Forex Trading Volume Drops for First Time Since 2009

NEW YORK—Global foreign-exchange trading volume dropped for the first time since the financial crisis, according to data released Monday by four major central banks.

Average daily trading volume in October totaled $3.470 trillion in North America, the U.K., Singapore and Australia, which combined account for most of the world's foreign-exchange activity. That is down from $3.474 trillion in April, according to reports from central banks in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Singapore. It was the first sequential drop in the semiannual survey since April 2009, though volume was still up 15% from a year earlier.

Read the full story at WSJ.

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Forex News Alerts On Forexturtle

We have added a 'News' feature to Forexturtle. The pages are updated every hour with current news and opinion on what's happening in the Forex world.

From the Euro Zone to Asia Pacific, we are providing links to the most current relevant Forex news and commentary.

We've organized our news content into several categories including Euro Zone, European Central Bank, Asia Pacific, US Dollar, and Forex Company news. We've also added a section for 'Movers & Shakers', devoted to keeping an eye on the leaders who are shaping the world's economy.

Our section on 'Currencies' also presents information from diverse sources affecting each of the major currencies.

As always, you can do your own custom news search on each of our news pages. Just enter your criteria in the 'search' bar and get video, blog, and news matching your search criteria.

We will be adding more categories over the next couple of weeks, so come back often to check our progress.

Check out our 'News' feature.

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MIG Bank Trading Grand Prix

MIG BANK has announced the official opening of registration for the 3rd MIG Trading Grand Prix!

As always, the MIG Trading Grand Prix has plenty of prizes and rewards for those who trade well. Register now for your chance to win:

1st Prize:
All expenses paid trip for 2 persons to the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix, including paddock club access and hotel accommodation for the weekend!

2nd Prize:
A signed replica handmade scale model of the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One car

3rd Prize:
A signed Michael Schumacher racing helmet

In addition, the top 10 winners will receive official MIG BANK - Mercedes GP Petronas partnership Caps!

To open a demo trading account and to automatically enter the competition for a chance to win the fantastic prizes from MIG BANK, please click here to be taken to the registration page.

With thousands of participants taking part in 2009 and 2010, 2011 is gearing up to be the biggest trading championship ever - and MIG BANK is proud to announce that registration is now open.

Last year's winner, Mr. Wei Zhang received the MIG BANK star prize to watch the Shanghai Grand Prix from the comfort of the exclusive paddock club. Mr. Wei Zhang positively traded a demo account from the initial $100,000 to over $3million! Mr. Wei Zhang traded confidently, weighed risk and made secure, informed transactions resulting in a strong and consistent trading portfolio history.

What can you expect in 2011?
If 2010 is anything to go by: competition, determination, fuelled excitement and a photo finish as the competitors cross the line - right up to the final trades!

It certainly won't be easy. The research and trading commitment for 1 month will be tense and active from the very first corner. And as always, MIG BANK wants to see consistent, secure trading with long term strategies to ensure the best results... and ultimately the MIG BANK star prize!

Register now for the MIG Trading Grand Prix!

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Posted on September 16, 2011 19:08 by Tom Herod
Tags: mig, forex, contest
Categories: Announcements | Forex Trading
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Forex Brokers Can't Be That Stupid, But Some Think You Are!

The difference between being "regulated", "licensed", and "something else..."

Yesterday, I was entering a new (unidentified) company in our Forex brokers database. Their website was professionally designed and the company offered commission-freetrading on more than 100 currency pairs with spreads as low as 0.5 pips on the MetaTrader4 platform.

VERY NICE!

They have seven (7) offices with very impressive addresses around the world in cities like Vienna, London, New York, Chicago, Mumbai, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg.

IMPRESSIVE!

You can open an account with them for as little as $200 USD and even get a special-purpose personal loan for up to 200% of your deposit amount.

UH-OH, RED FLAG!

Did I read that right? A special purpose loan? I know about trading on margin but I've never heard of getting a personal loan from a broker to trade Forex. Maybe they just used unusual phrasing to describe margin trading. I had to check into this a little further.

I decided to investigate their regulatory status and they listed the ICC. I googled "ICC" and found the ICCInternet Chess Club, ICC IllinoisCentral College, ICC InternationalCricket Council, and finally the ICC International Chamber of Commerce. Oh! Heavens to murgatroid! The company's only certification of their legitimacy was registration with the International Chamber of Commerce.

RED FLAG #2!

Well, that was very laudable for the company to voluntarily register with the International Chamber of Commerce. The ICC "is the voice of world business championing the globaleconomy as a force for economic growth, job creation and prosperity", but the ICC is NOT a regulatory authority and provides no trader protection.

I had to dig a little deeper so I called their New York office. No answer. I thought it might have been a little late in the day so I called their Chicago office. After six rings I got a recording with a British accent requesting that I leave a message.

I HAD ENOUGH!

There are many international Forex companies adept at giving the appearance of being a professional brokerage with all the trappings of financial success including registration with a sanctioned regulatory authority. However, while the named body may be completely authentic, it might not be a "regulatory" agency with a public or governmental mandate for financial oversight. A true regulator is responsible for overseeing the behavior, services and products of a company in the financial services sector and has the power to fine, enforce punitive actions or even stop a firm from trading by removing its license.

Being licensed is different from being registered with a regulatory authority. While a Forex broker's license might provide you some degree of comfort, you still have little or no protection compared to trading with a properly regulated firm. A license can be obtained if a firm meets the criteria for operation and agrees to follow a code of conduct. In the UK, for example, the body that grants licenses is HM Revenue& Customs, while the regulatory body is the Financial Services Authority (FSA). In the U.S. their counterparts are the National FuturesAssociation (NFA) and Commodity FuturesTrading Commission (CFTC).

A licensing body doesn't perform the same administrative functions as a regulator, nor does it have the same enforcement powers. Failure to comply with licensing rules or operating code could result in a license being revoked and stopping the firm from trading. But a licensing body has little or no power to arbitrate a dispute you might have with your broker.

A regulatory authority, however, can not only investigate and take action in a broker-trader dispute, but can even intervene when trading practices need to be changed; even if those practices are not deemed illegal, just not in the best interest of the trader. A regulator can protect a trader against poor practices which, while not in violation of any license code, may still be deemed as otherwise unfair.

With such wide diversity in regulatory oversight between regulatory authorities around the world, it is incumbent upon anyone considering trading Forex to check the agency with which their chosen broker is registered. If you are trading with a broker in a country where the company is not registered, you are NOT protected. Take a look at how GAIN Capital protects itself and its traders by employinga regulatory umbrella where they do business. This is why we are changing our company profiles to include the broker's regulatory registration data.

Make sure to check our list of International Regulatory Authorities to verify with which agency your broker should be registered.

By the way, I will still probably put that company, with its seven websites, into my database because that's what I do. I make the information available and I don't pass judgment. That's your job, but please be diligent.

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