GAIN Capital, a global provider of online trading services, today announced the addition of nine new currency pairs and six equity index CFDs to its FOREX.com product offering. The new available currency pairs include Eastern European pairs including the Polish Zloty (USD/PLN, EUR/PLN), Czech Republic Koruna, (USD/CZK, EUR/CZK), Hungarian Forint (USD/HUF, EUR/HUF) and Turkish Lira (USD/TRY, EUR/TRY.)  In addition, the South African Rand/Japanese Yen cross (ZAR/JPY) is now offered, a currency pair popular among carry traders. FOREX.com also added six new CFDs on popular global equity indices, allowing clients to take long  or short positions on broad stock markets in Australia (AUS200), Japan (JPN225), Hong Kong (HK40), USA (US30 and NAS 100) and Europe (ESTX50).

“Today’s product expansion marks another milestone in our commitment to providing our clients access to the most widely traded global markets, including forex, stock  indices, or commodities.  As part of this commitment we are constantly looking at ways to enhance and expand our product and service offering,” said Glenn Stevens, CEO, GAIN Capital.  Clients of FOREX.com can now trade 48 currency pairs, ten equity index CFDs,  plus gold, silver, and oil CFDs.

GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. is a global provider of online trading services, specializing in foreign exchange (forex or FX) and contracts for difference (CFDs). Customers and trading partners in more than 140 countries have utilized the company’s award-winning trading platform which transacts nearly $250 billion per month. A pioneer in online forex trading, GAIN Capital operates FOREX.com, one of the largest and best-known brands in the retail forex industry.  It also provides execution, clearing, custody and technology products and services to an institutional client base including asset managers, broker/dealers and other financial services firms. GAIN’s investor group includes private equity firms 3i, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures, Edison Venture Fund and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.

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Risk Management is essential to your CFD trading success. Jeff Cartridge from http://www.learncfds.com will share with you his simple formula for controlling risk when trading CFDs.

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Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will publish new rules regulating derivatives within a month, forcing investors to disclose the building of  stakes in companies  using such instruments. The new rules will govern so-called contracts for difference, which enable investors to bet that a share price will rise or fall without owning  any of the stock. Investors can agree at a later date to acquire the underlying shares from their CFD providers.

“We expect to have legislation on the matter published within the next four weeks,” a spokesman for the Dublin-based Finance Ministry said, without giving any details. Last year, the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority said it would bring forward the introduction of new rules which required long positions which use CFDs to be made public when holdings reach 3 percent.

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Tracking SmartStream has announced that CMC Markets, a financial spread betting, CFD  trading and FX trading company, has gone live on TLM OnDemand, SmartStream’s SaaS reconciliation service. To further enhance its operational efficiency and client service, CMC Markets selected SmartStream’s TLM OnDemand that offers the market leading reconciliations functionality as fully managed service. Further, the implementation program offered by the service would enable the firm to benefit from automated transaction processing that lowers exceptions and improves operational efficiency. After a short period of internal testing, TLM OnDemand in now live at CMC Markets processing the firm’s cash transactions.

Colleen Bohm, finance systems manager at CMC Markets, said: “TLM OnDemand was attractive because it introduces automated transaction processing with proven technology that will enable us to improve efficiency and lower costs. It is testament to the collaborative effort between CMC Markets and SmartStream that we have, in a short period of time, managed to install, test and go live with an entirely new solution for our back office environment.”

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The LSE (London Stock Exchange) yesterday announced that it was extending its UnaVista business service to the swaps market, automating  the trading of contracts for differences and other security derivatives and allowing brokers, hedge funds and prime brokers to communicate and match data through a central, secure, audited platform. It is understood that the new service is being tested by a number of hedge funds, prime brokers and executing brokers.

Mark Husler, Head of Information Services Business Development at London Stock Exchange Group, said: “For the first time UnaVista is now available for Swaps, helping our customers to streamline trade processing. The new Swaps Portal from UnaVista avoids the need for time-intensive, manual processes such as emails and faxes. It allows both small and large firms alike to connect in a cost-efficient manner, and provides the functionality to match trades and resolve exceptions on trade date.”

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Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released a new guide that aims to provide retail investors with clear, independent advice on how contracts for difference (CFDs) work and the significant risks that can be involved in CFD trading.

