ABN AMRO launches Marketindex http://www.abnamromarketindex.com/en/index.php5 Taken (and slightly edited) from another forum: MarketIndex.com is a new trading platform operated by ABN AMRO, an international bank with more than 3400 branches in over 60 countries. The platform supports trading in spot currencies, stock indices, commodities, and bonds. Initially, the multi-asset service is available to residents of Germany --- but it is expected to be availabile in other countries shortly. OANDA licensed some of its technology to ABN Amro for this endeavor. Hence, you will find the MarketIndex platform to have a look-and-feel and features similar to OANDA FXTrade, including: *simple, ergonomic Graphical User Interface *identical pricing for everyone *flexible trade sizes *immediate settlement *continuous interest payments/charges instead of daily swaps *BoxOptions Perhaps the most significant is the spotification of futures contracts, such as stock indices and commodities. For the first time, retail clients will be able to enter into a position on, say Crude Oil or Natural Gas, in increments of 1 Euro and they can keep that position for as short or as long as they like without having to worry about expiration of contracts or swaps. Hence, retail clients can participate in various markets without the restrictions typically associated with those markets. For example, they are able to speculate in Crude Oil, or take hedging positions against the rise of gas prices in any size.
50x leverage: DAX CAC40 FTSE100 SMI DJIA NASDAQ SP500 HSI NiKKEI Majors, crosses, exotics (Basically Oanda currencies) Gold, Silver, Palladium, Platinum, Crude Oil, Gasoline, Heating Oil, Corn, etc. etc. etc. Bunds, BOBL, SCHATZ, T-BOND, T-NOTE
Will NOT be available to US residents; Germany only at this time. I have a demo account if anyone is interested in any screenshots.
This shows 1 tick spread in the Bund. And considering that there are no commissions, limited risk, and other goodies, why anyone would want to trade the future? Something stinks.... or it will start stinking soon... How can they hedge this?
They're making a synthetic cash market. They assume symmetry of order flow and can easily replicate in the futures markets.
From ABN AMRO's website: Power Trading is margin trading by marketindex and is similar to Contract for Differences - with some subtle differences. As with Contract for Differences, margin trading is a bilateral agreement between ABN AMRO and its customers to exchange the difference between the purchase and sale of a trade. Purchases are offset with sales and the difference settled in cash is the profit or loss. Margin trading avoids physical delivery and any ensuing operational burdens and costs. You can speculate on the price action of various markets by going long or short. marketindex margin trading allows you to choose your leverage between 10 â 50 times your account balances - enabling you to trade a large portfolio without tying up large amounts of capital.