The largest financial market in the world is opening up to investors
who have had little or no competitive access to it. The global foreign
exchange market, once dominated by major banks, has grown into a nearly
$2 trillion per day vehicle involving thousands of players.
The recently founded ZanerFX, a Chicago-based foreign exchange brokerage, is bringing the Internet's speed and convenience to traders who have been poorly represented in the fast-paced world of foreign exchange trading. In developing the concept of ZanerFX, Jim Pugh, director of foreign exchange at ZanerFX, and ZanerFX president Matthew Zaner realized that customer account security was a gaping flaw at many of the new Internet trading firms. ZanerFX deals with only large, well-capitalized trading firms to ensure the best possible security for customers' funds. ZanerFX maintains a higher initial investment level than many of their competitors to help ensure those signing on are serious investors; however, the amount is much lower than the multimillion-dollar amounts usually required by private banking groups and investment houses. The minimum margin level on accounts at ZanerFX is 3% of the US dollar value of the position, a level that allows the investor a reasonable amount of leverage but far short of the 100 times leverage offered by other firms, again, to protect the customer. In addition, the service will connect the customer to a live person instead of to a computer-generated price to allow the customer to get more competitive prices. ZanerFX will also offer larger corporate accounts and professionally managed accounts in phase 2 of their development. A preview of the software investors use to place trades through ZanerX is available at the company's website. www.zanerfx.com |
The Terra Nova Investor Series is a free, browser-based trading platform
designed for active investors who want real-time data and the power to
route their own orders. Terra Nova Trading, LLC, in conjunction
with Townsend Analytics, Ltd., developed the software to address
customer demand for a simple yet powerful direct-access trading platform.
TradeCast has released upgrades to its Elite and Revolution
direct-access trading systems. The upgrades include the ability to trade
options. The upgraded releases also contain other features, including new
research tools and more flexibility to customize the software.
Robert Hall Trading Seminars has announced a significant redirection
for the company in response to market demand. A worldwide licensee program,
essentially a reseller alliance with a network of independent businesses,
is to be established that will provide all the company's services to local
markets around the world.
Ward Systems Group has released Cluster Indicators that learn
to recognize profitable buy/sell signals. Cluster Indicators work in a
manner similar to how the human brain might classify the market based on
historical clusters of successful buy/sell signals.
Trade Center has launched a new futures trading system analysis
report, SystemTrac. This detailed report allows investors who use a mathematical-
or software-driven futures trading system to compare dozens of systems
in a standardized manner.