AS volatility slowly crept back into Emerging Markets, the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) witnessed a spike in FX products' trading during the month of May. DGCX, which is the region's largest and most diversified exchange currently lists thirteen currency pairs. The increase in volatility helped the Exchange record its highest traded volume of the year with over 1.43 million lots traded in May. Trading volumes in DGCX's Non-INRUSD FX segment grew 53% from the same period last year. Amongst the G6 currency pairs, Japanese Yen saw a seven-fold increase in volume. While the Euro, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar futures saw significant year-on-year increases of 102%, 94%, and 64% respectively which marked the latter two pairs best performance to-date. Among the precious metals products, the recently listed Shanghai Gold futures traded an impressive volume of 2,889 contracts valued at CNH 805 million. The Yuan (CNH) denominated gold product has had a positive knock-on effect on DGCX's other gold products including the Loco Dubai Spot Gold which continued to shine recording strong growth of 1131% from last year. Trading in Silver futures also saw volume growth of 101% from April 2017. DGCX has also increased its focus on expanding its educational initiatives and enhancing its risk management systems. The Exchange has been actively involved in educating the trading community, ranging from avid traders to students, through its Trading Campus – launched in collaboration with the Envision Trading Centre. Trading Campus and the DGCX signed a MoU with Amity University Dubai to deliver a specialized course on financial markets with exposure to real-time markets by using live trading simulators during the month of May. Gaurang Desai, CEO of the DGCX, said: "We are focused on creating long-term value for our stakeholders and market participants. Whether it is building liquidity in products, raising awareness or imparting the right knowledge; we want to make sure traders and investors are prepared for the challenges of fast moving markets. The economically turbulent landscape of 2017 has highlighted the need to make ‘informed choices' in order to protect oneself from market adversities. ‘Informed choices' can only be made by possessing the appropriate knowledge and skills with regard to investing and trading while trying to achieving the balance between risk and reward. This is why we are adding increased emphasis on our educational agenda, and hope to educate as many traders and investors in the UAE and the wider region to benefit from ‘informed choices'." The Exchange also recently launched a highly efficient and improved Risk Management System called ActiveRisk. The state-of-the-art risk management system will identify the aggregate counterparty credit risk during default scenarios. It has been implemented by the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC), DGCX's Central Counter Party (CCP), to enhance regulatory compliance with the IOSCO-PFMI and ESMA standards. "We are constantly improving our processes, systems and compliance standards to match them with international benchmarks. As the leading exchange in the region, we are committed to provide our community with robust risk management tools and cutting-edge knowledge to trade and transact with confidence," Desai noted.
