I’ve always been fascinated by the forex trade world. The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, by a huge margin. Where stocks traded per day reach around $200 billion globally, on the forex market over $5 trillion is traded.
No wonder the Zim government is failing to rid our streets of the forex traders, there’s money to be made. The corner dealers are but a drop in the ocean. Where the street money changers have to worry about arrest and confiscation of their money, the whales are trading online in peace.
Online forex trading is huge in Zimbabwe. We have thousands upon thousands of traders quietly plying their trade. We interviewed one online forex trader a while ago and it was an interesting conversation. You can read that here.
In that interview he mentioned how the choice of a broker is the most important one a trader will ever make. After all, the broker is the ‘bank’ with which you deposit your funds. Get it wrong and you might fail to utilise those funds when you need to, or worse still, they might vanish with that money altogether.
So, when one broker made a splash about coming to Zimbabwe we had to check it out.
TP Global comes to Zim
If this were just another broker coming to town we would not be talking about them. The story of how TP Global came to Zimbabwe starts with two Zimbabweans flying to Dubai and talking about the Zim situation with them.
These Zimbos had been in the business here in Zimbabwe for a while and were acutely aware of the challenges Zimbabwean traders were facing. So, they asked TP Global if they could solve for those challenges. Apparently they told TP Global to not bother coming to Zim if they didn’t solve those problems.
The TP Global story
Before we even get to the Zim specific solutions, TP Global had to be legit first. How does TP Global compare against other brokers.
This broker was formed by traders and they claim to know what the trader needs. Their core strength is adapting their offering to meet specific market needs.
TP Global says the two most important things to consider when choosing a broker are regulation and customer service.
The trader we interviewed mentioned this regulation thing. Remember, a broker is a bank of sorts and when they are regulated and forced to put up some kind of ‘security deposit’, you know the chances of them disappearing with your money are reduced. Not eliminated, but significantly reduced.
TP Global is registered in two countries, one of which is Mauritius. That’s all well and good but there are many other regulated brokers. Being regulated doesn’t make them special.
They claim their customer service is top notch too. I cannot verify this and besides, that’s something you would expect them to say even if it weren’t true. However, I’m inclined to believe them at this moment though because of…
The custom Zim solution
TP Global operates globally and had over 200,000 clients as of a few months ago. The TP Global guys, including the CEO, are in Zimbabwe right now and meeting and talking to Zimbos.
One of the biggest challenges Zimbabwean traders have been facing is that of deposits and withdrawals. Trying to get money into a trading account is expensive. That is because agents in the market charge a pretty penny even to deposit.
Apparently, in Harare one can expect to be charged 10-15% of the deposit amount as agent fees. In Bulawayo word is that reached 35% at some point. That’s putting you in a deep hole before you even trade. Trading is risky as it is, no one needs this extra charge.
TP Global is coming in and working with agents directly. Offering to pay them directly in exchange for them not charging traders for deposits. This way when a trader is depositing into their TP Global account, the amount they hand over to the agent is the amount that reflects in their account.
To achieve this, TP Global had to create a Zim specific portal. See, the reason Zimbos have to deal with agents that charge that much just to deposit is because they can’t use the formal banking system. No Zimbo needs an explanation as to why that is. It involves a lack of trust, crazy low exchange rates, legality questions and more.
In other countries forex traders just visit a bank and deposit, no hassle involved. Therefore the Zimbabwean portal, which does not involve linking to banks had to be different. It had to be custom.
Everything else you need from brokers
There are other features people have come to expect from brokers and TP Global looks to be competitive there too.
Want copy trading, algorithmic trading and the works? You’re covered. I hear peer to peer transfers are popular here in Zimbabwe. You will be able to do that too.
I noticed that traders love synthetic indices and TP Global has 22 synthetic pairs. They aim to increase that to around 35 by year end.
Listen, at the end of the day I am not a forex trader although I’m seriously thinking about getting into the game now. I don’t know if this sounds good to traders.
If you are a trader, do let us know what you think. What questions do you have for these guys? We’ll be sure to ask them.
Better yet, if you’re in Harare you can attend their seminar at The Nexus at Batanai Mall. They will be addressing IBs today and agents tomorrow, the 18th of August. Then it’s off to Bulawayo on the 19th.
You can find out more and register to attend the seminar via a Google form here, or via WhatsApp here.
Also read:
Online Forex Trading Is Growing In Zimbabwe, We Interviewed One Of The Traders
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