AxiCorp, one of Australia’s most prominent retail FX brokers, has unveiled 12 new currency pairs to be made available to its Australian client base from today.
In a low-key launch, the broker emailed its clients informing them of the additional trading instruments. The new pairs include USD/THB and two new metals markets -platinum and palladium. The broker is quoting spreads of between 40-150 pips on spot platinum for both standard and pro clients and 30-279 pips on spot palladium.
Full list of trading instruments launched by AxiTrader
Phil Horner, Sales and Marketing Manager at AxiTrader, said: “We believe the timing of the launch for pairs such as USD/HKD and EUR/HKD is extremely fitting given the current Volatility in HKD due to the protests, though we’re most excited about platinum and palladium as being a unique offering which we believe we’ll see a lot of other brokers adopting in the future." Adding, “As we noticed when we launched trading in pairs like USD/CNH and USD/RUB, we saw a very fast increase in other brokers adopting/launching these pairs."
The protests in Hong Kong have sparked speculative interest in the Hong Kong dollar. Protesters are demonstrating against Beijing’s influence over the city’s government and claim that the promise of preserving their civil rights is not being fulfilled by China. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) took emergency measures earlier this week.
AxiTrader's extension of trading products has been mirrored by many others in recent weeks in the Asian region. Last month, Australian-based Pepperstone Financial expanded its list of tradable products with the addition of WTI and Brent crude oil, while Easy-Forex Australia dished up 61 new products for its clients only last week. In both cases the moves were designed to cater for changing client preferences and tectonic shifts in the global geopolitical arena.
With market conditions remaining tough but starting to pick up after the summer lull, it seems retail FX brokers are all trying very hard to be as competitive and flexible as possible when it comes to their service offerings.
