After a slow summer, Forex brokers welcomed a return of rising volumes in September. We’ll soon see whether the positive momentum continued in October as brokers and trading venues will report last month’s figures in the coming days. What other events occurred in October?
If you needed to describe the month in one word, ‘innovation’ comes to mind as numerous companies and technology providers launched new products. The other main story was regulation, as the CFTC and its members were out issuing proposals and ideas of new laws for the industry.
A list of key headlines (in no specific order):
Metaquotes launches trading signals for its MT4 & MT5 platforms: Metaquotes continues to expand features on its flagship Metatrader platform and entered the crowded social and copy trader space.
IC Markets begins to offer cTrader: While not yet a major competitor to Metatrader, cTrader is becoming more and more synonymous with ECN trading and as more companies are marketing themselves as STP, we could see client demand grow for this platform.
Polish BRE Bank launches Forex Trading: Maybe not a big headline for the rest of the world, but in a country with a large FX footprint, traditional banks have been late adopters to the product, focusing more on traditional trading such as equities, futures, and bonds. Therefore, the arrival of a large bank in the space acts to legitimize the FX product in Poland.
Gain Capital Launches TRADE platform at FOREX.Com: Web based with fixed spreads, the new TRADE platform from FOREX.com is expected to be the broker’s base system for launching new features and trading instruments in the future.
Q3 US Profitability figures show clients losing more money: The lack of volatility did little to improve the success of US traders as CFTC figures showed client profitability dropping from Q2 levels.
GFT & Oanda create new trading apps: GFT became the first broker to create a mobile trading app for the Kindle Fire and Oanda created the first Chrome extension trading platform.
2012 Volume declines taking its toll: Responding to a fall in trading activity in 2012, brokers are being forced to cut expenses which has led to firings at GFT, the closure of MB Trading’s UK unit, and LCG announcing it was implementing cost reducing practices.
Integral continues to be active: The technology provider announced a deal to provide trading platform services for Wells Fargo and hired a new Global Head of Solutions. The company was also hit with trading outages again.
CFTC Proposes new legislation: The CFTC announced its formal proposal of updated laws to govern FCMs and prevent another PFG Best disaster.
Public reporting venues reported gains for September: Hotspot FX, FXall, EBS, etc all reported strong increases in trading volumes for September vs August.
While not a full list, the above headlines encompass many of the important stories and trends of October. Which was the most important?
