Broker News

Industry figures indicate that there is an ongoing fight among brokers attempting to survive what is fast shaping up to be a Forex bubble. In the Eurozone, there is an over-saturation of brokers, partially caused by the ease with which it's possible to get regulated in areas like Cyprus, and in the U.S. because of the NFA's regulation (some might say the over-regulation) of the trading environment there is a strong need for brokers to seek out creative and alternative solutions to increase their customer base. Some brokers have relied on new technologies or products to draw in new customers, while other brokers have been forced to streamline their operations or reduce their offerings to improve their bottom line. Many believe that the answer to brokers' success will lie not in expanding their product offerings and services, but by expanding their geographic borders. What's left to consider outside of the Eurozone and the U.S. is South America, Asia and Africa, all of which represent great opportunities for Forex brokers, but clearly they will not come easy.

The Forex industry is abuzz with talk that former iForex before making the decision to start his own brokerage.

Early last week, Swissquote, which acquired AC Markets (Advanced Currency Markets SA), announced that it would be expanding its reach into Europe by opening up an office in Malta. According to the Board Chairman, Marc B?¼rki, their decision to branch into Europe came as a result of a huge demand from European traders who wanted to trade FX with them, but were previously unable to do so.

Earlier this month Metaquotes Software made some improvements to the MetaTrader 5 platform, aka the MT5, which added the Trading Signals service to the platform. Now, Metaquotes has done the same for the brokers and end users of the much more broadly used MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform as well. Many of the largest brokers, including AVAFX, FXCM, Markets.com and Easy-Forex, provide the MT4 platform for their clients. MT4 allows forex brokers to give their clients live streaming prices and access to charts, as well as the ability to place orders and manage their trading account.

At long last, Americans go to the polls and decide who will be the Commander and Chief for the next four years. While there are other names listed on the ballot the two key contenders for President of the United States are the incumbent, Democratic Barack Obama, and the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. Polls are calling it a very, very tight race and financial market participants are as eager as any for the election to be over as the uncertainty has cast a decided pall over the globe's economic outlook. What the future may hold for the various financial markets naturally depends on the election outcome.

Forex.com, the retail trading division of GAIN Capital, has announced recently the launch of a new platform for CFD trading, appropriately named TRADE. The platform was designed to provide instant execution with low fixed spreads for hundreds of tradable assets, including Forex pairs, commodities and indices. With this platform, traders should have a familiar certainty about the price before executing every trade.

USD and the currency markets in general? How will it continue to affect them?

When it comes to Forex broker regulations, there are two polar extremes. On one end is the NFA and CFTC that make it nearly impossible for US Forex brokers to become regulated without paying through the nose for regulatory fees and restricting their Forex trading conditions to protect traders from devastating losses (though some would argue that it also prevents US retail Forex traders from earning substantial profits). On the other end of the spectrum are brokers such as SunbirdFX that accept traders without any regulation at all.