Lynnice Ng, Head of Marketing
Lynnice develops the marketing strategy for the MAS-licensed, Shanghai-headquartered brokerage firm based in Singapore, Orient Futures Singapore, and leads the team to execute sponsorship of events aligned with brand and business objectives.
With a Bachelor of Business degree and a Master of Arts (Contemporary China) from Nanyang Technological University, certificates of Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services (CMFAS) Module 2A and Module 6A, she is passionate about the financial services industry and takes pride in providing value to clients and all, in the areas of content and events.
Soon Yujian, Marketing Associate
Yujian is the content strategist and writer in the marketing department of Orient Futures Singapore.
With a Bachelor’s degree in English from Nanyang Technological University, he gathers insights about the derivatives industry and turns them into bite-sized news. He enjoys researching market news, industry trends, and reports. His research expertise is also readily presented in articles such as the QFI scheme, and informative articles such as the FIA article series.
Over the past few years, the pandemic has curbed import and export growth, yet, as regulations ease, many begin to resume seeking opportunities overseas.
Across the globe, cross-border collaborative opportunities and the concept of a global hub are also becoming more dominant. In this conference on APAC’s view, the speakers elaborate on the outlook of futures, cryptocurrency, and the derivatives market. Lastly, the conference demonstrates how countries adapt based on their geopolitical and localized circumstances.
Growth Opportunities
Currently, markets that are coming along the frontier/ emerging development stage are trying to work on areas that may not be able to be monetized in the next few quarters. These markets place a significant proportion of time to structure regulatory policies, best practices, market dates, inbound and outbound flows.
For countries such as India, option sophistication is more acceptable and there is a genuine sense to turn attention outbound. This sentiment is also maintained by other speakers:
“B3 is not a global exchange, but an exchange with global reach. It is important to build infrastructure and create an ecosystem. This can be done through partnerships, in which countries such as India, and Singapore (which are smaller and internationalized) are able to reach larger economies such as China or Russia.”
- Sérgio Gullo, Managing Director, International Business Development, Asia & Oceania, B3
For B3, the exchange is also working towards more products that can be operated with simple plug-and-play mechanisms so anyone can access the Brazilian market with ease. Maintaining a global outlook also entails various segments such as building on the carbon footprint opportunity in the Asia Pacific, so that more can enter the market from both the buy and sell sides.
Overall, ESG and carbon emissions continue to draw increased attention, while APAC points toward the direction of more interest and rollouts in the retail market over the next year. Apart from these factors, no drastic changes are anticipated in the next couple of years.
Outlook of China
From the east, the cash market and opportunities that are outbound to China have created new excitement. Despite the restricted access (trading tiers through QFI, connect schemes, and internationalized products), there is an increased uptake in international exposure, the creation of new thematic, and new opportunities.
“Standing out is like challenging for a champion league, we have to offer diversity like China’s offshore bond futures, swap connects, bond connect which makes it a compelling system… CSRC wants all points of access (in reference to inflows and sources of trade). Over the years they have grown but are just starting.”
-Kevin Rideout, Managing Director & Co-Head of Sales & Marketing, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.
With China as the prime example of its own model, the industry can use it as a reference point. From China, it can be observed that when assets under custody reach a certain value, they (whichever country with that achievement) will have to go outbound. Therefore, Chinese FCMs are also stretching muscles in preparation for the release.
Reiterating on point of growth, Mr Sérgio Gullo explains: “Brazil used to have high 3 digits inflation. That fell to 2 digits and eventually a single digit. At this point, retail investors had to push upwards, they were in search of more interesting products. This was a process from 500,000 investors at 6 million dollars to 5 million investors and billions of dollars. It is not a trend; it is a process that is going to stay… at the same time it is important to have exchange education and allow trader navigation.”
To add to the growth, it was discussed that it is not just about building volumes but also institutional space, there is more to look forward to such as the asset class mortgage which has room to grow.
Demographic and Definition
From the city of Tokyo to the entirety of Japan, there are about 4.1b aspiring middle class of 3 generations that are willing to engage in trade. In general, the older generations aim to trade stocks and familiar names but Gen Z’s trade differently, about 40% of them are into crypto.
When the spectrum of traders and range of products is wide, trade surveillance becomes an incredibly important tool. It provides guard rails to open multiple products in smaller client boxes, each with its own tailored needs and criteria.
To add to that, the term “retail traders” is not easily defined. In Asia, retail traders are high-net-worth individuals. It is now a question of “breaking price transparency into the market for high-net-worth individuals”. As an example, it was mentioned that retail traders from Taiwan are knocking on the doors for the government to allow them to trade but nothing can be done.
It is expected that sustainability is not likely to beat the levels of enthusiasm that it is today. But there should be a level of caution and regulations to protect each layer or stratum of asset classes. This will benefit the young that have no knowledge of simple compound interest (for example, in saving money), and provide the right level of education.
Are we Overregulating?
Currently, the market is fit for purpose. There are all types of markets, frontier markets, and emerging markets, regulators are willing to engage in education or to help each market segment.
“It is about looking for pockets of standardization, not the entirety of standardization across countries which cannot be done, the conditions across the US, Europe, and Asia are far too different. Europe on the other hand is overregulated and it stifles trade potential”
- FIA Asia 2022
Concluding Note
It is about trying to build an ecosystem. Futures contracts alone in isolation cannot be managed as well as a group of assets under management (AUM).
Looking across the Asia Pacific, most countries and institutions are establishing their own set of policies. Standardization will be a problem if individuals don’t know the quality of product delivery, risks, and opportunity.
For carbon trading, more consolidation will pull together the fragmented markets. It is a game of connecting the dots, bringing sources of data together to make it effective and sensible.
Start Trading With Orient Futures Singapore
Being an Overseas Intermediary of Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE), when foreign clients participate in internationalised futures contracts in these Chinese markets with us, they have direct access to trading, clearing, and settlement. Our parent company, Shanghai Orient Futures, is the largest broker in terms of aggregated volume across the five regulated exchanges in China.
Orient Futures Singapore also currently holds memberships at the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Asia Pacific Exchange (APEX), and ICE Futures Singapore (ICE SG).
We provide premium customer service at an affordable cost to all our clients. Our team will be there for you 24 hours on trading days to provide a one-stop portal for all your trades, with simple processes and an intuitive user interface that has low or near-to-zero latency.
