Exclusive: One on One With Saxo’s Kim Fournais – Social Trading Launch, Networking, and More
- In this week's Executive Interview, Forex Magnates sat down for a video interview with Kim Fournais, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Saxo Bank. Discussed were Saxo's upcoming launch of social trading and current business environment.
In this week’s Executive Interview, Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term Magnates had the privilege to sit down with Kim Fournais, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Saxo Bank, for a video interview. The video was filmed during last week’s Forex Magnates London Summit.
https://youtu.be/ABifyWsEf40
Key points of the interview:
1:00 Fournais speaks about the importance of ‘seeing what is going on’ around the industry and at other brokers.
1:30 What it’s like to go from being an upstart, to the ‘big broker’ that many in the conference want to grab business from.
2:30 Talking about keeping connected with former Saxo employees.
4:00 Dealing with the EU financial crisis and low volatility markets by focusing on growth areas and exiting weaker markets and products.
6:00 Difficult markets are nothing new “as long as we have humans, and human psychology, we’ll have crisis”.
8:00 Trader interests are shifting from just forex. For the first time, equities and CFD products are being traded more than FX (this trend was also taking place at FXCM).
9:30 Answering questions about the upcoming launch of Saxo’s social trading product. “Social trading is here to stay” with planned launch in January. Product will be multi-asset and market to both new and existing products.
11:15 Value add that Fournais believes Saxo Bank will bring to the market with their social offering; a. multi-asset platform b. content c. intertwined within the social experience.
Social Trading
As mentioned in the interview, Saxo Bank plans to launch a social trading product to the customers in January of next year. The product will be integrated within Saxo’s TradingFloor.com analysis site. As written about in the past, this follows the trend that has been taking place at Saxo where TradingFloor.com has become more integrated within the broker’s trading platform and website.
Upon launch, the new TradingFloor.com will become the bank’s social trading platform, and run alongside that of Saxo’s existing desktop, web-based, and mobile app platforms. Although TradingFloor will become a platform itself, the website will continue to provide open access of content to both Saxo account and non-account holders.
During the interview, Fournais stated that Saxo Bank has been a leader in ‘democratizing trading’ during its 21 year existence, as they were an early player to bringing foreign exchange and other asset classes to the retail market. He added that this is their goal with social trading, to become a leader in the market by combining their multi-asset trading environment and existing content that they distribute, for social trading.
Catch all the London Summit Videos
In this week’s Executive Interview, Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term Magnates had the privilege to sit down with Kim Fournais, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Saxo Bank, for a video interview. The video was filmed during last week’s Forex Magnates London Summit.
https://youtu.be/ABifyWsEf40
Key points of the interview:
1:00 Fournais speaks about the importance of ‘seeing what is going on’ around the industry and at other brokers.
1:30 What it’s like to go from being an upstart, to the ‘big broker’ that many in the conference want to grab business from.
2:30 Talking about keeping connected with former Saxo employees.
4:00 Dealing with the EU financial crisis and low volatility markets by focusing on growth areas and exiting weaker markets and products.
6:00 Difficult markets are nothing new “as long as we have humans, and human psychology, we’ll have crisis”.
8:00 Trader interests are shifting from just forex. For the first time, equities and CFD products are being traded more than FX (this trend was also taking place at FXCM).
9:30 Answering questions about the upcoming launch of Saxo’s social trading product. “Social trading is here to stay” with planned launch in January. Product will be multi-asset and market to both new and existing products.
11:15 Value add that Fournais believes Saxo Bank will bring to the market with their social offering; a. multi-asset platform b. content c. intertwined within the social experience.
Social Trading
As mentioned in the interview, Saxo Bank plans to launch a social trading product to the customers in January of next year. The product will be integrated within Saxo’s TradingFloor.com analysis site. As written about in the past, this follows the trend that has been taking place at Saxo where TradingFloor.com has become more integrated within the broker’s trading platform and website.
Upon launch, the new TradingFloor.com will become the bank’s social trading platform, and run alongside that of Saxo’s existing desktop, web-based, and mobile app platforms. Although TradingFloor will become a platform itself, the website will continue to provide open access of content to both Saxo account and non-account holders.
During the interview, Fournais stated that Saxo Bank has been a leader in ‘democratizing trading’ during its 21 year existence, as they were an early player to bringing foreign exchange and other asset classes to the retail market. He added that this is their goal with social trading, to become a leader in the market by combining their multi-asset trading environment and existing content that they distribute, for social trading.
Catch all the London Summit Videos