OREANDA-NEWS. Trading in structured products via the Börse Frankfurt venue grew substantially in 2015. The number of orders executed rose for the third consecutive year to a total of 2.35 million transactions – around 22 percent more than in 2014. Turnover also increased year-on-year, by about 19 percent to €18.8 billion. The responsibility for trading in the roughly 1.4 million investment and leveraged products lies with Börse Frankfurt Zertifikate AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Börse AG since mid-2013.

The new quote request functionality for structured products has also been well received since its introduction in December 2015. The new order routing process combines features of direct trading with the advantages of exchange trading. Investors can send price requests to the Börse Frankfurt venue via their broker’s order interface and receive a current indicative price. If the price appeals, clients can submit a limit order with a single click, or can place a new price request. Orders executed following a quote request are always at either the indicative price provided or better; partial executions are not possible.

“We are the first exchange in Europe to introduce a quote request for structured products for private investors. This gives investors and traders considerable added value – compared to other exchanges as well as off-exchange direct trading, which is not subject to the strict transparency and neutrality requirements that an exchange must meet. Additional brokers have already announced their plans to offer quote requests to their clients in the next few months,” said Simone Kahnt-Eckner, Börse Frankfurt Zertifikate AG Executive Board member.

To make certificate trading even more attractive, a price campaign was launched on 1 January, waiving the exchange fee for trading in leveraged products and certificates via Börse Frankfurt on all orders up to €1,000.

Florian Claus, Börse Frankfurt Zertifikate AG Executive Board member, added, “With this offer we are aiming to increase interest in our products and their many possibilities among existing and new customers. We also want to steer traders towards the exchange and “real” securities when they are deciding between leveraged stock market products and bilateral contracts (CFDs).”

Börse Frankfurt's market share for structured products in Germany in 2015 remained at a similar level to the previous year, with 38.8 percent for executed transactions and 36.1 percent for turnover; however, the share of executed orders rose to 42.5 percent in Q4. The average order size fell slightly from €8,220 in 2014 to €8,003 in 2015. On the other hand, the number of leveraged product orders executed climbed by more than 26 percent, with an average order size of €5,421. The proportion of transactions by international participants also increased, to 11 percent (previous year: 7.7 percent).