TradeStation Begins 'Wide-Range Expansion' into Asia with Long-Promised Korea launch

The Japa

nese MONEX Group has just announced the launching of the TradeStation 9.5 platform in Korea, in partnership with Seoul-based, Shinhan Investment Corp., as a first step in its seemingly slow expansion of the TradeStation brand into the fast-growing Asian financial markets.

The TradeStation platform is a product of the Florida-based online multi-asset broker bearing the same name. The MONEX Group acquired the TradeStation Group, comprised of TradeStation Securities and TradeStation Technologies, Inc., in April 2011, in order to gain a foothold in the U.S market. It now offers the platform through these principal operating subsidiaries and IBFX, Inc., also known as TradeStation Forex .

As Forex Magnates reported early this year, TradeStation and Shinhan entered into a strategic alliance granting Shinhan the exclusive rights to the Korean financial market already in November 2013. This means it took the developers over six months to translate the platform into the Korean language, make it compatible with the Korea Exchange's equities and futures markets, and connect it to Shinhan order placement and back-office systems.

Salomon Sredni, CEO of TradeStation Group, Inc. and COO of Monex Group, claimed at the announcement that the official launch of TradeStation in Korea now marks the beginning of a wide-range expansion into the Asian financial markets. He said: “Given the size and active nature of the Korean trading market, we judged Korea to be a desirable spot to attempt the first local integration for TradeStation. We expect to launch the system in Japan, hopefully early next year, and similar discussions are ongoing in China.”

However, this Asian expansion seems to be moving at a very slow pace, as the Japanese version of TradeStation was redeveloped in January, which means it won't be adopted by a broker for a full year even in Monex's home market of Japan. Mr. Sredni commented on the difficulties: “Our greatest challenge is to pick the ideal partner to help us achieve seamless integration of our trading technology and services in each local market. Our alliance with Shinhan marks the culmination of this process in Korea, and we look forward to forging similar alliances as we continue to expand our presence in the Asian markets.”

The Shinhan Investment Corp. is a leading provider of brokerage and investment banking services in Korea, and according to the agreement with Monex TradeStation will be the only premium platform offered by Shinhan. Mr. Sredni commented on the partnership: “We picked Shinhan, among many other candidates, because of the company’s combination of excellent customer service and agile Risk Management capacity.”

“We are very excited to be able to offer TradeStation to the Korean market,” said Dae Suk Kang, CEO of Shinhan Investment Corp. “There is clearly nothing else like it in Korea, and we believe that serious, active and professional online investors and traders in our markets will appreciate the power, leverage and benefits using TradeStation will bring them.”