City Index Group

City Index
Subsidiary
Industry Financial Services
Founded September 1983 (1983-09)
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Key people
 Glenn Stevens
(Chief Executive Officer)
Services Financial Spread Betting (UK) and CFD Trading worldwide
Owner GAIN Capital
Number of employees
 Over 800 worldwide
Subsidiaries City Index Limited, Finspreads, Forex.com, Salt, GTX, Daniels Trading, Faraday Research
Website www.cityindex.co.uk

City Index is a spread betting, FX and CFD Trading provider based in the UK.[1] City Index is part of GAIN Capital and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.[2] The company is headquartered in London and has offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Dubai.[1]

History

City Index was founded by Chris Hales and Jonathan Sparke in September 1983 and started trading in March 1984 offering spread betting. In 2001, the company launched its CFD Trading function in the UK. During 2005, City Index acquired the IFX Group, in doing so procuring FX broker IFX Markets and spread betting provider Finspreads.com. The following year, the group opened offices in Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai to serve clients across the Asia Pacific region.

In 2008, City Index purchased FX Solutions, a US market leader in retail and white label foreign exchange services. 2009 saw City Index launch City Trading, the first spread betting and CFD trading application for the iPhone.[1] This app was later also available on Blackberry and Android devices.[3]

In Autumn 2012, City Index ran the Trading Academy - a six-week web series produced to demonstrate that with the right education, technical support, dedication and discipline, aspiring traders from a range of backgrounds and experience levels can be taught how to trade the financial markets.[4][5]

In November 2014 the company was sold to US based rival GAIN Capital for $118 million by Michael Spencer who had owned the company since it 1997 when he had purchased controlling interest from its original founders.

GAIN Capital is s financial services company based in Bedminster, USA. The company offers services including Introducing brokers, white label partnerships, multi-asset liquidity access and institutional ECN (Electronic Communication Network) trading.[6] GAIN Capital handles an average monthly trade volume of $501.2bn and employs over 800 people worldwide. GAIN Capital is regulated in 9 jurisdictions worldwide and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as GCAP.[7]

City index now operates in four major regions, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East.

Brands

City Index Limited - Established in 1983 as one of Britain’s first spread betting providers, the company carried on growing - and in 2001 launched its Contract for difference (CFD) trading function in the UK.

Finspreads - Finspreads is a leader in interactive online spread betting starting in 1999 before it was acquired by the Group in 2005.[1] City Index Group relaunched its updated Finspreads brand in January 2013.[8]

Forex.com - Foreign exchange broker Forex.com was founded in 2001 and is part of the GAIN Capital Group. The brand operates predominantly in the United States and currently has affiliates and partners in over 140 countries, processing 62 million trades globally in 2015.[9] The Forex.com service offering was extended to the United Kingdom in 2017.[10]

SALT - Based in Truro, Cornwall, SALT (Short And Long Trading) is a personal trading service providing independently researched advice on CFDs, spread bets and rolling spot FX products.[11]

GTX - The GTX electronic communications network is owned by GAIN Capital designed to offer a pool of FX liquidity from both anonymous and disclosed liquidity providers to institutional traders.[12]

Daniels Trading - Daniels Trading is a futures brokerage firm based in Chicago, United States. The firm was established by Andy Daniels in 1995 and was acquired by GAIN Capital in March 2014.[13]

Faraday Research - Faraday Research provides real time trade signals for CFD trading, spread betting markets, cash equity and spot FX markets.

iPhone trading platform

In October 2009, City Index launched City Trading, a mobile spread betting application for the iPhone.[14] The innovation contributed to the company's entire mobile trading offering being named 'Best Mobile Trading Platform' at the MoneyAM Online Finance Awards 2010 and 2011.[15] City Trading is also available on Blackberry OS6 and Android mobiles, the first spread betting and CFD App for these devices.[16]

Desktop Trading Platforms

City Index currently offers a suite of trading platforms which include Advantage Web,[17] AT Pro[18] and MetaTrader 4.[19]

Advantage Web is a browser based trading platform which offers traders HTML5 charts, a fundamental and technical analysis portal and real-time market news from Reuters.[20] The Advantage Web platform was awarded Best Spread Betting Platform at the ADVFN International Finance Awards 2017.[21]

AT Pro is a downloadable, professional trading platform with enhanced functionality. Traders can create their own trading templates in programming languages including C#, .NET and Visual Basic. The AT Pro platform also offers trading signals, technical indicators and access to a technical and fundamental research portal.

City Index also offers an MT4 platform[22] which is the company’s dedicated FX trading platform.[23] The platform offers traders automated trading strategies, custom indicators and a customisable economic calendar.

City Index Trading Academy

In October 2012, City Index launched City Index Trading Academy – an online TV series and competition aimed to demonstrate that with education and support, anyone can learn to trade the global markets.[24]

The competition took place over six weeks as eight traders competed for a £100,000 cash prize. The series was broadcast on City Index’s website and syndicated on YouTube.[25] City Index Trading Academy was won by trainee Black Taxi Cab driver John Walsh, who delivered a return on investment of 23.6% in the finale.[26]

Commercial partnerships

City Index has partnered with a number of financial institutions to provide their clients with Forex, Contract For Difference (CFD) and spread betting services under a fully branded white-label product solutions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "About City Index". City Index.
  2. ↑ "Financial Conduct Authority". Financial Services Register (FCA).
  3. ↑ "City Index launches mobile trading for Android, Blackberry, Java & Windows devices". UK. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  4. ↑ "Content marketing case study: City Index and The Trading Academy". UK. 12 August 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Trainee cabbie scoops £100,000 in 'X-Factor for traders'". Financial News. UK. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "GAIN Capital About Us".
  7. ↑ "New York Stock Exchange: GCAP".
  8. ↑ "City Index Group relaunches Finspreads". fxmm. January 7, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Forex.com About Us".
  10. ↑ "Forex.com UK".
  11. ↑ "SALT Website".
  12. ↑ "GTX Website".
  13. ↑ "Investor Relations Press Release".
  14. ↑ AM - The future of trading is here, and it's mobile
  15. ↑ Money AM Online Finance Awards 2010 results
  16. ↑ "City Index launches mobile trading for android, blackberry, java and windows devices". American News Report. UK. 9 February 2011.
  17. ↑ "City Index Advantage Web Platform Details".
  18. ↑ "City Index AT Pro Platform Details".
  19. ↑ "City Index MT4 Platform Details".
  20. ↑ "Reuters Market News".
  21. ↑ "ADVFN Awards 2017".
  22. ↑ "MetaTrader 4".
  23. ↑ "City Index MT4 Details".
  24. ↑ "City Index to run Trading Academy TV series". 13 September 2012. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013.
  25. ↑ "City Index Trading Academy reaches a thrilling conclusion". 19 December 2012. Archived from the original on 6 August 2013.
  26. ↑ "Black Cabbie trainee wins City Index Trading Academy and £100,000". 4 December 2012.
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