Surging volatility across metals and a renewed focus on risk management are reshaping how liquidity is priced, accessed and managed across FX and CFD markets, according to senior industry executives speaking at the Finance Magnates Singapore Summit 2026.
The panel, which brought together liquidity providers, brokers, exchange operators and market makers, highlighted a market increasingly defined by fragmentation, shifting client behavior and a more cautious approach to risk following sharp moves in gold and other commodities.
- “For Southeast Asia, You Definitely Need IB”: FM Singapore Summit 2026 Lessons
- “In Asia, Loyalty Is Earned in WhatsApp Groups and Golf Invitations”: FM Singapore Summit 2026 Insights
- “What Differentiates Brokers Now Is Connectivity and User Experience”: Inside FM Singapore Summit 2026
Fragmentation Persists Despite Normalization
Panelists broadly agreed that liquidity fragmentation, particularly between interbank pricing and retail broker quotes, remains entrenched, even if conditions have marginally improved since late 2025.
More from the event: “For Southeast Asia, You Definitely Need IB”: FM Singapore Summit 2026 Lessons
Alex Mackinnon, CEO for Asia at Finalto, noted that extreme pricing disparities seen during gold’s rally in late 2025 have narrowed, but not disappeared. “The fragmentation is still there. It’s probably narrowed a bit,” he said, pointing to a period when retail brokers were quoting spreads “sub-10 cents when the real market’s probably 30.”
That gap has since adjusted, with brokers now pricing “north of 15 cents,” bringing them closer to institutional benchmarks. However, Mackinnon added that brokers continue to face pressure to tighten spreads despite underlying market constraints.
Stavros Economides, COO at Match-Prime Liquidity, reinforced that structural differences in broker models continue to drive pricing divergence. “We see sometimes retail brokers provide very tight, below-market conditions… this you can do only if you have your own books,” he said, warning that such strategies require significant balance sheet capacity to absorb potential losses during volatile periods.
Metals Dominate, and Distort, the Landscape
A central theme throughout the discussion was the industry’s heavy reliance on gold and, increasingly, silver—assets that have become focal points for speculative activity and liquidity stress.
Grace Chan, Executive Director at Phillip Nova, said the issue extends beyond recent volatility, though recent market moves have amplified its impact. “Volatility probably put it into the limelight,” she said, noting that diversified client flows across asset classes can help brokers manage liquidity imbalances.
Still, shifting client interest away from gold remains a persistent challenge. “Gold has been the asset that investors and traders… have been trading for a really long time,” Chan said, adding that the rise in speculative activity over the past decade has only deepened that concentration.
Yoann Turpin, Co-founder of Wintermute, attributed this concentration to leverage and accessibility. Gold, he argued, offers “the cheapest way where [traders] can get the most leverage,” making it a natural magnet for speculative capital.
At the same time, Turpin pointed to a broader convergence between crypto and traditional markets, with traders increasingly moving capital fluidly between asset classes in search of volatility. This has spurred interest in products such as tokenized commodities and weekend trading, further complicating liquidity dynamics.
Risk Management Takes Center Stage
If one area of consensus emerged, it was the industry’s shift toward more conservative risk practices following sharp market dislocations in early 2026.
Liquidity providers reported a clear increase in risk being offloaded by brokers. “The volume we’re seeing from retail-facing brokers has increased,” Mackinnon said, attributing this to tighter internal risk limits and a reassessment of exposure following recent market shocks.
Economides echoed this trend, particularly among smaller brokers. “They can’t afford big hits… so they reduce their levels,” he said, adding that recent volatility has also led to more “toxic flow” and mispricing opportunities in metals markets.
The consequences of poor risk management, panelists warned, extend beyond individual firms. “The industry itself doesn’t want any defaults,” Mackinnon said. “That will just put the industry back five to ten years.”
For brokers, the challenge lies in balancing internalization (B-booking) with external hedging (A-booking). As Vinay Trivedi, CEO of SGX CurrencyNode, put it: “It’s not A or B—it’s somewhere in between. You find the balance, you stay in the game. You lose the balance, you’re burnt out.”
Infrastructure and Trust Under Pressure
The discussion also highlighted the growing importance of infrastructure resilience and liquidity access during periods of stress.
Trivedi argued that volatility exposes the underlying structure of liquidity markets, prompting a “flight to safety” toward venues and market makers with strong balance sheets and inventory. “People want to go back to those market makers who are holding inventory… or to primary and secondary markets where there’s a marketplace,” he said.
Access to diversified liquidity pools—including exchanges, ECNs and bilateral relationships, has become critical to mitigating fragmentation and execution risk.
Meanwhile, brokers are facing operational pressures beyond pricing. Chan offered a glimpse into the day-to-day reality during volatile periods, describing how teams monitor client exposure and funding levels into the weekend. “Friday night becomes no longer happy hour,” she said, as firms assess whether they have sufficient capital to withstand potential gaps.
Technology and the Next Fault Line
As markets become more automated, panelists warned that technology risk is emerging as another critical vulnerability. Heavy reliance on pricing engines, margin systems and cloud infrastructure leaves firms exposed to outages at precisely the moments liquidity is most strained.
While not yet fully explored in the session, the reference to past infrastructure disruptions, such as regional cloud outages, underscored the fragility of increasingly digitized liquidity networks.
A More Cautious, Complex Market
Taken together, the discussion painted a picture of an industry adapting to a more complex and risk-sensitive environment. Fragmentation remains a structural feature, metals continue to dominate trading flows, and brokers are recalibrating how much risk they are willing, or able to hold.
At the same time, evolving client behavior, cross-asset convergence and technological dependencies are adding new layers of complexity to liquidity provision.
The result is a market where access to capital, technology and diversified liquidity relationships is becoming as important as pricing itself, and where, in periods of stress, the ability to manage risk may ultimately define who remains standing.
