s SEF will be branded INFX SEF and will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Integral Development Corp.

“Contrary to how it is sometimes portrayed in public, SEFs are not about the displacement of broker/dealers,” added Sandhu. “We foresee a better, fairer market place, and we are working jointly with many broker/dealers to deliver that to our and their customers. I encourage everyone to talk to their dealer or to us to find out how to take advantage of this upcoming change.”

The final rulemaking implements Section 733 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act), which added Section 5h of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) governing the registration and operation of swap execution facilities (SEFs).

Saxo Bank announces new trading tool – Trade Navigator

Saxo Bank announces new trading tool – Trade Navigator

http://www.automatedtrader.net/news/at/142691/saxo-bank-announces-new-trading-tool-_-trade-navigator

Saxo Bank provides trading insight through Trade Navigator

Ole Sloth Hansen, vice president, Saxo Bank

“This new tool is another example of our focus at Saxo Bank on developing usefull tools to facilitate precision trading.”

Saxo Bank has launched Trade Navigator on TradingFloor.com, a new trading tool that provides daily technical insight into around 200 instruments.

By amalgamating several known and widely used technical indicators into one overview Saxo Bank aims to provide the tools that enable traders a quick look up and guide to where to buy and sell assets but also enable informed decisions and manage risk.

Through the use of pivot points traders can use Trade Navigator to set stops, take profits and make entry points for daily trading on over 200 instruments within Forex, Commodities, Bonds and Equities. The new tool is built around daily pivot points to indicate when to trade but it also uses the relative strength index (RSI), break outs and Bollinger bands:

• The relative strength index is used together with other technical indicators to signal when a security is overbought or oversold – thresholds that can be set as desired
• Break outs are based on the Donchian channels that indicate a multi-period trading range – if the price breaks through the multi-period high or low this may confirm that a new trend is in place
• Bollinger bands are used as a tool for both confirming momentum or a reversion towards the mean
• Using Average True Range (ATR) which is a measure of volatility the Navigator gives the user the ability to determine what would be an appropriate exposure when initiating a trade.

Ole Sloth Hansen, Vice President at Saxo Bank, comments “Trade Navigator is a vital aid to help our clients refine their trading strategy. With this new tool we now not only provide our clients with the best tools to execute trades but complement these with the best tools to inform their trading activities. This new tool is another example of our focus at Saxo Bank on developing usefull tools to facilitate precision trading.”

Taiwanese Bank Extends License with Fenics for FX Options System

Fenics Software Ltd., owned by interdealer broker GFI Group, announced that E.Sun Commercial Bank Ltd., a Taiwanese commercial bank, has extended its license for the use of FENICS Professional, FX options service Fenics Professional provides E.

via Pocket http://www.advancedtrading.com/infrastructure/taiwanese-bank-extends-license-with-feni/240154251 May 06, 2013 at 10:18PM

Can FX trading learn from equities?

Can FX trading learn from equities?

In January this year, Gain Capital appointed Joseph Wald executive vice president, head of institutional. He is responsible for leading GTX, an independent FX ECN and agency desk for hedge funds and institutions.

Wald has long experience in the equities market, where he served as CEO of agency-only execution broker and algorithmic trading provider, EdgeTrade, and subsequently as a managing director of Knight Capital’s client electronic trading business when the broker-dealer acquired Wald’s firm. To what extent does he see the same opportunities for automation in the FX space as he experienced in equities trading?

Compared to equities, attitudes to FX among the buy-side are far more diverse, he notes. “Approaches can range from seeing FX as a particular hedge, a complement to another strategy, to an investable asset class traded on a daily basis,” says Wald.

Converging strategies

Nevertheless, he points out, the market is not as segmented as it once was. “It used to be that a proprietary shop would look at FX as a trading vehicle, while a large asset manager would regard it almost as something that was in the way,” he says. “Today asset managers regard FX as a real part of their strategy. We have even seen new exchange-traded funds launched over the last quarter that have a hedge component related to the currency aspect of the portfolio.”

As far as electronic trading is concerned, Wald describes the evolution in FX as dramatic. “People don’t give the FX market enough credit for how it has evolved from an electronic standpoint. I wouldn’t say that FX is behind equities in that regard; the market structure is different so it lends itself to different approaches,” he says. One of the big structural differences Wald points to is the traditionally bilateral nature of FX trades. “You need to have credit between two parties in order to do a trade,” he says, “whereas with equities it didn’t matter who the other side was as long as everybody was a member of the same exchange, clearing or settlement utility.”

GTX combines FX and equity approaches by combining a central counterparty model with a tightly coupled credit and matching engine to create a multilateral environment where users can trade regardless of whether they have bilateral relationships or not. “This is reshaping how people interact with the market, how liquidity is being moved from buyer to seller and is also opening up the marketplace,” he comments.

It is early days for this model, but Wald believes that in the changing regulatory environment of Dodd-Frank and Basel lll, it will drive innovation in the sector. “That’s what excited me about coming to the FX space,” he says. “Having seen similar evolution in the equity markets with Reg NMS, when one looks at the fragmentation in the FX marketplace, you can see a lot of similarities in the way they are developing. FX will have its own flavour, but I see huge potential to translate quantitative measures of best execution into the FX space.”

Wald argues there is much that FX can import from the equity market in terms of measuring and analysing performance. “There’s no question that when it comes to pre-trade, real-time and post-trade analytics, the concepts are transferable,” says Wald. “As a different asset class with its own nuances and ways of trading, these measures will have to be built from the ground up for the FX space, but my experience from the equity world puts me in a position to deliver the appropriate tools and technologies.”

