Citi Opens Foreign Exchange Portal
Now Citi, the United States investment bank, has launched a foreign exchange (FX) portal in Hong Kong, offering an integrated online foreign exchange trading platform, CitiFx, for active individual and small institutional traders.
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Wong Ka-chun
5 October 2008
With a volume of US$3.2 trillion a day - a six-fold increase in the past 10 years - foreign exchange trading is the world’s largest financial market.
It is an important alternative investment tool for professional investors, fund managers, financial institutions - even government agencies - to gain diversified exposure beyond commodities, bonds and equities.
Now Citi, the United States investment bank, has launched a foreign exchange (FX) portal in Hong Kong, offering an integrated online foreign exchange trading platform, CitiFx, for active individual and small institutional traders.
“Foreign exchange is totally different from the stock market,” said Eugene Acevedo, Citi managing director and head of fixed income, currencies and commodities.
“There are lots of experienced and active forex trading investors in Hong Kong, but they are mostly sophisticated individual and small institutional traders. Some alternative investors are keen on trading stock and foreign exchange at the same time for risk diversification.”
Compared with traditional foreign-exchange terminal providers, such as Thomson, Reuters and Bloomberg, Mr Acevedo said CitiFx targets small but professional foreign exchange specialists, such as small hedge funds, money managers and wealthy individuals.
“Investors can access the portal via the internet for trading anytime without subscribing to a terminal,” said Alex Knight, Citi director of foreign exchange margin trading. “Investors only need US$10,000 for an initial investment, and they can start trading.” The service is free, with Citi making money on transactions.
The advantage of CitiFX is that it offers clients an opportunity to access the same level of data and trading technology as institutional traders, the company said.
“FX trading is increasingly attracting interest as an important hedging product for fund managers, helping them reduce exposure in stock trading,” a portfolio manager said.
According to Citi, the portal offers sophisticated client access to robust foreign exchange trading capabilities with more than 150 cross currencies , leverage of 50 times for major currencies and 24-hour non-stop trading.