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Where Are the New Forex Traders Coming From?

  • #1
  • First Post: Feb 28, 2008 11:05am Feb 28, 2008 11:05am
Here's a curious topic for discussion. I'm wondering in which countries is Forex growing the most? Perhaps you're a money manager or broker - where are your sign-ups emerging from? Or perhaps you're a trader who frequents the forums - where are your friends from?

Here's my thinking...

There's no doubt that there are many emerging markets right now. Eastern & Central Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa. But while people generally look at the money flowing IN to a country in these sorts of discussions, or the growth of the GDP or businesses there, I thought it might be more interesting (and more representative) to discuss which countries are showing the greatest rise in investors FROM that country (meaning the economy has grown enough so that regular people are earning enough to have extra money left over after their cost of living in order to be able to begin investing.)

Just curious as to everyone's thoughts/experience on this. Which countries seem to be taking the lead on traders joining the international markets & communities? Which countries are encouraging it through favorable regulation, taxation, reduced corruption?

Who's trading these days?
  • #2
  • Feb 28, 2008 11:22am Feb 28, 2008 11:22am
China is definitely becoming one of the biggest players. I'm not saying this based on newspaper reports on the sovereign wealth fund. When I visited China this past winter I met with some traders over there. Based on what they told me and my personal observations, a lot more small to mid sized investors are looking at the global macro markets now. The cost of doing business in domestic markets is too high over there. The return had been fantastic, but it is starting to die out. They're looking else where to get a better deal. True, there are a lot of regulations imposed by the goverment to prohabit overseas investment, but people always find a way to get around it. Some via Hong Kong, some via Switzerland.

A lot of them are looking at other emerging markets, especially in South east asia and Eastern Europe. One trader I talked to was looking at the former Yugoslavian countries. I thought that was quite interesting.

That being said, the average investors are unlikely to migrate to other markets. They don't have the information nor the access to these markets. (Except FOREX, there're a couple retail brokers available in China)

One thing I learnt about Asian investors, if nothing else, is their risk appetite. I'm sure the market dynamic will change significantly when those countries start to take on a bigger role in the global markets.
Take a report.
  • #3
  • Feb 28, 2008 1:25pm Feb 28, 2008 1:25pm
Thanks for your insights, CateFul - they pretty much mirror my own intuitive ones. I'm also thinking Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia... places like Malaysia, Vietnam, Hungary, Poland, and -yes- Croatia, Serbia, perhaps even Kosovo as well. Russia!

Great, this is going somewhere. What other countries are "emerging" to join our markets, breeding traders and investors? What's happening where you live?
  • #4
  • Feb 28, 2008 3:55pm Feb 28, 2008 3:55pm
The "problem" with the Chinese (whether in China or any SE Asian country) is that they like a gamble, so whether it's representive of a true FX market opening up or not is debatable... if that makes sense. Assuming you care about the underlying reasons. They are as likely to do FX as an online hour-by-hour lottery in another country.
The market reveals who we really are...
  • #5
  • Feb 28, 2008 8:17pm Feb 28, 2008 8:17pm
Thanks for creating this thread. I find this topic fascinating.

On our site, we're seeing interesting trends in emerging markets. Lots of growth coming from the Middle East. We even see users in Iran!

Australia is also growing a healthy number of traders, as is the US (as expected) and Germany.

But the biggest area of growth we see now is from Indonesia. Lots and lots of readers hitting our site from that area, and it continues to grow.
  • #6
  • Edited 7:03am Feb 29, 2008 3:06am | Edited 7:03am
Thanks for your replies, PFX, Ninja (I like your signature tags!).

Yes, this has been a topic of interest for me for some time, and I wanted to get others' opinions from all over the world. All the fundamental reports we follow track GDP, imports, exports, and even retail spending is many times out of need rather than from excess. Thus I thought the rise in people joining the investment markets might be a more accurate measure of whether conditions are improving for the average Joe.

I'm curious... which countries in the Middle East? Bahrain's hosting it's first ever forex conference in April. Where are the emerging players in Eastern Europe coming from? Countries like Uganda are giving us new traders too, it seems.

It is always interesting watching new trends emerge.
  • #7
  • Edited 3:59am Feb 29, 2008 3:59am | Edited 3:59am
Quoting Black_Knight
Here's a curious topic for discussion. I'm wondering in which countries is Forex growing the most? Perhaps you're a money manager or broker - where are your sign-ups emerging from? Or perhaps you're a trader who frequents the forums - where are your friends from?

