Hong Kong is one of the most business-friendly countries in the world. Low personal income tax along with low corporate tax makes it an appealing proposition for companies looking to set up a financial service, or broker business there. English is widely spoken given its colonial past and the time zone of GMT +8 happens to fall between London and New York, the biggest financial centers in the world.
Topics: Thought Leadership, Institutional Trader
It is hard enough to produce a solid track record and to generate consistent profits as an FX trader, so why make it harder on yourself?
It’s my opinion that, for a long time, FX industry regulations were grossly inadequate, as the regulators seemed unprepared to protect its most vulnerable segment, the retail trader. When a novice trader opens a retail brokerage account, most, but not all, are unaware that their broker is on the other side of the trade and therefore 100% against them.
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Forex B2B, Crypto Currency, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
While crypto is starting to be a regular subject of discussion even amongst non crypto believers, the increased demand and interest in cryptocurrencies requires more computer power to verify transactions on the blockchain. Therefore an increasing need in crypto mining farms. But what is Crypto Mining and what challenges are in front of us ?
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Forex B2B, Crypto Currency, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker, Bitcoin
A Payment Processor is a company that acts as a kind of mediator between the bank and the merchant, in a transaction. The payment ecosystem is complex with different terms and processes to get used to. Today I’m going to discuss various terms used in the online payments and a simple guide to the entire payment process.
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Forex B2B, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker, Payment Gateway
The Archegos story sounds awfully familiar to anyone in the financial industry.
A well-educated Wall Street professional who started a career at a traditional financial corporation, networked, moved on to launch their own hedge fund, made mistakes (insider trading), paid fines to the SEC (44mln) in 2012, banned by MMT from trading in HK for 4 years in 2014 (insider trading), and restarted afresh with a new company (Family Office) that didn’t have the limitations of the previous company (contrary to a hedge fund, family offices are not required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and file regular reports). Not to mention, founded and run a charitable organization that reported almost $500 mln in assets on 2018 tax forms.
Topics: Thought Leadership, Institutional Trader
Coinbase Background
Coinbase Global, Inc., known as Coinbase, is an American company that offers a cryptocurrency exchange platform and operates remotely - the first company of its kind without an official, physical headquarters. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam from a $150K start up incubator.
As of March 2021, Coinbase was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume and has almost 43 million verified users. (almost 4 times that of Robinhood).
Topics: Traders, Industry Trends, Thought Leadership, Forex B2B, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker, Coinbase
Banking and payment solutions for regulated FX Brokers are usually straightforward. I say "usually" as even FX brokers with recognized licenses can have a hard time finding suitable options in today's era of strict bank policies. Entry-level offshore FX brokers from St. Vincent, Marshall Islands and etc. are quite limited in how they can process incoming and outgoing payments, deposits and withdrawals.
This article will cover the most common payment solutions available for offshore FX Brokers as well as shed some light on what can be expected\ with each.
Topics: Thought Leadership, Institutional Trader, Automatic Trading, FX Arbitrage
The upending of our normal daily lives by the Covid-19 virus has removed our ability to interact with industry colleagues during industry events and to share and debate our viewpoints. While the majority of us are staying at home during this pandemic, to help stop the spread of the virus, some event organizers have made changes to their schedules and have moved events into an online format. Are you perhaps curious as to which events to head to when the international quarantine is lifted and borders are reopened?
Check out this list of 2020 FX industry events compiled by Advanced Markets' research team with a daily re-check and update!
Topics: Thought Leadership, FX Event List
Over the years, I’ve seen it all, the good, the bad and the ugly. I have tried to always keep my clients informed and have helped guide them along the way.
There have been a variety of responses, but in the end, my client knows that I am here to help and that I have their interests at heart. As far as new fund managers go, the reoccurring noticeable mistakes I have witnessed would be (in no particular order):
Topics: Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Leverage, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
Advanced Markets is a company focused on bringing true Direct Market Access (DMA) liquidity, credit and technology solutions to the foreign exchange, energy, precious metals and CFD markets. Our firm has put together an international team of FX experts who are located all over the world. Our marketing team asked key members of this team to tell us a little more about their individual roles and responsibilities, the clients that the firm is servicing and their thoughts on how Advanced Markets is adapting to the fast changing FX landscape.
Topics: Traders, FX Liquidity, Platforms & Technology, Company, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex Marketing, Wholesale FX, FX Technology Provider, FX Liquidity Provider, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
Recently at an FX conference, a developing fund manager and I crossed paths. After a few polite introductions, I quickly realized that, based on his audited returns, the new fund manager was proficient in trading the FX market. The detailed description of the fund’s fundamental and technical trading strategies was welcoming to hear.
