The stories that were the most fascinating for our readers this past week, judging by the number of views, involved a new type of partnership role for GAIN Capital (NYSE: GCAP), anti-crisis measures taken by a Ukrainian firm to prevent panic and a record monthly trading volume for September at an Estonian broker.
OANDA Shuts down Currensee’s Trade Leaders Program
On Thursday, we broke the news that OANDA reported that it will be ceasing operations of its social trading solution, Trade Leaders Program. The broker joined the social trading arena in September 2013 after acquiring Currensee, a specialist social trading solution provider.
The firm officially informed the people involved in the program, which according to its website are sixteen trade leaders with 3,737 investors. The broker’s note stated: “Today, we have notified all participating parties that on October 31, 2014, Currensee and the OANDA Trade Leaders Program (OTLP) will cease operation.” Regulators in different markets around the world have started to take notice of the legality issues arising out of social trading recently and that it might have let the broker drop its offering.
MMCIS Reacts to Allegations by Limiting Withdrawals
Following the previous week's 'Information War' on the Ukrainian broker, the Maltese Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a public warning on Monday regarding ‘Forex MMCIS Group,’ saying the broker is “not licensed nor awaiting to be licensed by the MFSA, to provide any type of financial service including foreign exchange.”
On Tuesday, the newly elected president of the company, Roman Komysa, signed and issued an emergency anti-crisis program in order to “stabilize the company under a raider attack and eliminate panic due to external factors.” As part of the crisis management plan, MMCIS limited clients' withdrawals of their own money and hired moderators to censor online forums. One of our commenters thinks the problems arose from spending too much money on advertising and provided examples from the ground.
Armada Markets Reports Record Trading Volume
Despite the record low volatility during the first 6 months of 2014, Armada Markets reported a solid net profit of €0.87 million for the H1 2014 period on Wednesday. Following the recent pick up of volatility in FX, the broker also reported today a record monthly trading volume for September of $20.5 billion, which is a growth of almost 100% YoY compared to September 2013.
Armada Markets additionally claims that during 2014 the company has continued to grow rapidly in terms of client numbers, but did not provide any figures. This announcement followed the recent first-ever net loss of rival Estonian broker, Admiral Markets Group, which was a very popular story the previous week, and lead to a lively debate by our readers who questioned the low profitability of Armada for the reported volume.
Francois Nembrini Joins LCG as Head of Sales and Trading
Francois Nembrini, Global Head of Sales, LCG
On Monday we reported that after a period of resignations and workforce contractions at London Capital Group, following ownership and management changes at the broker, the LCG exodus ends as Francois Nembrini is joining the firm to become its new Global Head of Sales and Trading.
Previously working at FXCM (NYSE: FXCM), Nembrini had been with the broker since 2002 and most recently held the position of Global Head of Sales at FXCMPro. Nembrini is also the Founder of gamified trading app provider TopTradr.
Spotware Partners with GAIN to Offer CFDs on cTrader
Spotware Systems announced on Wednesday that they have introduced their first CFD liquidity provider, American giant GAIN Capital, to provide CFDs to users of its flagship Trading Platform , cTrader.
Brokers using cTrader will now be able to offer their customers prices on sixteen cash index CFDs, and the platform provider says there are already plans to expand the range to Equity and Futures CFDs. Our readers questioned how this was possible following Spotware's previous statements on CFDs.
