Op-ed
Formula 1’s 830 Million Fans Draw Forex and CFD Brokers to Global Sponsorships
- Joseph Lee from Rakuten highlights the importance of activation in maximising the value of Formula 1 sponsorships, which can cost $5 million to $20 million per season.
- Formula 1's $3 billion sponsorship market offers Forex brokers global reach, but the value depends on effective activation and relationship-building.
Friday, 30/10/2026 | 11:00 GMT by
Joseph Lee
Why One Russian-Language Strategy Failed in Two of Three CIS Forex Markets
- Stanislav Galandzovskyi highlights that Russian-language campaigns can miss younger and Uzbek-speaking audiences outside Tashkent, limiting the potential reach of brokers in Uzbekistan.
- Uzbekistan’s CPA fell from about $650 to around $380 after the campaign switched to Uzbek-language creative and added Click and Payme.
Monday, 26/10/2026 | 04:06 GMT by
Stanislav Galandzovskyi
CFD Brokers Changed Their Marketing Teams, but Did They Fix the Wrong Problem?
- NAGA's Alexandru Badea highlights the gap between the client information brokers collect and what marketing teams actually use.
- Linking marketing data with deposits, onboarding and retention can help brokers identify where conversions are falling.
Thursday, 22/10/2026 | 05:23 GMT by
Badea Alexandru Gabriel
The CPA Arms Race: How Can Brokers Compete Without Running Permanent Losses?
- Anish Lal, Chief Business Development Officer at BlackBull Markets, highlights how faster reporting, reliable monthly payments and dedicated support can help brokers attract introducers without matching the highest CPA rates.
- Brokers tolerating CPA abuse may struggle as competition increases and client quality declines.
Wednesday, 21/10/2026 | 15:00 GMT by
Anish Lal
More Holders, Little Trading: The RWA Liquidity Problem Is Worse Than You Think
- Anndy Lian argues that market makers, regulatory clarity and interoperable venues are needed to turn token issuance into sustained trading activity.
- Tokenized stocks recorded 204.6% monthly turnover, while tokenized rate products managed just 0.1%.
Monday, 19/10/2026 | 04:43 GMT by
Anndy Lian
From Haas F1 Pilot to Multi-Entity Rollout: What It Took to Rename IC Markets
- Tony Philip, Group Chief Marketing Officer at IC, explains how a centralised masterbrand and client data platform support the group’s operations across multiple regulated entities.
- IC's partnership with the TGR Haas F1 Team provided a setting to test the new brand identity before changing client-facing assets.
Friday, 16/10/2026 | 07:17 GMT by
Tony Philip
Are Finfluencers Becoming an Increasing Blind Spot for Brokers and Banks?
- Sarafina Wolde Gabriel, CEO at Rightlander, highlights the difficulty of detecting potentially non-compliant content across fast-moving social media platforms.
- Seventeen regulators joined the FCA’s Global Action Week targeting non-compliant finfluencers.
Wednesday, 30/09/2026 | 07:45 GMT by
Sarafina Wolde Gabriel
The Broker-Backed Prop Firm: Why Vertical Integration, Not Capital, Is the Real Advantage
- Shervin Arian, CEO of OmegaRatio Advisors, highlights risk literacy as a key gap between smaller prop firms and established brokers entering the same business model.
- Vertical integration can align a prop firm’s revenue with trader activity instead of making successful traders a growing payout cost.
Tuesday, 29/09/2026 | 05:03 GMT by
Shervin Arian
DeFi Was Never Going to Get Its Clarity from US Congress
- Mohammad Akhavannik, Managing Director of Newton Foundation, highlights Treasury’s role in shaping AML-type screening requirements affecting decentralised finance.
- New SEC exemptions impose limits on token fundraising and permissioned venues offering tokenized equities.
Friday, 25/09/2026 | 09:25 GMT by
Mohammad Akhavannik
BitMEX Officially Shuts Today. Who Wins Its Users?
- NAGA's Alexandru Badea explains how BitMEX, CoinEx and BitMart shut down within two months, undone by falling volume, rising compliance costs and liquidity flight, not scandal.
- Their departures hand a combined user base to Binance, Bybit, OKX and Hyperliquid for free, and signal the same pressures building under CFD and forex brokers.
Wednesday, 23/09/2026 | 11:34 GMT by
Badea Alexandru Gabriel
Could AI Threats Be Brokerage Cybersecurity’s Open-Source Moment?
- Manasseh Paradesi, CISO at Pepperstone, believes brokers can strengthen cyber defence by sharing threat intelligence, testing controls in real-world conditions and learning from each other.
- AI is giving attackers greater speed and scale, making it harder for brokers to rely on isolated defences. Shared intelligence and AI-driven security could help close that gap.
Monday, 21/09/2026 | 05:47 GMT by
Manasseh Paradesi
Payment Rails Are Connecting Across Borders, but Compliance Is Getting Harder
- Maria Uriarte of dLocal highlights Brazil's PIX and Southeast Asia's payment rails show why merchants need to treat compliance as an ongoing process, not a one-time task.
- As payment networks link across South America and Southeast Asia, the technology is becoming more connected while local rules remain fragmented, widening the compliance burden for providers.
Friday, 18/09/2026 | 14:00 GMT by
Maria Uriarte
The Prop Trading Challenge Pass Means Little Once Real Execution Starts
- Shervin Arian, CEO of OmegaRatio Advisors, highlights the gap between simulated challenge conditions and execution after a trader is funded.
