Philippines Continues with E-trading Revolution - Deploys Nasdaq OMX Trading Terminal

Asia's vision to dominate global financial trading continues as developing nation, Philippines, steps up its exchange related IT infrastructure. The country's main trading bourse, the Philippines Stock Exchange (PSE), has reported that it will be collaborating with Nasdaq OMX for exchange trading technology.

The move comes on the back of straight line growth and development at the trading venue, in addition, the exchange has been evolving its position to take heed of the 2015 free trade agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies.

The Philippines main trading venue has signed up Nasdaq OMX for its electronic trading portal to cover equities and fixed income instruments. The exchange will replace its current solution with Nasdaq OMX's benchmark multi-asset X-stream Trading solution.

The new system will power PSE's Trading Platform Trading Platform In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real Read this Term, which currently trades equities and ETFs. X-stream Trading, which will replace the current platform, is expected to go live in mid-2015. Hans B. Sicat, pictured, PSE President and CEO, commented about the new platform in a statement: "We are delighted to partner with NASDAQ OMX for this important undertaking.

As the operator of the stock market, we need to ensure that we continue to provide the best and most responsive technology for all our stakeholders and we believe the solution provided by NASDAQ OMX is consistent with this objective."

Nasdaq OMX, a leading operator of global exchanges in the US and Europe, has been a pioneer in electronic trading since the inception of computers in financial markets. The firm's X-stream Trading platform is widely used by developing markets, in 2012 the Kuwait Stock Exchange implemented the solution. The platform is a full front-to-back solution which provides pre-trade risk, MS agent tools and market data functionality on its website, NASDAQ OMX states that there are over 100 users of the platform.

Lars Ottersgård, Senior Vice President, Market Technology at NASDAQ OMX, spoke abut the new product deployment: "We are dedicated to supporting PSE as they evolve and expand their business to better serve the market participants in the region."

PSE & Technology

The Philippines has been slow to position its financial trading environment on to a global scale, neighbouring economies such as Malaysia and Indonesia have established a strong capital and financial markets base to enhance their economy and attract foreign inflows. However, the latest partnership with Nasdaq OMX reinforces the PSE's vision of competing at the highest level and open up the market to global investors, the PSE was regarded as the world's third best performing stock exchange in 2012.

The new platform follows on from the PSE's introduction of a mobile app for retail investors to track company news and key announcements, launched in spring 2014. The exchange hopes to further develop its market data services to provide more revenue opportunities.

The stock market is still in its infancy with less than 0.5% of the population owning stocks, however the number of retail investors is increasing year-on-year, in 2013 the number of retail participants increased 6%. According to the PSE, private individual investors account for 95% of traders, foreign investors make up the remainder. In addition, trading volumes from retail investors now makes up 49%, with overseas traders generating more activity, in 2008 domestic traders accounted for 30% of daily activity.

The PSE has been running a number of programmes to bolster domestic participation, the exchange operates an online trading portal, the PSE academy website, in addition it runs a subsidiary in Cebu (second-largest province) which offers training to local residents. The country's CFA Society embarked on a number of educational seminars to promote financial literacy.

Global Markets

Philippines unlike its peers, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, has been slow to open its doors to the world of FX & CFD trading. However, since 2010, a new trend among retail investors has commenced with currency trading firmly on the agenda, this has been driven due to accessibility to global products through the internet. A number of FX brokers have local representatives in the Philippines through introducing brokers.

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 tradi 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 tradi Read this Term Magnates expects the Philippines and Thailand to be the fastest growing markets for FX and CFD trading over the next 18 months.

"The Philippines continues to be an important market in ASEAN, as well as an attractive prospect for regional and international capital - PSE is the heart of its country's market.

We look forward to working with them in reaching their business goals and delivering the most widely deployed trading technology on the market," added Mr. Ottersgård.