I think these:

There's no doubt that there are many emerging markets right now. Eastern & Central Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa. But while people generally look at the money flowing IN to a country in these sorts of discussions, or the growth of the GDP or businesses there, I thought it might be more interesting (and more representative) to discuss which countries are showing the greatest rise in investors FROM that country (meaning the economy has grown enough so that regular people are earning enough to have extra money left over after their cost of living in order to be able to begin investing.)

Just curious as to everyone's thoughts/experience on this. Which countries seem to be taking the lead on traders joining the international markets & communities? Which countries are encouraging it through favorable regulation, taxation, reduced corruption?

Who's trading these days?
Indonesia,Malaysia and some other muslim states (muslims are not allowed to gamble and trading is attracting many people there)

Nigeria..- well, i am not sure about this one but maybe it because people are poor there and see forex as a good opportunity to become rich (I have seen some Nigerians here, maybe they would know better..

South Africa
India - huge country and i think number of forex traders there is taking off and many many more will come
Pakistan, muslim country, and some simillarities with india
China- yes, they like trading too
Turkey,
look here for google search trends, i think its very useful you can play with it and find even cities where there is "forex" search most popular..
  • #8
  • Feb 29, 2008 4:20am Feb 29, 2008 4:20am
Orion 602

Nice find with the google trends.
  • #9
  • Feb 29, 2008 6:28am Feb 29, 2008 6:28am
Check out Alexa.com traffic details: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/tr...rexfactory.com

US traffic only makes up 16,5%. I guess I better start learning Chinese
Happy Pip-hunt... KISSes
  • #10
  • Feb 29, 2008 6:58am Feb 29, 2008 6:58am
Thanks Orion, Priest! Good stuff.
  • #11
  • Feb 29, 2008 10:45am Feb 29, 2008 10:45am
FWIW, here are the top 10 countries providing visitors to our forex site for the last 6 months.

1.
United States

2.
Canada

3.
United Kingdom

4.
Malaysia

5.
Singapore

6.
Australia

7.
Nigeria

8.
Indonesia

9.
Germany

10.
Poland
  • #12
  • Feb 29, 2008 10:47am Feb 29, 2008 10:47am
Quoting Black_Knight
Where Are the New Forex Traders Coming From?
as the saying goes, "theres another sucker born every minute".
  • #13
  • Feb 29, 2008 10:57am Feb 29, 2008 10:57am
Jamaica has a strong following also when it comes to Forex trading. However, they are unregulated, so their returns are questionable as they are not transparent. These firms give monthly returns ranging from 8 - 20%/month, its truly amazing, here is a list of a few forex firms popping up in Jamaica.

1. Olint Corp - The first to start this fad.
2. World Wise - they magically guarantee 12%/month
3. MayDaisy - they give a whopping 20%/month
4. Capital Blu - New comer, they are based in Florida, but are doing a free seminar on currency trading in Jamaica this weekend.
5. F1 investments - overseas firm again targeting Jamaicans

These are a few of the players in Jamaica, it is claimed that Olint alone manages around 1 billion USD.
Trade Well
  • #14
  • Oct 21, 2009 6:29pm Oct 21, 2009 6:29pm
japanese and chinese housewife, are well known for their trading as it is often mention and asian tv and radio. trading is like a part of life their for majority of regular citizen. i remember in hong kong that most of the media such as newspaper, radio and other general communicating resource are mostly filled with economic news.
  • #15
  • Last Post: Nov 5, 2009 10:13pm Nov 5, 2009 10:13pm
Quoting PFXGlobal
Thanks for creating this thread. I find this topic fascinating.

On our site, we're seeing interesting trends in emerging markets. Lots of growth coming from the Middle East. We even see users in Iran!

Australia is also growing a healthy number of traders, as is the US (as expected) and Germany.

But the biggest area of growth we see now is from Indonesia. Lots and lots of readers hitting our site from that area, and it continues to grow.

i second this. we are seeing a growing interest from the middle east. many traders coming out of dubai, saudi arabia, and egypt. as for the iran thing, i just met with a couple of guys a few months ago who had 400 - 500 people theuy wanted to sign up for accounts with a good US or Dubai based broker. so yeah, definitely the middle east. its been such a closed market over there for so long, they are very ready to start trading.
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