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Trade The World Online from Your Own desk!

Since it was set up in 2001,investorseurope has become the largest provider of Offshore Trading Platforms. investorseurope offers its clients online trading platforms solutions structured to fit their online trading aspirations as well as the largest selection of  Online Trading Platforms in the world. Using segregated numbered accounts, private investors, professional traders and institutions can enter, transmit and manage orders directly themselves using real-time online trading systems in a fast, accurate and secure trading environment. Currently, 38 different offshore trading platforms are available for our investors across the globe, the choice of which will depend on each investor's specific profile and online trading needs. 

 

Specify the trading platform you require!

 

A sample of our trading platforms is shown below:

 

• J Trader

• CQG Trader

• Strategy Runner

• Ninja Trader

• Rock Trader

• Touch FOREX

• FX Clear

• Meta Trader

• Currenex

• tell us which online trading platform you need...

 

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It's not easy running a stock exchange these days, especially if you're TMX Group Inc. The list of challenges facing the owner of the TSX and the Montreal Exchange just keeps getting longer. There's changing technology, consolidation, and perhaps most worrisome, competition from upstarts like Alpha Trading Systems, a bank-owned market that since going live a year ago has managed to grab more than 15% of total equity transaction volume in Canada. So here's the question: Are the good times over, or is this merely a bump on the road to a rosy future?

THE BULL

BRENDAN CALDWELL,

chief executive of Caldwell Investment Management Ltd.

When it comes to exchanges in general and TMX Group in particular, Mr. Caldwell is a glass half full kind of guy.

"You have to understand that the TSX has been dealing with competition, massively larger than Alpha would ever dream of being, for many years," says Mr. Caldwell, whose firm made a fortune owning shares in stock markets around the world and still owns 0.04% of TMX.

"Virtually every one of Toronto's major stocks is listed somewhere else, either on Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange or London."

What investors need to understand, he argues, is that stock markets are proxies for a nation's economy. If you believe that a country will do well, the best way to make that bet is to buy shares in the leading bourse.

"Seven years ago when Toronto went public, you didn't have to know oil was going to $150 or that gold was going to $1000, or that these little BlackBerry devices were going to be world beaters," he says. "All you had to do is believe something was going to go well in Canada.

"So too, over the next number of years if you believe that Canada, which seems to be beating the socks off every country in the western world, if you believe that story is going to continue, then the TMX is a wonderful way to play that."

Looking at the numbers, TMX is hard to beat, with a return on equity of over 20%. Though the shares have slipped to the low end of their five-year range, it has exposure to what Mr. Caldwell calls "the fastest growing area of the U.S. securities market" through its majority ownership stake in the Boston Options Exchange.

Tom Kloet, the chief executive, is another important factor. "This man knows exchanges inside and out," Mr. Caldwell says, noting that before coming to Canada Mr. Kloet helped transform the Singapore Exchange into a global powerhouse and then took it public.

It might be that Alpha and the other so-called alternative trading systems do cut into the TSX's market share, but the overall market size is growing rapidly as institutions adopt sophisticated new trading strategies that dramatically increase transaction volume, so at the end of the day that really doesn't matter.

"Either way, you're looking at a business that's going to do well," he said.

THE BEAR

JOHN STEPHENSON,

portfolio manager, First Asset Funds Inc.

"There's no question the glory days of the TMX are over," says Mr. Stephenson, whose Toronto-based firm has about $1-billion under management.

With the door on competition flung open by Alpha and other alternative trading systems, the TSX is fighting declining revenue and shrinking profit margins. And with increasing globalization of markets, all of TMX's bourses are up against competition from global exchanges in the United States, Europe and Asia to greater degree than ever before.

"Global competition for investment dollars is massive," says Mr. Stephenson.

"Even players like the New York Stock Exchange, which is far bigger and better established and capitalized, are under threat of takeover."

The new entrants on TMX's home turf are just the latest challenge for TMX. But on top of that is the growing demand among institutional investors for privacy.

"A lot of institutions want to trade off the public exchange. Large organizations like Fidelity, they just don't want their trades being out there with everyone knowing what they're doing. So you have the rise of so-called dark pools which are privately run exchanges. All of that creates problems for conventional exchanges."

Before the credit crunch many analysts pointed to the Montreal Exchange and its derivatives market as the future growth driver for the company since derivative trading was exploding and the MX was really the only game in Canada.

But MX volumes plummeted in the crisis and despite the rebound in equity markets, activity on the MX remains anemic.

"The Montreal Exchange is a positive but really as a total it's small. It's good they bought it but it's not a game changer," he says.

