Tokyo Commodity Exchange Inc. (“TOCOM” or the “Exchange” hereafter) announced today that Yuanta Futures Co., Ltd., (“Yuanta Futures” hereafter) one of the largest Futures Commission Merchants of Taiwan, was approved to acquire its membership. It is the first Taiwanese FCM to become a TOCOM member.
Yuanta Futures will execute proprietary trading through a Broker Member until the end of this year. From January next year, it will start intermediating Taiwanese customers’ orders to a Broker Member as well. At present, Yuanta Futures is in the process of developing its system to directly connect to the TOCOM system taking full advantage of its Direct Access* trading method. Yuanta Futures is expected to become the first to use this new access method, which TOCOM introduced on September 27 this year.
Taiwan’s futures market has been rapidly growing with trading volume expanding by 70 folds in the past ten years. It is said that 44 percent of the market participants are retail investors, for which the government encourages FCMs to develop investment funds. The FCMs are required to allocate part of the investment funds to overseas markets for risk diversification. TOCOM hopes to attract such investment needs to its market, where there is only one hour time difference with Taiwan.
Note: Direct Access: TOCOM adopted an access method which allows a Broker Member to provide its Customers with direct access to TOCOM system for placing orders.