Japanese clients are increasingly keen on trading Chinese equity indices in recent weeks, as the leading retail foreign exchange brokerage GMO Click published its CFD trading statistics for April. Traders have preferred trading the Hang Seng and the Chinese Shanghai A50 Index to gold last month.
The top three spots have consistently been reserved for the Japanese Nikkei 225 index, crude oil, which has been gaining traction for the past 12 months and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).
As Chinese equities continued their bull run Japanese traders have turned their attention to those
While in March the fourth spot was held by gold, in April, as Chinese equities continued their bull run, traders turned their attention to those. The CFDs which GMO Click offers on Chinese Stocks are the Hang Seng and the Shanghai A50 indices. Both have surpassed their previously held positions to occupy 4th and 5th spot amongst the most traded CFDs contracts.
The remaining stats are associated with a rather typical mix of products including the German Dax index, the other two major U.S. equity indices S&P 500 and NASDAQ.
CFDs have consistently been growing in popularity amongst retail investors in recent years. Brokers who have been delivering a more diversified product mix have managed to weather the low Volatility storm which persisted throughout the foreign exchange industry in the latter part of 2013 until about September 2014.
With volatility across different asset classes being cyclical in its nature, the majority of foreign exchange brokers have diversified away from Forex into indices, commodities, futures, shares, etc. Depending on the region, the preferences of traders vary - Southeast Asia and the Middle East are known for their affinity to trade gold, while traders in Europe enjoy indices and commodities.
