Cleartrade Exchange, the global electronic marketplace for freight and commodity derivatives has seen significant take-up since its official launch in January 2011. In the 1st quarter of 2011 over 70,000 lots were executed through the venue.
Cleartrade Exchange launched trading markets earlier in the year for Dry Freight Forward Agreements FFAs, Iron Ore and Steel swaps and has seen strong hybrid use by Freight Investor Services (FIS) in the first few months of operation. FIS’s brokers have continued to register phone orders, using the “block trade” functions of the Cleartrade Exchange platform to execute matched trades for clearing. Acting on behalf of principals, brokers have been entering orders on the central order books. This enables the FIS brokers to take advantage of automatic spread and ratio calculations, giving them a more accurate view of the market, and resulting in a far greater number of matched trades.
Kris Payne, Senior Broker at FIS said: “The adoption of Cleartrade Exchange has been steady and we see advantages to using such a flexible platform. Not all our clients want to trade on screen and so the blend of working the market by phone and registering trades and the use of the central screen is the right combination.”
Richard Baker, CEO of Cleartrade Exchange, said: “Cleartrade Exchange has seen a great deal of interest since our official announcement in January as a regulated operator. Membership approvals for principals, brokers, investment banks and general clearing members are progressing well and this, coupled with the execution of such a high volume of trades across freight and iron ore, is testament the approach we are taking to the market is correct. Working closely with every client is really important and Kris and the team at FIS have been very supportive.” Baker concluded, “Our next major milestone, in continuing this success, is the go-live of a number of principals on the platform in late April.”
Lee Kirk, Head of Coal and Freight Trading of Gunvor International BV said: “We have been very impressed by the breadth of offering from Cleartrade Exchange, the completeness of the platform and the multi-asset trading style of the platform; this aligns well to our trading needs. We have been pleased to sign up as Trading Members and look forward to participating in this central marketplace from April.”