After a few routine questions from the prospective client, the topic promptly turned to spreads and liquidity (my favorite). The fund manager was comparing pricing between FX brokers and asked why spreads are so contrasting amidst all of the firms in question.
Topics: FX Liquidity, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, Regulation, Wholesale FX, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
2018 was a challenging year for retail FX brokerages with many of them being sold over the counter and others struggling to implement the new rules mandated by regulators.
What we can say is that 2018 was first and foremost a year of new regulation. Legal teams have been working hard to structure businesses differently and/or adapt to the new rules. Quiet contrary to the goals of the regulators’ goals, offshore is once more becoming the broker’s common strategy, especially to continue to offer high leverage to retail clients.
Topics: Traders, Industry Trends, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, Forex B2B, Regulation, MiFID, MiFID2, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
As with most businesses, the operation of a Retail FX Brokerage involves a lot of moving parts that must be synced together to create an efficient and viable business.
These would include Legal (KYC, trading agreements, dispute management, regulatory reporting), Trading Platform Administration and Management, Liquidity and Risk Management Provisions, IB Management, Client Support, and, of course, Sales and Marketing.
Topics: Thought Leadership, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex Marketing, Know Your Client (KYC)
I thought it would be useful to compile a short list of the main differences found when trading OTC (over-the-counter) FX with an STP (Straight Through Processing / No Dealing Desk) “Prime of Prime” and a Retail brokerage.
The differences can be categorized as follows:
- Vetting / OnboardingTopics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, Forex B2B, STP, Wholesale FX, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
From social media strategy to content creation, what are the steps to take to reach the 1.4 billion-people Chinese market?
Penguin Intelligence, a research agency subsidy of Tencent, recently reported that as of Q4 2016, there were 889 million active users monthly. People are spending, on average, 66 minutes each day on WeChat with 57.22% of new WeChat contacts added for work-related matters and 6.04% service providers. Over 80% of users used WeChat group for work-related purposes with WeChat group becoming an important venue for business communications.
These statistics clearly indicate that WeChat is the potentially the most powerful platform through which to reach new leads and clients for your business.
Topics: Company, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, Forex B2B, Forex Marketing, Know Your Client (KYC)
The MetaTrader 4 Bridge is one of the most popular add-ons for MT4 Servers. It was created in early 2000 and, ever since then, there have been many rumors as to who actually developed the first commercial version (of course, many industry veterans know the name).
MetaTrader 5 bridges are now beginning to emerge, and the speed of their development is directly correlated with the very recent growth in MT5 adoption rates.
Topics: Traders, Platforms & Technology, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, MT5, MT4, MetaTrader, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
In 2016, we have seen some incredible market dislocation due to various global events (BREXIT, US Elections, OPEC, GBP Flash Crash, FOMC to name a few).
Having experienced my fair share of these moves, I find myself in a unique position to be able to speak with a diverse group of market participants, ranging from Fund Managers to Hedge Funds and individual traders, each of them trying to successfully navigate through these turbulent markets.
Recently, I have found myself in conversations with seasoned industry veterans who asked for my advice on what I thought would be the next shoe to drop?
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Algo Trading, Manual Trading, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
There are many Forex terms a FX Professional have to know to do a great job and to be successful. In order to help Brokers and Traders to get to know the basics of the FX industry, the Advanced Markets Team created this glossary.
Discover the Advanced Markets FX dictionary here and feel free to contact us if you want us to add further terms!
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
Major market events are generally accompanied by periods of massive uncertainty, volatility and downright fear. It doesn’t matter whether these events are expected, like the Brexit vote, or unexpected like the SNB move last year, the outcome is the same. Many market participants have a few options on how to survive the dislocation. Fear of the unknown creeps into every financial exchange, instability reigns and price action is violent. These events has the potential to affect every trader, brokerage and bank for days, weeks and even years depending upon their severity and the resulting market fallout. Below, I will outline a few possible risk/reward strategies along with how to attempt to control the uncontrollable.
