Dozens of trends spread in global forex industry this year. Ahead of the new year, we have compiled several hottest trends in a look back into the five most widely talked trends among forex brokers. The caleidoscope could be your guide in anticipating what might happen in the coming year.

Dozens of trends spread in global forex industry this year. Ahead of the new year, we have compiled several hottest trends in a look back into the five most widely talked trends among forex brokers. The caleidoscope could be your guide in anticipating what might happen in the coming year.

Industri

1. Forex Broker Clone Scams

Many traps exist on the ground of forex industry. However, cases of copycat brokers reached its plateau in 2014. Those copycats cloned popular forex brokers by creating websites with similar address and appearance, and seemed to specifically targets Asian traders that are less experienced in recognising scams. At least Australian ASIC, Cyprus CySec, and Malta MFSA have repeatedly released warning for investors in regard to these kinds of scams. UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) even more than that; almost every other week, they tirelessly warned against a number of clone scams. However, the scammers are relentless as well. As soon as their disguises revealed, the web link became inactive, but then emerge under other broker names. We noted at least Alpari UK, FXDD, and SkyFX, have became the victim of such modus operandi.

The epidemic of broker clones is a particular concern for traders and brokers alike. Beside of harming trapped traders financially, the names of the cloned forex brokers were tarnished as well through no fault of theirs. What's more, there are no suspects arrested yet. It might even turned uglier for traders in countries where foreign brokers are blocked; traders might enter the wrong site (the copycat ones) because the true sites are inaccessible.

 

2. Bitcoin Ups-and-Downs

For some people, Bitcoin is seen as the future of currency where the value is no longer controlled by the government. However, the use of Bitcoin became one of the great controversies of 2014 as it is embroiled in several legal issues. In the beginning of the year, Bitcoin grabbed headlines as its exchange rate skyrocketed against US Dollar, but then plummeted a few weeks later following the fall of leading Bitcoin exchange MT.Gox due to malicious hacking attack. Among countries in the world, there are also diverse opinion on whether the use of Bitcoin is legal, illegal, or allowed at the expense of each users.

Bitcoin
Nevertheless, Bitcoin is still developing, and forex brokers seemed to have perceived its potentials, so many are allowing deposits on Bitcoin and or offering Bitcoin as one of the currencies available to be traded. Most notable of such brokers is Australian-based FXOpen. Researches into the potentials of Bitcoin also expands, with the use of the cryptocurrency spread wider in countries where their currencies are getting more worthless day by day.

 

3. Binary Options Conundrum

Binary Options basically is a derivative of forex trading that has existed for several years now. However, its prestige lifted significantly this year after well-known, established forex brokers, are vying to provide Binary Options trading window. At least a dozen forex brokers are now doubled as binary broker, including Dukascopy, AvaTrade, InstaForex, dan MFX Broker. Even better, just a few weeks ago, leading social trading service ZuluTrade opened ZuluTrade Binary, a binary options trading platform that connects directly to ZuluTrade's binary-specialized social trading network. Bahkan, baru-baru ini ZuluTrade membuka ZuluTrade Binary, sebuah platform trading binary options yang terhubung langsung ke jaringan social trading ZuluTrade khusus opsi biner.

Regardless of that popularity though, Binary Options is still controversial. First is because the status of the broker in Binary Options transaction become purely the bookie instead of facilitating clients to connect with the market. And the second is because the way Binary Options done might be seen more as gambling rather than investment. In some jurisdiction, like the UK, Binary Options is not regulated by financial system authority, but by gambling and games authority (UK Gambling Commission). Because of the aforementioned circumstances, most independent Binary Options broker operate without licenses, triggered scam warning from regulators. Even so, some regulator took the initiative to license them anyway, most notably Cyprus CySec.

 

4. Tighter Regulation Oversight

Financial market regulator around the world are tightening their oversight in 2014 in order to improve security guarantee for traders and prevent broker failures. Australian ASIC that was already known as one of the most bonafide regulator did this through several means; one of them is by cooperating with Japan JFSA. Cyprus CySec improved conditions and oversight as well, and kicked out some brokers.

Tighter regulation became the reason why some forex brokers chose to relocate to other, more accomodative country; usually due to inability to fulfill capital adequacy requirement. FMA New Zealand totally reformed broker license conditions, so some New Zealand-based forex broker are moving out. EXNESS, for instance, moved to St Vincent and the Grenadines and seek regulation from Belize IFSC instead. Brokers are also moved out of the US, resulted in acquisition of FXDD and IBFX US clients by FXCM. A few days ago, Alpari also withdrew from Canada.

However, the most surprising news came from the US and Russia in December 2014. US regulator combi NFA and CFTC forbid US licensed forex brokers from accepting deposit via credit card or any facilities linked to credit card, such as PayPal and Skrill. It is still unclear how US brokers will react to the ruling, but certainly overseas client market will be affected. Meanwhile, Russia forex bill passed third reading in mid-December, and recent updates reported that President Vladimir Putin has signed the bill, officially made the bill to come into effect. The new law limits leverage up to 1:50 only or 1:100 at the most and increases guarantees for clients in the event of broker failures.

 

5. Platform, Payment Diversification

Global forex brokers continue to vie in improving service qualities. Two of the most favourite ways chosen in 2014 was offering a variety of trading platforms and payment facilities. Metatrader4 is still trader's favourite, but the rise of social trading has made SIRIX an attractive alternative, at least IronFX and FXPRIMUS thought so. Beside of SIRIX, other options looked at by brokers are cTrader and Metatrader5. While in case of payment facility diversification, 'going local' seemed to be the new theme. Asian online payment system features prominently among forex brokers' deposit and withdrawal options, particularly Fasapay from Indonesia and China-based facilities.

Apart from diversifying trading platforms and payment facilities, forex brokers also attempted to attract attention by offering deposit bonuses. By now, majority of global forex brokers have promoted certain campaigns in which clients (or new clients) will be eligible to receive bonuses either by simply registering themselves or after depositing a certain amount of funds. Those bonuses usually is unwithdrawable, but is quite useful as additional margin for clients amid market volatility. In following up such offers, traders need to read clearly conditions applied including the small prints, and request for information when there is something unclear, in order not to get into unfavorable outcome.