CLS Publishes Trading Metrics; MONEX Discontinues MetaTrader 4 in Japan

FX risk firm CLS reported that its aggregation and settlement volumes in August rose 11.9 percent to 1,035,978, compared with 926,174 in July. The metrics had declined in July after rising in June.

The average daily value at CLS in the month of August stood at US$4.90 trillion, an increase of 4.0 percent from July’s figure of US$4.71 trillion.

The statistics indicate that FX risk firms are having it easy in Western markets in a time when client orders are much lower than last year, while Asian countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong boost their profile as FX settlement centres.

After its subsidiary IBFX transferred its whole MetaTrader 4 customer accounts in US and Australia, Japanese retail FX broker MONEX Group has stopped offering MetaTrader 4 in Japan. All MetaTrader 4 customer accounts will be shut before Oct. 31 this year, and the service will halt from that date. The company pointed to what it referred to as “restructuring moves in subcontractors” for move to halt the service.

Closer analysis reveals this may be part of the company’s cost-cutting strategy, which it started executing in Oct. 2013 following a series of weak performances. Among various actions, the strategy involves enhancing some business platforms, such as launching more platforms for its Japanese clients. Hence its decision to halt the MetaTrader 4 service is very perplexing and highlights the volatile retail FX market.

Probably, MONEX is considering focusing on Tradable, an application-based platform, which it might roll out any time soon.

MONEX sold its entire MetaTrader 4 client accounts of its subsidiary IBFX in Australia and US to FXCM in order to focus on TradeStation.