Integral
INTL FCStone has deployed an FX trading app built on the Integral platform to expand mobile trading services to its institutional customers. Mike Wilkins, head of FX at INTL FCStone, Europe, comments: “Responding to the needs of our clients, the INTL FCStone OCX Trader app provides a secure and high-performance destination for mobile trading. The […]
Data from three primary FX venues has confirmed earlier releases from platforms indicating that while spot FX activity rebounded in May from a poor April, it remains lower around 20-25% lower year-on-year. Refinitiv says its platforms handled $86 billion per day in May, up 6.2% from April but down 19.6% from May 2018 and it […]
Former head of FX prime brokerage at Citi Sanjay Madgavkar has joined Integral Development’s executive team as chief strategy officer and head of business development. Madgavkar has spent much of his career at Citi and brings more than 20 years of experience in every aspect of foreign exchange to Integral. He will be responsible for […]
IS Prime has extended its multi-asset liquidity distribution through a partnership with Integral. IS Prime’s FX and index swaps liquidity is now available through Integral’s OCX platform. Index swaps are IS Prime’s proprietary product, delivering pricing and execution on indices and commodities globally. “IS Prime is an exciting addition to the Integral OCX marketplace and […]
Data from three primary venues in the FX market confirms numbers from last week suggesting that turnover in April slumped, with one reporting an all-time low in activity and two others the quietest month since 2016. Refinitiv reports average daily volume of $81 billion across its FX spot offerings, a 16.5% drop from March and […]
Data from CME Group, Integral Development and Refinitiv, which reports a new high in average daily volume (ADV), confirms the picture established by three other platforms earlier this week of a rebound in March FX volumes.
CME Group says its FX futures and options franchise handled 1,042,000 contracts per day in March, which Profit & Loss estimates to be just over $103 billion in notional volume. This is a 36% increase on activity in February, but is 7% down year-on-year, it is also CME’s busiest month in FX since September 2018.
Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral, talks to Profit & Loss about the launch of his new cryptocurrency exchange, and how he sees the crypto markets evolving in the future.Profit & Loss: What was the genesis of Mint Exchange?Harpal Sandhu: A lot of people don’t realise that the derivatives markets in cryptoassets is actually quite a lot larger than the physical market. Because of this, we were speaking to a lot of FX brokers, people who were trading large amounts of crypto and CFDs, and they were having problems trying to hedge those positions because, unlike FX they can’t go to prime brokers or prime-of-primes in order to access liquidity, so there’s very few places that these firms can go in order to hedge their crypto exposures.
I ntegral reported average daily volume (ADV) of $36.41 billion between April 2018 and the end of the year, although this figure includes all FX products, not just spot. Because last year was the first time that Integral publicly started reporting monthly volumes it’s impossible to benchmark the firm’s performance along this metric, but in any case the firm’s CEO, Harpal Sandhu, explains that these volumes are really indicative of client performance rather than the platforms. “Integral is much more heavily weighted towards being a technology provider for our customers, as opposed to being just a pure platform or ECN,” he says.
I ntegral reported average daily volume (ADV) of $36.41 billion between April 2018 and the end of the year, although this figure includes all FX products, not just spot. Because last year was the first time that Integral publicly started reporting monthly volumes it’s impossible to benchmark the firm’s performance along this metric, but in any case the firm’s CEO, Harpal Sandhu, explains that these volumes are really indicative of client performance rather than the platforms. “Integral is much more heavily weighted towards being a technology provider for our customers, as opposed to being just a pure platform or ECN,” he says.
Data from a second group of platform providers has reinforced the message from the first two releases that while it didn’t pull up too many trees, December 2018 was a solid month for most that ended a good year. All providers reporting increased activity in the whole of 2018 compared to 2017. There was a more mixed message in the month-on-month data with only three providers reporting an increase from November, but the year-on-year data generally speaking gave grounds for optimism amongst providers.
