Leading global Spread Trading and Contracts for Difference (CFDs) trading company, Global Trader, announced today that it has expanded its operation into Asia, with a fully operational office in Bangkok.
Says Fleur Gremmen, CEO of Global Trader: "The decision to expand to Asia was made on the back of exceptional investor interest in Asian indices and their constituents. The first phase of the Asian roll-out includes the three major Asian indices: Hang Seng, Nikkei and the Australian 200. The next phases will be characterised by adding the constituents that make up these indices and then eventually moving into 24-hour trading across all of the global Global Trader offices."
Further to launching in SA in 2001, the company, which offers Spread Trading and Contracts for Difference (CFDs) trading to investors, exposing them to the change in the value of an asset without them having to own the underlying asset itself, also has established operations in Ireland and Canada.
Thailand was the first choice of country in which to base the Asian operation due to many similarities to SA and its intrinsic market conditions. It should be noted that the Thai Stock Exchange has grown tremendously in its turnover and has surpassed the JSE in terms of volume and liquidity with average daily volumes of US$500 million. The volatility in the market is evident from its performance as being the third strongest market in the world in 2003 with its equity index at its lowest level of 350 in March 2003, peaking to its seven-year high of 793 on 12 January 2004 and having dropped now to its eight-month low at 580.
Gremmen, who has relocated to Thailand this week to initiate the set up, goes on to detail the parallels between the South African environment and Thailand. "Thailand has the same competitive landscape which SA had five years ago, with no futures or options products available but a high demand from clients to be able to short and gear up in the market. There is also a similar type of client base to SA, with a concentrated population of high net worth individuals contributing to 60% of stock exchange volumes, as well as a burgeoning hedge fund market."
Thailand also allows Global Trader to apply lessons learned from the past in SA as it has a similar legislative environment to SA: some examples being that there is exchange control in place, and archaic financial services laws are now being replaced by an updated Derivatives Bill. According to Gremmen though, the environment is more encouraging than SA was originally, as Thai regulators (Securities Exchange Commission, Bank of Thailand and Stock Exchange of Thailand) are enticing over the counter (OTC) providers to participate in the market to boost local liquidity even further and create international demand for Thai products.
Lastly, other factors that benefit the choice to trade from Bangkok as opposed to Hong Kong, and Singapore is that similarly to SA, the infrastructure has recently been upgraded in terms of bandwidth and increased Internet access which bodes well for Global Trader`s proprietary online trading platform. Furthermore, Thailand it is a low cost and no competition environment which therefore lowers the client acquisition expenditure.
From Global Traders` perspective these macro conditions allow the company to exploit the inherent inefficiencies in the market and provide the same first time ever offered solutions such as providing access to international financial markets for the Thai local client base (thus circumventing exchange control), introducing leveraged products and the ability to short sell for retail investors.
At the same time, additional benefits will become apparent to Global Trader`s South African clients. Due to the company`s international presence and thereby different time zones, it is possible to trade with Global Trader from 00h00 - 21h00 (GMT). This does not only benefit the investors by expanding their options, but also greatly increases the client`s ability to profit by taking positions during crucial market movements. Furthermore, additional Asian equity products will be made available to South African clients who would like to capture the profits from movements in these volatile and growing markets.
In closing, Gremmen says: "This new development comes during exciting times for the company and provides a truly global footprint for Global Trader, which has been part of the strategy since inception and firmly establishes Global Trader in the four corners of the world."
Share