The Japanese operation of Saxo Bank has introduced fractional stock index contracts for differences (CFDs) trading, thus lowering the trading barrier for retail traders.
Announced earlier this week, the broker lowered the minimum trading unit of the stock index CFDs from 1 to 0.1 or 0.01, which depends on the trading instrument. The platform offers more than 20 stock index CFDs to traders.
“Until now, the minimum trading unit for the US N100 stock index was 1, so a minimum of 176,951 yen was required for trading. However, since the minimum trading unit has been changed to 0.01, it is now possible to trade from 1,770 yen,” the broker explained.
Lowering the Trading Barrier
CFDs are complex derivatives instruments but allow traders to take positions in both bull and bear markets. These instruments are popular among short-term traders rather than long-term investors.
Saxo Bank is a Denmark-headquartered offering online trading services. Its services are available across Europe and several countries in the Asia Pacific.
The introduction of fractional trading with stock index CFDs in the Japanese market came months after the broker introduced the same in the other markets.
“Since the number of trading units has decreased at once, it has become easier to trade,” Koji Yamanaka, the CEO of Ascendant, highlighted.
Japan is a major market when it comes to retail trading . But, the market is dominated by local brokerages with the presence of a small number of global brands. Meanwhile, the Japanese arm of Saxo Bank is ending its support for MetaTrader 4, a popular trading platform for trading forex and CFDs, next month.
Furthermore, Saxo Bank onboarded several key executives in recent months to strengthen its operations. Among the new appointments is Mette Skou as Global Head of Business Partnering and Ronni Bollerup Butler as Head of Electronic Trading.
