Alpari Russia Announces Resumption of USD/RUB Trading

After suspending trading in light of significant volatility of the Russian ruble on Tuesday, Alpari Russia has reopened trading on the USD/RUB pair. For the time being the company hasn’t mentioned anything about the other major Russian ruble cross, the EUR/RUB.

At the time of publication, LMAX Exchange still hadn’t restored Russian ruble trading, signaling to traders that liquidity on this market remains excessively thin.

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While liquidity remains tight, the moves on the Russian currency market during the past couple of days are nowhere near the carnage observed in what will remain in the history of the Russian financial market as Black Tuesday.

Chatter about a repeat of the 1998 Russian default has been circulating between financial markets aficionados, with the recent round of volatility in the Russian ruble leading many Western dealers to suspend dealing in the currency as clearing and settlement solutions have vanished.

Alpari was one of the first companies to react to the excessive volatility on the Russian FX market on Tuesday by halting its USD/RUB and EUR/RUB offerings. The firm has also increased its margin requirements on open positions to 1:10.

For the time being, relative exchange rate stability has settled in the Russian forex market. With Christmas and New Year holidays approaching in both the Western and Russian orthodox world, ruble trading is unlikely to remain quiet for too long.