Category: Industry

The global multi-asset trading platform eToro has signed a new partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization.

According to a six-month agreement that starts with the UFC 243 event and will take place in Australia and New Zealand, eToro will perform the duties of the official online trading partner. The first event will be held in Melbourne on Sunday, the 6th of October 2019.

As a part of the sponsorship, eToro will have a branded presence inside the world-famous Octagon, as well as stadium activations, consumer promotions, and social content.

UFC Vice President of Global Partnerships Nick Smith has commented on the deal: "We are thrilled that eToro is joining us as UFC’s new Online Trading Partner in Australia and New Zealand." He also added that being partners with a global company like eToro demonstrates the continued innovation and growth that UFC has developed in-market.

Robert Francis, Managing Director of eToro Australia, said "We are excited to announce eToro as the Official Online Trading Partner of UFC. We partner with sports teams around the world in order to try and reach as many people as possible with the main aim of getting them interested in investing."

“eToro partners with football in the UK and Germany, motorcycle racing in the US and tennis in France, and we’re thrilled to add UFC in Australia.”

About eToro

eToro was founded in 2006 by three partners, who aimed to create a financial trading platform suitable to the traders of all levels, offering easy and convenient trading tools. eToro is regulated in Europe by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. The platform enables people to invest in the assets they want, from cryptoassets to stocks and commodities. You can read our full eToro review here.

Asia’s global investment bank Nomura has added its algorithmic trading strategies to the BidFX execution management system. Specifically, its five FX algorithmic strategies, known as the Tsuwamono Series, are now available on the BidFX platform.

Each strategy offers a wide range of flexibility on executions based on client requirements and trading preferences.

“Nomura’s FX algorithms provide substantial benefits to clients, with high levels of trading flexibility. We’re pleased that clients can now find our algorithms on BidFX,” Ian Daniels, head of eFX distribution for EMEA and the Americas, has commented on the partnership. 

Roger Lee, BidFX Head of EMEA Sales, has added: “BidFX has had a long-standing relationship with Nomura and it’s exciting to see Nomura extending their integration with BidFX through the addition of their five FX algorithmic strategies. This reflects the tight relationship that our firms share on a global basis and will benefit our existing mutual institutional FX clients with whom we are both engaged.”

Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Zaif has been hacked, losing a 6.7 billion yen (about $60 million worth of cryptocurrency), including 5,966 bitcoins.
Zaif exchange is one of the major Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges. It is owned by Osaka-based Tech Bureau and licensed by the Japanese regulator Financial Services Agency (FSA).

Tech Bureau reported that after the investigation of the case, it was discovered that hackers have accessed the exchange's hot wallets without any authorization and had stolen around $60 million in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and MonaCoin (cryptocurrencies worth 4.5 billion yen and 2.2 billion yen from the company funds).
Zaif has stated that their own reserve is currently around 2.2 billion yen (or $20 million). They have made an agreement with a Japan-listed firm Fisco to receive a $44.5 million financial support in exchange for a major share of ownership, so the hacked company will be able to compensate users who lost assets in the hacking.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency has asked Tech Bureau to submit a report on the incident and plans to perform an on-site inspection of the company after receiving the document. Tech Bureau didn’t give further details of how the hack happened, citing a criminal investigation that has been launched into the breach.

Gold-i, a global fintech firm has announced a partnership with a leading technology provider for the financial industry Tradesocio. The main concept of this partnership was the integration of the Matrix, Gold-i’s multi-asset liquidity management and aggregation solution, into Tradesocio’s Marketplace. There are some other Gold-i products that have been added, including its risk management and business intelligence tool, Visual Edge.

Tradesocio offers trading and investment management platforms to financial institutions worldwide and provides a secure and transparent trading environment with real-time reporting and reliable risk management for investment banks, fund or asset managers and investment advisors. It enables both financial organisations and investors to benefit from a single view of their net asset value, equity and risk exposure in real-time.

