FEATURE INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL CHAI, CEO OF BLACKWELL GLOBAL

Global Banking & Finance Review find out more about Blackwell Global, trading in Nigeria and the year ahead.

Blackwell Global already have a strong presence in Auckland, Limassol and London, which other countries are you moving into?

Apart from Auckland, Limassol and London, we also have a strong presence in Shanghai, but China is a huge market and potentially there’s so much more we can do there. So far, 2014 has been an exciting year as we’ve expanded into Nigeria, Australia and Vietnam.

Nigeria is undergoing a profound transformation in the forex market with a lot of untapped potential. The people there are extremely enthusiastic about learning how to trade, so at the moment, it is exciting for my team to be working with them for various initiatives, There is encouraging expansion of our IB networks across the different states and this may potentially lead to another office opening in the near future.

Going forward, Southeast Asia is a region we have always been extremely keen to explore as there is an interesting mix of robust mature and emerging markets. We have a representative office in Singapore, Southeast Asia’s leading financial hub, as a proficient gateway to the region, with Vietnam leading the way for further expansion into this region.

How are you going about moving into new global market areas and which ways are you incorporating to educate new clients into FX and CFD trading?

We pride our business model on building and treasuring relationships, placing a strong emphasis on cultural awareness. Different regions require different strategies but in general, we go through great lengths to hire engaging native Country Managers. We also send our representatives over to spend time to understand the nuances of cross-cultural interaction.

Depending on the culture and the country, we hold various types of training, seminars and workshops. Our Research team in New Zealand delivers regular market outlooks, currency picks and educational material. This is available on our website – http://www.blackwelltrader.com/blackwell-research.asp. All of these initiatives help new clients of various expertise navigate their way into the trading realm.
With your expansion into Lagos, what are the problems you foresee in such a volatile market and what are the benefits Blackwell Global can bring to traders?

Circumventing the onslaught of scams and unreliable services in Nigeria, Blackwell Global offers the assurance that traders are looking for in a brokerage – transparency, training and education, local presence, customer service as well as the convenience and safety of local deposits.

Internet outages are rather frequent in Nigeria. As another way to sidestep this issue, our Lagos office operates with an open-door policy, providing a fully-equipped trading room with fast broadband speeds. We also offer free VPS to our Nigerian clients which provides a secure trading environment with minimal slippage anytime and anywhere. To top that off, we regularly run trading workshops and seminars to forge an ongoing learning community, which is much valued in this region. In this manner, we hope to empower them towards their own financial success.

Does Blackwell Global have any new technical services you are bringing in over 2014?

We’ll be launching Blackwell Trader Pro, our new institutional platform, giving hedge funds, family offices and multi-asset companies an advantage by being able to clear huge volumes at ease with very favourable pricings. This award-winning platform bridges institutional traders to liquidity providers, opening access to highly competitive spreads with precise execution while providing market depth with known counter parties. There is a slew of other benefits as well, from managing multiple order types on a wide rage of currency pairs to customising user interface for greater ease of use.

 Some other plans in place due to launch towards the end of the year are trading signals, EAs and managed accounts.

What future strategic advances if any are you looking to achieve in the future?

There are certainly a few markets we are eyeing that many consider exotic, and are seldom ventured into, but we will be balancing this out with stable markets that we have yet to announce. This year, we are looking into greater Africa and also expanding our reach to central Asia.