FinanceFeeds speaks to CMC Markets on how famous industry leaders empower retail customers

For today’s increasingly analytical retail FX and CFD trader, the kitch trappings of the previous decade are no longer suitable, and the demise of follies such as social trading and ‘gamified’ customer engagement solutions by third party providers and brokerages alike have, quite rightly, fallen by the wayside.

Today, the established stalwarts of the electronic trading industry whose origins can be traced to late 1980s London, are evolving their remit, unsullied by the aforementioned marketing-led gimmicks, by providing retail traders with institutional-level access to insights from specific individuals with provenance.

One of the moot points that has relegated social trading to the abyss is not just the marketing-led ‘social everything’ faddishness which gave it n credibility, but also the inherent conflict of interest between broker, trader and trade leader (himself usually a novice with no remit to lead other people’s financial markets decisions), that has often been highlighted in great detail by FinanceFeeds.

In today’s far more elevated, post-social trading environment, aspiring and astute traders with genuine abilities and a preference for good quality proprietary platforms are the bastion of sustainable business for the brokers in the world’s largest financial centers as well as for the retail clients themselves.

To expand on this further, FinanceFeeds spoke today to Michael McCarthy,  Chief Market Strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, Australia to go into detail with regard to the company’s newly inaugurated podcast series, which features some of the world’s most prominent institutional traders, and is intended to empower retail traders in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region.

Mr McCarthy explained “The Artful Trader is our new podcast series at CMC Markets, and it is about mastering the art of the markets.”

“The commercial ethos behind The Artful Trader is that it empowers retail traders with insights from proven trading experts” said Mr McCarthy. “The series is a continuation of our dedication toward trader and investor education, and follows on from the Masterclass Series that we ran between 2012 to 2016.”

Global trading experts with provenance available to all

Mr McCarthy explained that the Masterclass Series paved the way for the new podcast series, however one of its achilles heels was that, being a physical educational series at specified venues, the company was not able to take it to every trader.

“We decided that broadcasting the detailed knowledge of market experts from various regions was much more practical and would benefit many more traders” said Mr McCarthy.

“Some clients could simply not get to Auckland, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, which is where we ran the Masterclass Series in the form of events in which well known figures including globally renowned investors and market analysts such as John Bollinger were enlisted to speak in detail to traders” he said.

The Artful Trader, which features Jack Schwager, who is a fund manager and industry expert in futures and hedge funds as well as being the author of Market Wizards, as well as  Raoul Pal, who is an economist, along with investment strategist and publisher at the Global Macro Investor and former hedge fund manager for Goldman Sachs and GLL Partners and more.

Ray Barros is also featured in The Artful Trader podcast series, and, along with the other renowned traders, imparts his knowledge to an audience that spans a global audience, operated from CMC Markets’ Australian operational headquarters.

Joining them is professional trader, fund manager, author and educator Linda Raschke, an American commodities and futures trader, president of LBR Group, Inc. and LBR Asset Management.

“This is part of our brief” explained Mr McCarthy. “Although our past physical events were successful in providing our local traders with insights from renowned trading experts, we were limited in the access we could provide to traders across the regions. Podcasts are accessible from everywhere in the world and to increase the amount of material, we have recorded 8 interviews so far in order to launch this with the intention of traders being able to hear from greatest minds in the markets and so that, going forward, they can get the opportunity to hear from much more of them.”

“Podcasts are growing in popularity, globally. This was one of our considerations when looking to launch The Artful Trader. Just recently, we spoke to Ray Barros in Hong Kong, Linda Raske in Illinois, Peter Cruddas spoke from London and Brett Steenbarger, a well-known trading pshychologist from Upstate New York also joined us. I did some research prior to the podcast, and clearly he is well known as a trading coach. Interestingly I spoke to him after the podcast and he knew Raoul Pal and Ray Barros personally so he clearly moves in elite trading circles” – Michael McCarthy, Chief Market Strategist, CMC Markets Australia.

Looking locally, Mr McCarthy said “We wanted to access the increasing number of Australians listening to podcasts. This series explores all dimension of trading and the stories behind the industry’s best. It will appeal to a broad audience from high frequency traders to everyday investors to those who’ve never traded a share in their life.”

Mr McCarthy continued, “It’s fantastic to have some of these greats of trading join us and share their insights as part of this series. I’m confident their experiences and stories will both entertain and educate our traders here in Australia and New Zealand, who may have previously been unable to attend a Masterclass event.”

CMC Markets has one of the most highly established operational facilities in the entire global FX industry in its British home market, and is the largest electronic trading firm in Australia, hence this is a good basis for the firm to take a very global view based on its acclaim in such important financial centers.

“We certainly understand that this is a very important means of onboarding new customers from different regions. We have made it available to different podcast platforms to assist its universal availability. It is available on iTunes, where it is a featured podcast, but is also available on many other platforms and applications, and we have built a custom microsite for The Artful Trader” said Mr McCarthy.

“If a trader is an existing podcast user, then he can probably find it through the applications and downloads available on podcast platforms, otherwise he can go to The Artful Trader’s dedicated web page and can listen directly from that page if he is not an existing podcaster” he explained.

Looking at the dynamics of the tools required today by retail traders, Mr McCarthy agrees that “Social trading is in the past, and a low touch approach toward a customer base is no good.”

“Every business has different operational models but from a CMC Markets point of view, only targeting new customers which have a low lifetime value is not sustainable and introduces problems such as regulatory issues” Michael McCarthy, Chief Market Strategist, CMC Markets Australia

“Our main target audience is experienced traders, which is why we offer a high end, high touch service. With regard to our market commentry and media presence, we are offering depth, and we want to continue to attract good traders. We do indeed offer educational services, however this is a method of empowerment because the more successful our customer, more succesful our business as we want to monetize each transaction alongside our traders” he explained.

“Overall, the podcast series is an Australian initiative. Here in Australia we represent the Eastern region of CMC Markets, extending from Singapore, across China where we recently opened a new office in Shanghai, to here in Australia, across New Zealand and all the way to Canada. There are some restrictions where the currency is not freely exchangable and there are regulatory restrictions too in certain areas of the APAC region, but we tend to focus on areas where we have established presence and then expand our reach to more global audiences using those as a base.”

In conclusion, Mr McCarthy stated “In an online business such as retail trading, we understand that whilst it is possible to be centralized and then offer services to everywhere in the world but we believe that there is a very important people component, and that there are crediblity and trust issues which are mich easier to demonstate and estbalish when able to be closer to customers.”

Meet Michael McCarthy at the FinanceFeeds Sydney Cup FX Industry Networking Event in Sydney Australia on November 2, 2017. For more information on attending this exclusive event which will host 70 FX industry senior executives, email [email protected]