Market maturity

As for the world he’s left behind, Wald sees opportunities for improving execution in the equities market through electronic trading innovation as reaching maturity. “There are clearly people who know what they are doing and can deliver consistently good performance and others who don’t have that down, but the domain expertise among providers in the space as a whole is fairly similar at this point,” he observes.

This has all been hugely to the buy-side’s advantage. “They have extracted almost every inch of benefit that can be had and that’s great for the industry and great for their clients,” says Wald. “Their overall costs of doing business have gone down. I feel there’s tremendous opportunity for a similar evolution in the FX space where institutional clients and their customers will benefit.”

In terms of tools, Wald cautions against seeking the holy grail. For example, the desire for workflow efficiency on the buy-side dealing desks has led to a demand for technology platforms that combine the functionality offered by order and execution management systems. “The one-size-fits-all approach never really works. You’ve got to have the right balance between individualised, customised workflow and the ability to scale – something that can be more to many instead of everything to everyone.”

In bid to fend off HFT, EBS looks at introducing random element in FX

http://www.automatedtrader.net/headlines/142594/in-bid-to-fend-off-hft–ebs-looks-at-introducing-random-element

First Published 29th April 2013

The Financial Times reports that EBS is looking at scrapping the first-in-first-out rule and quotes the platform’s CEO as lamenting a technology ‘race to the bottom’

FX trading platform EBS is considering scrapping the first-in-first-out principle of trading in favour of a system that would batch orders together and introduce a random element to what gets filled, the Financial Times reported.

The FT quoted EBS Chief Executive Gil Mandelziz as saying: “It is a technology arms race to the bottom, and a huge tax on the industry, since people are having to make significant investments in speed without any connection to their trading strategy.”

The FT said EBS, a division of ICAP, will begin consulting on its proposal with users in the next week. “It is likely to suggest batching incoming orders every few milliseconds, and rolling out the new system slowly across different currencies,” the newspaper said. The recently launched ParFX uses a similar system to impose randomised pauses on incoming orders, it added.

“Speed has little to do with why many participants come to our markets. These are serious players who come to the market to exchange risk; they do not come to race,” the FT quoted Mandelziz as saying.

TraderTools Integrates with Traiana

TraderTools Inc. (TraderTools), which delivers the world’s most advanced FX trading platforms, announced today its integration with Traiana, the leading provider of post-trade solutions.

via Pocket http://www.bobsguide.com//guide/news/2013/Apr/18/tradertools-integrates-with-traiana.html April 20, 2013 at 03:18PM

New FX Demands Fuel Platform Innovation

Foreign exchange clients now expect analytics, order management, pre-trade risk controls and TCA — all within a low-latency environment. To meet these demands, new platforms are emerging that deliver end-to-end services.
The FX market has undergone significant changes in recent years. The combination of an increasingly sophisticated client base, new technologies and an appetite for ultrafast trading speeds is spearheading innovations within the sector.Clients now expect as standard functionality such as analytics, order management, pre-trade risk controls, transaction cost analysis (TCA), and risk management — all within a low-latency environment. To meet these demands, new platforms have been emerging in recent months that deliver end-to-end services for clients, from pricing through to post-trade analysis.

These innovations are proving to be well-timed. After a significant slowdown in recent years, the $5-trillion foreign exchange market has surged in 2013, with institutional investors fuelling the upswing. More than 60% of daily turnover is concentrated in London, New York and Tokyo (BIS Triennial Survey, 2010).

January of this year saw a spike in FX volumes, which has continued throughout the first quarter, due in large part to strong rallies in the euro, increased demand for the US dollar and weakness in the yen. And, with equities still showing sluggish volumes, the FX market has become part of an overall strategy for financial institutions as a way to produce strong growth while taking advantage of global opportunities. Demand from institutional clients and increased flows in world equity markets, coupled with an overall increase in risk appetite, have continued to keep volumes buoyant.

Additionally, there has also been a rise in new entrants, mostly from Continental banks seeking to increase their share of the market, as well as an increasing number of buy-side players. The market is very concentrated, but the tail is getting increasingly longer.Though the top 10 banks control roughly 75% of the FX market, the remaining 25% is very fragmented.

Among the most prominent innovations in recent months has been a rise in single-dealer platforms (SDPs), which provide greater speed and reliability of trade execution. SDP clients are benefiting from improved analytics, research, superior post-trade processing capabilities, and straight-through processing (STP) solutions offered by the banks.

For example, according to Bank of England data cited by research and consulting firm Celent, SDPs have overturned rapidly, growing MDP volumes from several years ago to post 54% of all FX transaction volumes in the UK in 2012.

In 2013, Celent believes that the share of all UK FX volumes between SDPs and MDPs will either remain in favour of the single-dealer venues or shift further in their favour.

In addition to growth of SDPs, there is also a growing demand for FX platforms that provide a combined electronic and voice trade blotter showing all trades, regardless of execution channel. This enables clients to perform aggregation, roll forward and allocation of trades, giving customers greater accessibility and control of their trades. While electronic trading of FX now exceeds voice trading, clients still want voice trading capabilities as part of their overall package — e.g., for emerging markets where platforms might not be able to handle very large tickets in a particular currency.

Of course, the potential downside of so many unique platforms being released is that they are creating too much fragmentation and, as the FX market continues to grow, it is unlikely that all of them will survive. The publication of final rules on swap execution facilities (SEFs) under the Dodd-Frank Act will undoubtedly lead to further consolidation among platform providers.

What we can be certain of, however, is that the ones that can keep providing innovative and liquidity-enhancing tools that enable clients to reduce costs and improve efficiency are most likely to still be around in years to come.

MarketPrizm is a provider of market data and infrastructure services to financial services firms.