During the passing week, the top news in the global online trading industry included the aftermath of FXCM leaving the US market, the ill-affects of upcoming regulations in Israel on the local binary options scene as well new offerings from firms diversifying their services. [gptAdvertisement]
American Transition
On Monday we reported that GAIN Capital has transferred $142 million worth of client assets from FXCM. The firm's CEO, Glenn Stevens, elaborated on the transition in an exclusive interview with Finance Magnates.
"One competitive alternative is futures – many of the products that we offer can be traded on an exchange. Even though there is a lack of broad based providers, there is a new rule that is coming out at the end of March that allows clients to access a report which provides time and rates on their fills, which is quite a substantial development when it comes to providing transparency about execution quality and ensuring a level playing field for retail clients."
PFSOFT adds InterTrader
On Tuesday we reported that PFSOFT, a developer of trading software for a wide range of market participants, has expanded its pool of liquidity providers after completing a new integration of InterTrader’s FX, CFD and spread betting Liquidity with the company’s Protrader brokerage software.
The new deal means that brokers who choose Protrader will be able to connect it to InterTrader while the platform’s order routing and price-aggregator ensures that the order is sent to the broker offering the best price at the moment of order execution.
Sucden
On Wednesday we revealed that Sucden Financial is well on its way to diversifying its offering. The company’s new Head of Business Development Noel Singh shared in an exclusive interview with Finance Magnates that it is looking to add access to several major ECNs to its offering.
Sucden Financial is working on adding a new technology provider which will enable connectivity to Currenex, Fastmatch, Hotspot and GAIN’s GTX. Clients will be provided with aggregated access to those ECNs. The company is also beta testing Cobalt DL which will also offer pre-trade risk functionality for access to ECNs.
Binary exodus continues
On Thursday Finance Magnates reported that 24option is the latest binary options broker to close its Israeli call center and move its operation to another country. Its Israeli staff has already been informed that the office is due to close in May. The exact number of people losing their jobs isn’t confirmed but our sources estimated the relevant Israeli staff at over 150 before the move.
This came just a couple of days after a parliamentary meeting where the regulator kept pushing for a new law that will grant him powers to stop the operations of binary options companies that are not working with Israelis at all. At the same meeting an Israeli police representative promised to cut the firms' operational abilities by going after payment providers.
Cryptocurrency
On Friday we reported on the latest achievements in the amazing rally that the cryptocurrency market has been on recently. The price of Bitcoin was at a record $1265 (more than an ounce of gold), and the overall valuation of all bitcoin in circulation reached above $20 billion.
Ethereum, the second biggest Blockchain asset by market cap, reached a market cap of $1.8 billion after raising over 40% in a week. The social trading network eToro has added Ethereum as an instrument to its offering, allowing its users to trade on the ETH/USD exchange rate.