The “Thinking of Trading Contracts for Difference?” guide explains why retail investors should consider trading CFDs only if they have extensive trading experience or are used to trading in volatile market conditions and can afford to lose all of, or more than, the money they put in.

“Our research with CFD traders found that many traders don’t know or don’t appreciate key aspects of how CFDs work, despite the fact that they are actively trading them,” ASIC commissioner Greg Medcraft said. “This  guide aims to  fill some of these knowledge gaps, especially around the trading risks.” Medcraft said retail investors who use the guide will be able to make more informed decisions as to whether CFD trading is for them. According to ASIC, the guide includes explanations around how CFDs work, including how trading CFDs differs from investing in shares and the questions that a retail  investor should ask a provider before they agree to trade in CFDs. It also explains the different CFD provider business models, including differences between over-the-counter and exchange-traded CFDs, and common traps to avoid.

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ASIC has turned its attention to over-the-counter contracts for difference (CFDs), and is calling for improved product disclosure to help retail investors understand the highly leveraged derivative products they trade. The corporate regulator released a Consultation Paper, including a draft regulatory guide which proposes an ASIC benchmark-based disclosure model for CFDs. According to the paper, CFD providers will need to provide PDSs and ongoing disclosures that require them to address the benchmarks on an “if not, why not”  basis. ASIC’s model will address four aspects impacting investors: ensuring client suitability, disclosing counterparty-risk, stewardship of client monies and practices where issuers make margin calls on clients.

Greg Medcraft, ASIC commissioner, said investors may not necessarily understand the risks of trading CFDs due to product complexity - however the lack of clarity in current disclosure statements are another barrier for investors  in understanding key information. “It is crucial this information  has everything retail investors need to make an informed decision, including spelling out the very significant risks of CFD investment,” he said. Barry Odes, managing director of Australia and New Zealand, CMC Markets, acknowledges ASIC’s concerns and said the firm recently created an understanding the risks” section of the CMC website to improve investor education. “The objective of this consultation paper is to ensure that all CFD traders and prospective traders have a sound level of understanding  of the product and risks associated with trading it regardless of the CFD provider they deal with, which is something we fully support,” he said.

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Clients of CFD trading company IC Markets are the first to benefit from the company’s new commission structure, clients are expected to save millions this year thanks to the company’s new tiered direct market access (DMA) CFD commission rates on the webIRESS Plus trading platform. An active CFD trader trades on average four times a day with a trade size of approximately $20,000. Most DMA CFD providers would charge this trader 0.10% commission on a $20,000 transaction. Over the year this trader would pay over $40,000 in commission charges alone. With IC Markets new active trader tiered commission rate of 0.05% this trader would only pay around $20,000 in commission, a 50% saving  without even considering the saving in financing charges. With IC Markets tiered commission rates active traders on 0.03% commission can save as much as 70%.

International Capital Markets (IC Markets) Managing Director Andrew Budzinski said: “We understand commission rates are important to active CFD traders and we are committed to providing our clients with low DMA CFD commissions and the latest trading technology.” IC Markets new webIRESS Plus platform allows its clients to trade DMA CFDs on global exchanges as well as ASX listed shares. “IC Markets is committed to offering low commission rates allowing our clients to take of advantage of more trading opportunities and gain an edge in the market. Our new tiered commission structure on the webIRESS Plus platform reflects our commitment to provide industry leading software and excellent value for money cementing our position as a market leader in DMA CFDs,” Mr Budzinski said.

Active trading clients of IC Markets are given priority access to highly sought after Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s) in addition to a wider range of short-sellable CFDs. Contracts for Difference (CFDs) are an agreement to exchange the difference in value of a particular asset between the time at which the contract is opened and the time at which it is closed.

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Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will publish new rules regulating derivatives within a month, forcing investors to disclose the building of stakes in companies using such instruments. The new rules will govern so-called contracts for difference, which enable investors to bet that a share price will rise or fall without owning any of the stock. Investors can agree at  a later date to acquire the underlying shares from their CFD providers.

We expect to have legislation on the matter published within the next four weeks, spokesman for the Dublin-based Finance Ministry said, without giving any details. Last year, the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority said it would bring forward the introduction of new rules which required long positions which use CFDs to be made public when holdings reach 3 percent.

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