Saxo Bank Launches New Exotic Crosses, Specialises in Gold Pairs

Saxo Bank, a leading multi- asset financial services' firm announced that it has enhanced its product offering. The Danish headquartered broker has increased its currency product range to 180 pairs. In its latest expansion strategy, the broker launched the following crosses; Euro versus Israeli shekel (EUR ILS), Gold versus Turkish lira (XAU TRY), Gold versus Thai baht (XAU THB) and Platinum versus South African rand (XPT ZAR.

Didier Abbato, Vice President, Product Management at Saxo Bank, spoke about the new product launch in a statement to the media, he commented, "These are niche products however, we do anticipate demand from our clients whose needs have become increasingly specialist. Our ability to create such crosses demonstrates our commitment to our clients' sophisticated trading requirements, and highlights the flexibility and superiority of our offering. We believe that this gives us an advantage over others in the market, and helps us to attract sophisticated traders."

Saxo Bank has continuously been launching new products as it Leads the pact in innovative contracts. The two gold crosses are interesting for the commodities' trading environment, as it highlights the role and importance commodities are playing in uncertain times, post the great recession of 2008. Commodities are commonly regarded as a safe haven and hedge against inflation. Over the last five years several new commodity exchanges have been launched, including, SingaporeM ercantile Exchange , Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange and Universal Commodity Exchange.

Gold in Asia

Both Turkey and Thailand have historic cultural roots with gold, both countries offering listed derivatives on the yellow metal. The new contracts are an opportunity for domestic traders to manage their risk, in addition, it opens up new opportunities for arbitrage traders.

Turkey is one of the most established FX centers in emerging market countries. Recently, the country's financial watchdog officially recognised FX as a regulated asset class.

In a recent FX survey conducted by the Bank of International Settlements, all four countries crosses that Saxo Bank has launched were mentioned in terms of their contribution to FX volumes, the average daily trading volumes were:

• Turkey $27 billion
• South Africa $21 billion
• Thailand $13 billion
• Israel $8 billion

In light of the recent acquisitions in the market, brokers have limited factors when differentiating against the competition. Accessibility to multiple products is useful in an inter-connected market place and hence a key differentiator for Saxo.