Study on the new financial products traded on the Forex Market

Abstract

This paper puts forward an analysis of the new trends in terms of foreign currency transactions and, implicitly, the new financial products traded on the Forex market with a view to identify the category they belong to, namely foreign currency transactions or foreign exchange derivative transactions. Also, the implications of including the new products traded on the Forex market into one of the two categories have been taken into account, both in terms of market microstructure and in terms of investor-wise implications. Thus, the analysis showed that, by changing the destination of the amounts deposited by clients into the settlement account of the Forex services provider, i.e. from amounts deposited in order to cover the equivalent of purchased foreign currencies into amounts deposited in order to cover any price difference, financial products such as currency pairs and rolling spot Forex acquire features similar to those of derivatives (such as Contracts For Difference - CFDs). Further, acknowledging these financial products of the Forex market (currency pairs and rolling spot Forex) as derivatives would determine a series of transformations of the microstructure of the market they are traded on, changes that would contribute to a better protection of investors and to improved monitoring and prevention by the supervisory authorities of the potential risks induced by such transactions on the financial market.