The basic problem is that while Canada wants to be at the forefront of the securities industry, it's a small player in the scheme of things and ultimately it's difficult to see how markets here can survive independently.

The good news is that there will always be a need for public stock markets," says Mr. Stephenson. "But the heady days are over. It's not a disaster. It's not a train wreck, but it's a slow decline."

jgreenwood@nationalpost.com

© Copyright (c) National Post

Gibraltar, where investorseurope is incorporated, is one of the famed Pillars of Hercules, the Portal sailors crossed when travelling from the Old into the New World. In terms of online trading technology, this is exactly what Investors Europe stock broker has been doing since 2001: Setting up a Trading Portal at the Pillars of Hercules to offer a New World of online trading platforms to investors throughout the Globe, so that they can "Trade the World from the Rock".

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Stock Brokers offshorebroker

Where do we go from here with Gold?

Tue Nov 17 14:42:33 2009 in Breaking News - General

By: OilPrice.com

Can precious metals keep on flying?

 

Are you sold on gold? The precious metal outperformed every major equity index in the world in 2008. The question is, can gold—and other precious metals—keep on flying? Or would buying today be buying high and selling low?

 

Precious metals have always been intriguing to investors because they tend to hold their value. In times of geopolitical crisis or currency devaluation, for example, the value of paper money might fluctuate, but a hard asset will always be worth something. As a result, historically, precious metals have been considered  a “safe haven” in times of economic and financial instability.

 

That brings us to why gold is on a tear today. It declined in 2008 and early 2009 as panicked investors rushed into cash in an attempt to weather the financial crisis. But sometime in the middle on 2009, when investors began to move their money from the sidelines, gold started to rally. It returned 32.59% through the third quarter of 2009, vs. 19.26% for stocks.

 

The question is, where can we expect gold to go from here? In order to predict whether gold prices will skyrocket or come crashing down, it’s important to understand the principal factors that affect the price of any commodity: supply and demand.

 

The supply side of the equation is not particularly relevant in regard to gold because gold supplies remain fairly constant. That’s because production has not significantly increased due to a lack of new mining sites. Should supplies increase, however, investors may want to be cautious.

 

The demand side of the equation, then, is the one gold investors must look at. And as we noted above, demand for gold tends to increase when investors have a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy and financial markets.

 

That’s certainly the case today. In fact, we see two factors, that could lead gold to outperform in the near future: inflation and currency devaluation. In response to the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, the Federal Reserve injected massive amounts of liquidity into the money markets. Ultimately, that increase in the money supply could devalue the U.S. dollar and lead to inflation. In fact, the U.S. dollar is already shockingly low. On October 14, 2009, it fell to a 14-month low against the euro, hitting $1.4947, the weakest since August 2008, according to Bloomberg. And while inflation is not yet a problem, economists are on the lookout for it.

 

These conditions led Standard & Poor’s (S&P) to raise its gold price assumption for 2010 from $750 per ounce to $800 per ounce. “Investors seeking a hedge against inflation risks and uncertainty in the financial markets continue to support gold prices,” the S&P analysts write. “The metal's properties as a safe haven, and to a lesser extent the demand for jewelry, also support its longer-term price prospects.”

 

S&P’s estimate, however, may be on the low side. As of November 2009, gold was trading at more than $1,000 per ounce. And since gold exceeded $1,000 per ounce level, the price has been extremely resilient, with no meaningful pullback seen. There have been periods of profit-taking, but increased demand quickly appears on any weakness in price.

 

In sum, then, good old-fashioned gold fever is back—and investors who are looking for a promising trend may want to consider investing in it and other precious metals.

 

But don’t consider gold an investment only for troubled times. One of the greatest advantages of precious metals exists regardless of economic and market conditions. Precious metals tend to perform differently from other assets. As a result, investing in precious metals may be a good diversification strategy for a portfolio comprised mainly of stocks, bonds and real estate—in all environments.

 

This article was written by OilPrice.com - who offer free information and analysis on Energy and Commodities. The site has sections devoted to Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy, Metals, Oil prices and Geopolitics. To find out more visit their website at: http://www.oilprice.com

Article originally appeared: 17-11-2009

The Securities and Exchange Commission is laying down the law with dark pools--or at least starting to. The regulator put out a proposal for comment recently that makes some dark pools look more like exchanges and helps the retail investor.

