The last year has not been a particularly easy one for brokers. Increasing costs associated with regulatory compliance, lack of volatility in the markets, falling revenues, tighter margins and now, on top of all of that, the impacts of COVID-19, are taking their toll.
The recent rise in market volatility has left all brokers susceptible to being taken advantage of by predatory traders but this is particularly true for startups and smaller brokers. While the opportunities for traders to attempt to exploit brokers have always existed, current market conditions have exacerbated the risk with strategies ranging from weekend gap loading to depth of book and spread arbitrage.
Tuesday 14 April 2020 - IS Prime Hong Kong, part of the ISAM Capital Markets Group, has appointed Antony Tan as Vice President – Trading Solutions, Asia. Tan joins IS Prime Hong Kong from Invast Global where he was Head of Dealing Services.
Volume totals in March matched the strong numbers from February, though daily figures trailed off late in the month. Daily profit figures also softened in the second half of the month, but monthly totals exceeded February as volatility in a broad range of markets brought strong early month results. After the turbulent market movements in February and March, volatility will likely continue while markets try to discover their true bottom.
Like many firms across the Globe, the IS Prime team is now working from home and adjusting to a new way of living and working.
Recently, there have been some new offerings coming on to the market offering retail brokers direct access to liquidity. The implication is that by accessing the primary market “directly”, the broker will get better trading terms.
This is actually not the case, and it shows a fundamental lack of understanding on the part of the technology companies who are providing the offering, and even more surprisingly, the “Prime of Primes” who are “clearing"it.
3 March 2020 – London headquartered IS Prime is the 15th fastest growing financial services company in Europe, according to the Financial Times’ list of Europe’s 1000 fastest growing companies, published on FT.com on 2 March 2020.
February was an excellent month for brokers as Covid-19 coronavirus fears brought volatility to a wide range of markets. Volumes were up substantially from January, with some brokers reaching record monthly totals.
Profits were also robust, driven primarily by late month declines in stock indices and gold. With the uncertainty surrounding coronavirus continuing, the volatility may persist well into March, if not longer.
28 February 2020 – IS Prime has been named one of the world’s most influential financial technology companies, following nominations by a panel of expert judges from some of the most respected companies in the financial services industry including EY, Lloyds Banking and Baringa.
In previous blog posts we have discussed how traders sometimes take advantage of unwary brokers by engaging in various forms of malicious activity (such as flooding trade servers with orders), and why it’s critical for brokers to optimise their risk management strategies to minimise their risks.