Tom Higgins, CEO at Gold-i stated, “Partnering with Tradesocio extends Gold-i’s offering to investment banks and fund and asset managers, and enables Tradesocio’s clients to benefit from Gold-i’s innovative products. Tradesocio has built an impressive platform for financial institutions worldwide and we look forward to working with them and their clients.”

Wael Salem, CEO at Tradesocio added, “Gold-i is one of the few companies out there that deliver consistently reliable products to all their clients, and we are very pleased to have formed this partnership. We have been impressed by Gold-i’s continual focus on driving the market forward, specifically in terms of their multi-asset liquidity management solutions. In particular, we believe our clients will benefit from their ultra-low latency smart routing products and direct connections to high-quality multi-asset Liquidity Providers. Both Gold-i and Tradesocio take great pride in ongoing innovation and high service levels – there are a lot of synergies in our partnership.”

Sheffield United unveiled the largest-ever commercial transaction in the club's history. 

The Australian headquartered global multi-asset broker, USG, has agreed on a three-year term Premier League principal partnership with the Blades to become front of shirt and sleeve sponsor. It is a significant financial boost recognizing United's place at the highest level of the English game which has a global audience of over three billion through television, online and social media.

United's CEO, Stephen Bettis, said: "We are really excited to have USG on board as we begin our journey back in the Premier League. Having an international sponsor on board shows just how far the club has come both on and off the pitch"

USG Chief Executive, Shay Zakhaim, said: "We are honoured to have a partnership with a club with such a rich tradition and history. We are excited to be at beginning of a new chapter in the club's story. United and the Premier League offer worldwide exposure for our business and that is something we are very keen to embrace."

USG has recently been crowned Best APAC Region Broker - 2019 by ADVFN International Financial Awards and Best Execution Broker - 2019 Australia by The European Global Business Awards.

USG is a multi-award winning, FX & CFD broker, enabling clients worldwide to trade currency pairs, indices and commodities in premium trading conditions. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, USGFX is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). You can read our full USG review here. 

US equities fell sharply over the previous days, ending their immediate uptrend momentum. Is a more extensive correction is ahead of us, or will the dip be quickly bought? We shall see.

During last week’s Powell presser, he said that the risk of persistingly higher inflation has clearly risen, and he thinks the (monetary) policy has adapted. Additionally, he announced that inflation doesn’t look transitory now (how shocking) and looks more structural.

As a result, it appears the Federal Reserve (Fed) has turned more hawkish, and it might quicken the pace of the tapering process, whihch is currently scheduled to end by July.

The Fed is Hawkish Amid Rising Inflation

This week’s US inflation data could confirm that view as CPI inflation is expected to rise further toward 7%, while the core inflation is also seen jumping toward 5%. At the same time, the Fed continues with its Quantitative Eesing (QA) program, buying 100 billion USD of bonds each month, and rates are at zero. It’s a crazy world.

The market now expects the Fed to raise rates in June 2022, and two to three rate hikes are priced in for the following year. Will that be enough to tame inflation? Likely no. 

Additionally, investors have learned that every time there is a drop in stocks, the Fed comes to the rescue. But this time, it might be different. The central bank has no options for supporting the markets in this stage of the cycle – it must tighten monetary policy or risk double-digit inflation, destroying the middle class and leading to inflation spiraling out of control.

Therefore, the actual correction in equity indices might be the start of something more significant. We don’t want to sound any alarms, but equities are overbought, indices are driven higher by several large-cap stocks, and smaller companies are already in a downtrend.

The Daily Chart Still Seems Bullish

On the other hand, the technical situation for the SP500 index remains bullish. The latest correction brought the index to its 50-day moving average (purple line) and previous highs in the 4.550 USD area. Bulls immediately bought the dip, and it looks like the worst is over. However, the index must post new highs to confirm the bullish bias.

Alternatively, if the current bounce fails (amid the mentioned factors above), bears could push the index below 4,550 USD, targeting the 200-day average at around 4,350 USD. That would be a healthy correction in the current overbought environment.