Topics: Industry Trends, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage
More times than not, an interested client inquiring about liquidity will ask the quintessential question, “What is Advanced Markets’ spread in EURUSD?” My standard, truthful response is always that, “the spread is dependent upon market conditions, as Advanced Markets is a true STP Prime of Prime and only provides aggregated liquidity from top tier, global banks. With that being said, EURUSD spread should normally sit within an average range of 0.3-0.5 given our ability to provide very deep liquidity due to our favorable bank relations”. Generally, when someone asks me this question, I will always follow up by mentioning our GOLD offering. In my opinion, Gold has the potential to offer a prospective brokerage (or Fund Manager) more than the EURUSD spread can when looking at future revenues. Many people look at the EURUSD first due to the fact that many brokers aggressively market their “tight” EURUSD spread in order to attract clients and get them in the door. Once they have them in, however, they tend to pile on the mark-ups across the other pairs in their offering.
Topics: Thought Leadership, Brokerage, Gold
This article originally appeared on Finance Magnates.
I have worked in the FX industry for the past 16 years but I believe that 2015 will stand out most as the year when the market was taught a very valuable lesson. When I look back upon this year, I can’t help feeling that, by applying a simple life principle, many of 2015’s pitfalls might have been avoided.
Topics: Thought Leadership
FIX (Financial Information Exchange) API (application programming interface) is a highly scalable electronic communication protocol to facilitate the real-time exchange of information related to financial markets. It has become the de facto standard method of pre-trade, trade and post-trade communication. Market participants including banks, hedge funds, prime brokers and “prime of primes” utilize FIX for their own trading needs or to connect directly to clients.
To give you an indication as to how popular FIX is: the FIX Trader Community has around 110 000 registered members and 275 corporate members (including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and so on).
Topics: Platforms & Technology, Thought Leadership, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, FX Technology Provider, FX Liquidity Provider, FIX API, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
Having just returned from the recent B2B Expo in London and the Money Fair in Shanghai we are now looking back and are discussing the merits of attending these B2B and B2C FX industry events. Unless your budget allows you the freedom to attend all events, it’s prudent to prioritize and to choose those that will best benefit your business.
Topics: Thought Leadership
New electronic solutions for FX block trading are emerging as this last bastion of voice trading is being reshaped by increased regulatory capital requirements, tighter internal credit standards and fallout from the fixing quagmire.
This article discusses the Full Order Execution (FOX) block trading mechanism offered by Advanced Markets, which operates a low latency, direct market access (DMA) liquidity pool in which liquidity is streamed by 10 leading FX banks.
Topics: Industry Trends, Thought Leadership, Block Trading, Wholesale FX, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
Over the past few years the traditional FX Prime Broker industry has been thinning out, creating a demand for the types of services they provided. The loss of the institutional big bank Prime Brokerage services has occurred due to credit risk, small profit margin, risk aversion and new regulation. This reaction by those larger prime brokers has been clearing the way for specialized FX Prime of Prime (PoP) firms to gain market share. A Prime of Prime brokerage is a one stop shop for retail brokerages, hedge funds, money managers and wholesale traders to access top tiered global bank liquidity, cutting edge technology, cost effective rollover rates and clearing services.
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Prime of Prime, Brokerage, FX Liquidity Provider, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
On January 15, 2015, the SNB (Swiss National Bank) caused a massive upheaval in the FX industry when they manipulated the exchange rate of the franc and unpegged their currency against the euro.
This action threw the markets into complete panic, ultimately producing capitulation with the CHF pairs and creating catastrophic losses throughout the industry. Market participants were affected across the entire spectrum, all the way from the top tiered global banks down to individual investors.
The large banks and market makers were able to absorb the losses (or major gains if B Book), but the smaller, more vulnerable, participants could not.
Some brokerages were forced to close their doors due to negative balances as a result of the losses sustained from their client’s positions. A multitude of firms such as Alpari UK, Boston Prime, Excel Markets and Liquid Markets became insolvent, just to name a few.
Topics: Traders, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker
Our team has a combined 100 years plus experience in institutional FX and prime brokerage fields. We use that experience and proven insights to work with FX brokerages and asset managers to enhance their offerings and achieve better operational efficiencies. At Advanced Markets and Fortex our focus will remain on helping you to solve complex problems and grow your business by leveraging superior Fortex technology and best of breed liquidity from Advanced Markets.
Topics: Traders, Company, Thought Leadership, Prime of Prime, Brokerage
Notice Advanced Markets LTD holds Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) 444649 and only provides services to clients who meet the definition of ‘wholesale’ client under the Corporations Act 2001. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will not extend investor protections to clients receiving financial services outside of Australia. Please be aware that off-exchange foreign currency transactions carry a high degree of risk and are not suitable for many investors.
*Note: Advanced Markets does not accept any Non-ECP U.S. Accounts