CME Group’s focus on Asia as overseas investors drive up volumes during regional trading hours
Christopher Fix, managing director for Asia at CME Group, says investors are shifting towards Asia, laying off risks and widening their portfolios
CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange operator, is seeing increased global trade during Asian market hours, heightened by overseas investors hedging rising geopolitical risks.
With greater global market liquidity since the 2008 financial crisis, overseas investors from the US and Europe are using the “8-till-8” Asian trading time zone to shift their risk as tensions rise around the world, making the region crucial to their international growth strategy, Christopher Fix, managing director for Asia at CME Group, said in an interview.
“Markets are much more deeply globally entrenched than 10 years ago. When there are not enough places to move your risk it creates gaps and pockets that really exacerbate any crisis scenario,” said Singapore-based Fix.
Now, “there are global liquidity pools, an ability to go between time zones and geographies that didn’t exist 10 years ago.”
Rising global tensions such as the US and China trade war, Britain negotiating a Brexit deal, interest rate hikes in the US and emerging market volatility are playing on market sentiment.