In this proposal, the SEC has said actionable "indications of interest" (IOI)--or messages between dark pools showing what's in their venues--will be considered quotes unless they are trading blocks of stock worth more than $200,000. Those large orders must only be sent to "those who are reasonably believed to represent current contra-side trading interest of at least $200,000", the proposal says. So if you thought you, as a big fish, could go around hunting for smaller fish without quoting to the market--think again.

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Eleven of the 29 dark pools offer glimpses as "indications of interest," according to the SEC's research. To help meet the "reasonable" criteria regarding size, the SEC proposes a size-discovery IOI that would be allowed and only interact against another large order.

Preserving block trading through these large indications helps institutional investors working for mutual funds and 401(k)s trade without moving the market against themselves, says Al Berkeley, chairman of Pipeline Trading Systems. These investors need to be wary of not only trading commissions and exchange fees, which go up as you break a large order into smaller pieces, but also market impact and opportunity costs.

Market impact costs have to do with how much your trade will move the market against you, and opportunity costs relate to what other trades you could have made if there wasn't a delay in your trade. Sometimes, traders with large blocks will wait for another large block to trade against because they would prefer to trade the whole thing at once. Other times, it's better to break up a block and get it done faster.

Though preserving large block trading helps retail investors, some of the logistics may need tweaking, says Tony Barchetto, head of sales and strategy at Liquidnet. The $200,000 threshold would be better if it were share based instead of monetarily based for small-cap stock investors. Also, the idea of this reasonable expectation that you're trading against another block warrants clarification, Barchetto says.

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The SEC's proposal also wants to increase post-trade transparency with venues being designated on the consolidated tape. Currently, dark venues don't have their venue's name associated with their trades.

Tim Mahoney, chief executive officer of BIDS Trading (which has a partnership with NYSE Euronext ( NYX - news - people )), says there could be confusion associated with this post-trade transparency because the proposal recommends that when a trade over $200,000 is done, a venue doesn't have to report where it was done. Since most venues report their volumes monthly, there would be a discrepancy between what could be totaled up from the consolidated tape and what each venue reports.

Mahoney also encourages dark regulation across the board, including not only dark pools but also electronic communications networks and exchanges. Since the exchanges have hidden orders, he hopes future regulations will address those venues as well as fair access to dark pools.

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13 November, 2009 - 09:38 Mobile money set to take off in Europe - Frost & Sullivan The Western European mobile money market is finally set to take off and will be worth up to EUR5 billion by 2013, according to research from Frost & Sullivan.

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Frost & Sullivan says that both wireless operators and banks are turning to mobile transactions in a bid to foster loyalty and drive revenues and that customers are becoming more receptive.

So far the technology has gained most traction in the developing world as a way to provide the unbanked with financial services.

In the developed world, providers are still attempting to get users comfortable by concentrating on services such as balance checks rather than transactions.

Frost & Sullivan says SMS-based services will drive growth in the short term but that once issues surrounding hardware costs and mass market availability are overcome, NFC-based contactless payments could prove the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow".

Sharifah Amirah, principal analyst, Frost & Sullivan, says: "Growth will be driven by high frequency and low-value transactions supported by widespread, cashless transaction systems that are cost-effective and secure."

Amirah warns that if m-payments are to take off, concerns about security, the lack of regulation on mobile transactions, quality of service, high costs and limited collaboration between different participants still need to be addressed.

However, these hurdles are being tackled and several trials and small-scale deployments are being carried out, particularity in Eastern European markets and collaboration between banks and wireless operators is improving.

Says Amirah: "Once there is trust, security and greater interoperability, only then will there be growth in proximity transactions and m-commerce."

 

Trade The World Online from Your Own desk!

Since it was set up in 2001,investorseurope has become the largest provider of Offshore Trading Platforms. investorseurope offers its clients online trading platforms solutions structured to fit their online trading aspirations as well as the largest selection of  Online Trading Platforms in the world. Using segregated numbered accounts, private investors, professional traders and institutions can enter, transmit and manage orders directly themselves using real-time online trading systems in a fast, accurate and secure trading environment. Currently, 38 different offshore trading platforms are available for our investors across the globe, the choice of which will depend on each investor's specific profile and online trading needs. 

 

Specify the trading platform you require!

 

A sample of our trading platforms is shown below:

 

• J Trader

• CQG Trader

• Strategy Runner

• Ninja Trader

• Rock Trader

• Touch FOREX

• FX Clear

• Meta Trader

• Currenex

• tell us which online trading platform you need...

 

Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Commission

Member of Gibraltar Association of Stockbrokers

Member of the Investor Protection Scheme

Licensed to give Investment Advice

Read our Disclaimer

About Us

Get a Quotation