Brokers - the good, the bad, and the ugly

**AMR** · 06-11-2008, 11:19 PM

Phew! Not too keen on the sound of the centralising of support and back office to London though.

Online trading firm CMC Capital Markets has announced a restructure which will result in a change of leadership in its profitable Australian division and an unspecified number of redundancies among its support staff.
CMC, whose Australian division posted a profit of $20.6 million in its last fiscal year, largely on the success of its CFD (contracts for difference) products, has decided to centralise support and back-office functions in its London headquarters.
David Trew, who helped found the Australian business in 2002, is stepping down as head of CMC Asia Pacific, while recently appointed Asia Pacific chief operating officer Barry Odes will become head of Australia and New Zealand in a restructure that will see individual country heads report straight back to head office.
Staff were told of the changes and the redundancies were flagged at meetings in Sydney today. The company has not confirmed how many of the 240 staff in Australia will be made redundant.
Odes joined the company in June from Goldman Sachs JBWere, where he worked as the chief operating officer of its private wealth management division. Goldman Sachs has a 10 per cent stake in CMC. The Australian division – which posted record trading volumes of $US41 billion in October, compared to an average of $US28 billion over the previous six months – contributes nearly one third of the group’s revenues and profits and is considered to be the most successful of its overseas operations.

**arco** · 10-11-2008, 03:19 PM

**arco** · 10-11-2008, 07:46 PM

.
I saw her first..................

**peat** · 10-11-2008, 08:53 PM

are you guys wanting to go long on Russia?
I hear they let you in and then close the market.

**arco** · 10-11-2008, 09:18 PM

No we just want to go long on that blonde.......

**arco** · 13-11-2008, 08:34 PM

The CFTC has just released their latest net capital figures. The big news is that everyone is doing well. Firms are seeing big jumps in net capital as forex brokers appear to be raking in the cash in this volatile market. It doesn’t appear that anyone has had difficulty clearing the $10 million hurdle judging by the fact the NFA has not closed down anyone since Halloween (although AMIFX continues to report way below the $10 million requirement although keep in mind CFTC reports lag a full month behind the current date.) The only other change appears to be that IFX and FX Solutions have formally merged as IFX is no longer listed on the CFTC Report.

Financial Data for FCMs

The following firms have net capital below $10 million

Advanced Markets $6,743,000
Friedberg Mercantile $8,164,000
ACM $8,891,000
Forex Club $9,615,000
Easy Forex $9,943,000

The following firms have net capital below $20 million

Hotspot $10,021,000
Ikon $10,424,000
GFS Forex $11,908,000
MB Trading $14,245,000
ODL $15,180,000
I Trade FX $17,258,000
Alpari $17,437,000

The following firms have net capital above $20 million

FX Solutions $21,197,000
CMS Forex $22,018,000
PFG $22,038,000
Interbank FX $37,596,000
GFT Forex $67,073,000
Gain Capital $77,580,000
FXCM $114,299,000
Oanda $168,344,000

As always conduct your due diligence and make sure the firm you are trading with will be able to comply with the new $20 million capital requirement going into effect in the months ahead.

**arco** · 21-11-2008, 10:05 AM

Last month the S.S. Saxo Bank forced hundreds of employees to walk the plank in a furious effort to keep their Danish Longship from taking on any more water amidst the financial tsunami that has engulfed CFD brokers around the world. But it is another former shipmate of Saxo that has now taken to his Somalia-like pirate ship to fire pot shots at this listing to port Viking Broker. Ahoy it’s Charles-Henri Sabet! With parrot perched on shoulder and a black eye patch in place Sabet has Saxo in his sights…

According to Euromoney Magazine in an article titled “Charles Henri Sabet Bites Back in Saxo Saga” Sabet says that he was exiled to Davey Jones locker because of a shareholder dispute, not because of an SFBC investigation of alleged insider trading.

Charles-Henri Sabet bites back in Saxo saga /Euromoney magazine

Quote:
“This is really about an argument between shareholders,” says Sabet. “I still own around 5% of Saxo and I was not happy with what I saw as the bank’s domestic focus. I offered to leave, but I wanted Saxo to buy my shares as was agreed when it took over Synthesis,” he adds. Sabet says that Saxo is now focused on becoming a well-known name in Denmark, including giving backing to the small, centrist Liberal Alliance political party.
So how did this investigation come about? Euromoney states:

Quote:
Saxo has declined to comment on whether or not the investigation came about because it informed the regulator of an irregularity, rather than the SFBC acting because it suspected suspicious activity. But a letter from the commission makes it clear it was informed by Saxo of the issue.
So instead of paying Sabet his share of Saxo’s booty the scallywags in Denmark simply ratted him out to regulators? Shiver me timbers that’s a low thing to do to a mate. But Sabet wasn’t the only one sent to the brig.

Quote:
Sabet says he is also particularly upset that his dismissal was followed by a purge of his former employees, including his chauffeur. He believes that he will be fully exonerated when the SFBC reports its findings. In the meantime he is preparing to take legal action to clear his name and to complete the deal that was agreed when he sold Synthesis Bank to Saxo in September 2007; this included the verbal agreement to purchase his remaining shares in the bank.
Yarrrgh matey, Saxo ain’t likely to depart from its treasure anytime soon. This Sabet fellow could be waiting a long time before he sees one gold doubloon from the cash strapped folks in Denmark. I reckon Sabet would have a better chance demanding ransoms from oil tanker owning Saudi princes than from a forex and cfd broker that had been spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave prior to the financial panic.

Arrgh, Sabet best crack open a bottle of Rum and batten down the hatches cause Saxo will fight him to the last cannon ball over that 5% share. To be continued I’m sure.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/fore...tml#post573208

**AMR** · 26-11-2008, 07:48 PM

Findata now has technical charting...finally we can plot OBV in EoD time on the NZX instead of waiting 2 days for yahoo data!

**AMR** · 28-11-2008, 01:11 AM

Hi has anyone tried KVB Kunlun here in Auckland? How are their fills and order placements? I'm interested in them solely for Index CFDs and commodity CFDs as they have Metatrader 4. Prices seem slightly higher than CMC though but after working with MT4 I can't go back to marketmaker. Not to mention they also have the Yuan.