LONDON (HedgeWorld.com)–FXall founders have long known their online foreign exchange trading system had the possibility of gaining traction, but 2004 proved the staying power of electronic routing.
Mark Warms, global head of sales and marketing for FXall, said that electronic trading has made foreign currency trading more widely available to the hedge fund community and that in turn hedge funds are one of the fastest growing segments of their business, accounting for roughly a quarter of the trading platform's volume.
In 2004, that volume grew to US$4.9 trillion, which represents a gain of 104% from the previous year. Last December the platform recorded a record trading volume–surpassing for the first time US$500 billion and also surpassing daily volume records with days trading totaling more than US$30 billion.
FXall's growing profits have helped the company reinvest in the electronic trading platform and to improve the functionality for hedge funds and commodity trading advisers, said Mr. Warms.
Competition in electronic foreign exchange trading is heating up with electronic markets such as HotSpot FXi, COESfx, RealTick and Refco (see ) wooing hedge funds.
It's all about liquidity and work tools, according to Mr. Warms. FXall offers a number of work-flow tools that assist in automated trading strategies. Its system is connected to 53 banks and allows traders to access streaming prices through the firm's QuickTrade offering.