- Prop firms that use different execution models for challenges and funded accounts may underestimate future payout risk.
Wednesday, 16/09/2026 | 12:12 GMT by
Shervin Arian
Google Is Losing LATAM’s Traders to Communities
- Anish Lal, CBDO at BlackBull Markets, argues that the commercial model is shifting from pure CPA and rebates towards retainers, commissions, event support and hybrid performance deals.
- The IB model will not disappear, but it will professionalise, with retainers increasingly justified by retained client books rather than event attendance.
Wednesday, 16/09/2026 | 07:07 GMT by
Anish Lal
Europe’s Next Financial Battle Will Be Fought Under the Screen
- Freedom 24's Valentin Shatalov argues that scale, regulation and operational resilience will shape Europe’s financial winners as fee pressure rises and firms need deeper capabilities to serve fragmented markets.
- AI is changing how Europeans access financial services. The shift could make agents a new gateway to trading and financial infrastructure.
Tuesday, 15/09/2026 | 14:00 GMT by
Valentin Shatalov
Nigeria’s Proposed CFD Rules Are Not Irrational; They Are Mispriced
- SALVUS’ MD Nikolas Xenofontos says Nigeria's SEC chose generous leverage, finds the design coherent, but argues the capital is calibrated to ration licences rather than protect clients.
- Tech providers face a 5 billion naira ($2.2 million) capital requirement and a 30% local ownership requirement. If offshore vendors stay away, regulated brokers will be left with unregulated platforms.
Friday, 11/09/2026 | 07:00 GMT by
Nikolas Xenofontos
Traders’ LTV Is Not Just a Marketing Issue but an Ongoing Development Process
- Oded Shefer, CPattern's founder & CEO, argues personalised trader development could be the next step beyond personalised marketing and retention tools.
- Monthly trader churn can reach 50%, highlighting the cost of disengagement after first-time deposit.
Wednesday, 09/09/2026 | 13:00 GMT by
Oded Shefer
Pakistan Hands You Very Cheap Leads in the CFD Industry. Then the Deposit Page Happens
- Stanislov Galandzovskyi reveals Pakistan leads cost $4.30, but just 1.9% become FTDs, pushing CPA to $226 and payback to 6–9 months despite a potential 3.3x LTV.
- Complex payment routes made Pakistan’s deposit page the main bottleneck, with users needing Urdu guidance and WhatsApp support to understand how to fund their accounts.
Tuesday, 08/09/2026 | 06:49 GMT by
Stanislav Galandzovskyi
Trading Has a Customer Problem. iGaming Has Seen It Before
- ATFX's Line Peteri argues that poker shows why trading education should focus on risk and decision-making, not just profits, as winning a trade does not always mean the decision was right.
- iGaming’s experience with CRM, affiliates and localisation offers trading firms practical lessons on retention, partnerships and adapting the same product to different markets.
Monday, 07/09/2026 | 06:13 GMT by
Line Ho Young Peteri
The Stablecoin in the Headlines Is Not the Stablecoin I Know
- Anndy Lian highlights private chains trade openness for control, while public rails optimise for user dignity. Which one holds the true essence of blockchain?
- Stablecoins have passed $300 billion, but three very different digital-dollar models now share the name.
Friday, 04/09/2026 | 10:00 GMT by
Anndy Lian
Fintech Has Found a New Favourite Number. But It Comes with a Catch
- M4Markets' CEO Oscar Asly highlights how ARR could become another vanity metric if fintech companies obscure the underlying economics.
- After $210bn boom, ARR is fintech’s new favourite. But £1m January annualised isn’t predictability.
Friday, 04/09/2026 | 06:00 GMT by
Oscar Asly
Are Prediction Markets Becoming Too Good at Taking Money?
- Tony Cross argues prediction markets risk losing retail traders if well-capitalised participants gain too much of an edge, with horse racing offering a warning from the past.
- Nearly 2,000 Polymarket accounts captured almost $500 million. Is that a coincidence?
Tuesday, 01/09/2026 | 19:00 GMT by
Tony Cross
What AI Can and Cannot Replace in Trading Technology Development
- Alexis Droussiotis at Spotware argues AI can speed up development, but it can't replace the judgment that keeps trading infrastructure standing under real load.
- The same logic applies to infrastructure: what works at 100 users can buckle at 500,000, and early decisions are the ones brokers end up stuck with.
Tuesday, 01/09/2026 | 04:48 GMT by
Alexis Droussiotis
The Two-Licence Model: How Brokers Bridge Trading and Payments
- NAGA's Alexandru Badea explains how client money rules slow trading withdrawals and why brokers could use payments licences, capital and real-time risk systems to make funds more accessible.
- Revolut and eToro already connect trading with card spending, but leveraged positions still face settlement delays.
Monday, 31/08/2026 | 04:32 GMT by
Badea Alexandru Gabriel
LATAM Broker Growth Is Not Just About Direct Marketing but IBs and Trust
- Sebastián Rivas, Co-Founder of LFXS, highlights how IBs can drive 40%-70% of new funded clients, with a CAC of $200-$450, making trusted partnerships key to growth.
- With LTV reaching $2,000+, brokers need to focus less on chasing leads and more on building strong, long-term partnerships with local trading communities.
Wednesday, 19/08/2026 | 05:00 GMT by
Sebastián Rivas
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