We just released the rankings for the top currencies performance against the US dollar for December.

Except for the Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and Euro, the top seventeen of the world's currencies gained against the US dollar.

The South African Rand gained 4.59% on the dollar in December and jumped from 16th place to the top spot in the currency rankings. The Australian dollar also made a 4.50% gain and moved from 14th place to second.

The Indian rupee continued to fall.

See the December rankings.

We just released the November rankings for the top currencies performance against the US dollar for November.

Every one of the world's top 16 currencies fell against the dollar. The Asian currencies did the best, if you consider losing less ground is best. The Hong Kong dollar made the most significant gains. While only losing -0.33% in its value to the dollar it jumped from the number 15th ranked currency to the number 1 currency vs. the US dollar.

See the November rankings.

We just released the October rankings for the top currencies performance against the US dollar for October.

The dollar didn't do so well last month. Every currency, except the Indian rupee, gained against it. The Australian dollar made the most significant gains (6.88%) while the Brazilian real enjoyed the biggest change in rank from last (in September) to second (in October).

See the October rankings.

I just released the Top 10 CTAs report for April.  If you're not familiar with the report, it identifies the top 10 account management firms in the world and their return on revenue for their last reporting month as well as year-to-date.  The report is divided into two sections, listing the top ten CTAs managing more than $10 million and the top ten managing less than $10 million.

Wealth Builder FX, a Hong Kong-based CTA, is outdistancing everyone in the field.  Although their return on investment for April was only 3.0%, their YTD numbers are an impressive 40.27%.  Most of that due to the fact that they returned 26.0% in March.  Wealth Builder has managed to achieve these numbers while only risking 1%-2% of any client's account at any one time and never using more than 3-to-1 leverage.

The company manages a little over $5.1 million in their Forex investment program with a minimum investment of $50,000. 

Like Niche Players, Early Risers are relatively new to the Forex game. Typically these are companies that also rank lower on the maturity scale, but which tend to provide a greater range of services than Niche Players. They may not have a significant customer base yet however, they are positioned for long-term success through the depth of service they provide.

These companies are generally very well funded and, in a lot of cases, may be subsidiaries of larger, more substantial financial institutions. For example, national banks, which historically have had foreign currency exchange departments serving institutional customers, are beginning to dip their toes in retail Forex waters. Since national banks are not brokers or CTAs however, they are not subject to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulations.  They are governed by the regulations of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

CitiFX Pro is an example of a national bank launching a retail Forex business. CitiPro's retail Forex business is a part of Citi Foreign Exchange, which is housed by the Fixed Income Division of Citi Markets & Banking. The legal entity for CitiPro's business is Citibank, NA.   The bank servicesa very broad range of institutional clients, including real moneymanagers, hedge funds, corporations and other banks.  The CitiFX Proplatform now gives Citibank the ability to service the retail Forex space as well. They are rolling CitiFX Pro out globally as a retail Forex business.  A cursory review of their website reveals that CitiFX Pro is a potential Niche Player (or Maven, which I'll talk about tomorrow) offering trading, but little in the way of ancillary services.

An example of a more traditional Early Riser, providing trading, training, analysis, and other services to a retail client-base, might be TradeView FX. The company, founded in 2007 as a division of the Rosenthal Collins Group, is now a division of IKON Global Markets.  They are experiencing a meteoric rise in the Forex world due to smart marketing, excellent partner programs, and an experienced staff.  Still, TradeView is lower on the Level of Maturity scale, even though it is high on the Range of Services scale; placing it perfectly in the Early Riser sector of our DataInsight Market Profile.

Tomorrow, what is a Maven?