Saxo Capital Markets launches new platform for professional traders, SaxoTraderPRO
This follows the launch of its limited-risk account, Saxo Essential, in February for entry-level traders.
This follows the launch of its limited-risk account, Saxo Essential, in February for entry-level traders.Online multi-asset specialist trading provider Saxo Capital Markets has this week officially launched its new platform for professional traders, SaxoTraderPRO. The new platform is an advanced trading solution for professional and institutional traders, offering access to more than 35,000 financial products across a large range of asset classes. The new multi-screen desktop platform is available for both Mac and Windows.
SaxoTraderPRO offers clients access to contracts for difference (CFDs), forex, futures and options, as well as local and international stocks and bonds from one trading account. The platform is designed for professional-grade traders, and features a wide range of advanced trading tools and highly customisable features as well as fast and reliable trade execution functionality. While SaxoTraderPRO is for institutional traders only, the pre-existing SaxoTraderGO platform caters for retail traders and investors.
Saxo Capital Markets Australia chief executive Ben Smoker said, "We’re always looking to push the boundaries in trading technology and innovation across the spectrum of the market. The development process behind SaxoTraderPRO is very much in line with our vision to democratise markets, providing traders and investors with institutional-grade professional tools, functionality and market access at a low cost.”
The limited-risk account, Saxo Essential, launched in February
The launch of SaxoTraderPRO follows the launch of Saxo's new limited-risk account in February, Saxo Essential, designed for entry-level retail traders and investors. The new account was launched in anticipation of proposed regulatory changes by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) regarding the responsible use of leverage within the industry, and following regulatory changes already applied throughout Europe.
Leverage refers to the ability to trade products such as CFDs and forex using a margin, where traders are only required to put in a small percentage of the trade’s value to open the trade. When trading with leverage, you have the potential to gain a lot very quickly. However, the opposite is also true and you could end up losing more than your initial deposit. I recently sat down with Ben Smoker to discuss the regulatory changes and how the new account Saxo Essential addresses this.
"They've (the European regulators) imposed leverage limits for retail investors, which is significantly lower than where the market has traditionally been. So, for example, 30 to 1 leverage for currency pairs as opposed to 200 to 1, sometimes up to 500 to 1. And 10 to 1 for commodities, 5 to 1 for individual stock CFDs, and 2 to 1 for cryptocurrency. And the other key component is the margin closeout rule, which means that if your positions go against you and you get to a level where you only have available in your account 50% of the margin requirement... then the regulation will impose the broker to close you out of your positions so you don't lose any more money," said Smoker.
"So we moved proactively to launch a very retail-focused investor platform, which is the Saxo Essential platform, knowing that this is probably what was coming in regards to responsible use of leverage. We've got a little bit of a head start on this because of our interaction with the European regulator. And so, we were able to move first on this, ahead of the legislation."
"Saxo Essential is aimed at offering a lower-risk solution for entry-level traders. It provides full access to stocks and bonds, which are seen as lower risk, and access to a limited group of the most essential forex pairs. And then, a basket of CFD index trackers such as Australia 200, and US S&P 500. But the main feature for entry-level traders is this limited leverage and the protection against losing any more than your initial outlay. That is a fairly unique feature in the marketplace."
As well as the limited leverage, the Saxo Essential account has been designed to be extremely user-friendly and easy-to-navigate, which is ideal for new traders. "It's color-coded and it's letter coded. So you'll know exactly if you try to get a share, or a CFD, or a Forex product, or a futures product. It's really well set up. But also, I guess equally important, is the personal service component that we offer through relationship managers."
Above all this, undoubtedly the most important point of comparison between trading accounts and services is the fees and charges. Smoker assured me the Saxo Essential account is highly-competitive, offering a great entry point for new traders who are looking to dabble with margin products, while still limiting their risk. "It's really aggressively cheap on price. So, $6.99 to trade on an Australian share. We're the cheapest in the market."
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