Forex Expo Dubai 2026 - The Competition For Attention

First of all, an update on Dubai itself and travel there, for those of you who might not have been there recently. The flight was not as empty as I was expecting. The hotel I was staying in was completely full. It seems like it is definitely business as usual, for a business traveller at least. In meetings, locals talk about the 'conflict' in general, rather than specific, terms. It definitely seems like it has all been pushed to one side and everyone is still talking about building business in a very positive way. On my way in from the airport, the taxi driver waved my question about Iran and the US away with his hand. "Everything is normal". The Expo was as busy, if not busier, than last year.

I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to sleep after going to an FX trade show. There are so many people you bump into, new people you meet, people you have been speaking with but meet for the first time in person, and you work out if they look like they sound. Multiple conversations on lots of different subjects, one after the other.

Then, especially at something like Forex Expo Dubai, there are all the attention-grabbing stands (some more successful than others, more on this below) and all the 'innovative' techniques being used to draw you in for a conversation. All of this, combined with the amount of coffee you feel you need to drink and the lunch you don't have, can leave you pretty wired by the end of the day. Not sure how many miles you end up walking when trying to cover the large exhibition halls in Dubai, but I am sure it can feel like you have walked a few. (Oh, I will just pop back to that stand and see if that person is free now. Oh, they're away for 30 minutes. I will come back again later.) My natural habitat has usually been B2B expos and conferences. However, I do enjoy the razzmatazz of the retail focused events but they can fry your brain a bit more than the B2B events.

In his book The Sirens' Call, US TV News anchor Chris Hayes argues that our attention has become a commodity that businesses compete ever harder to capture. The Forex Expo is the trade show embodiment of this. Lots of Gold giveaways, a Bollywood star, lifestyle influencers like Mo Vlogs with millions of followers, giant video walls, people dressed as robots, someone wandering around in a fur coat and a fox mask. Mr Hayes would have had plenty of material to work with here.

Exness' 3D corner display Dubai Forex Expo 2026

Here are some thoughts from this year's Forex Expo Dubai, billed as the world's largest trading event. (I heard someone say it had broken the Guinness World Record, for the second time, for the most people at a forex, financial or retail trading event. Not sure.)

A quick note on the photos: some of them were taken in the last hour of the last day, when the halls were starting to empty. So if a stand looks quiet, I am sure there were moments when they were rammed but I was there at the ‘wrong’ time.

The Cost Of Getting Noticed

Before going any further, I want to take my virtual hat off to all the marketing teams in all the companies exhibiting. The work that must go into these things must be enormous. Starting from the drawing board of the stand design, to the free merch and giveaways, the brochures, the incentives and the promotions, all for what amounts to about 14 hours of being live, and trying to make the whole thing deliver a decent ROI.

In terms of costs, word seems to be that the space for the larger stands costs around $100k. Then add the cost of the physical stand itself, getting the staff there, the rental of the sports car for the stand, hiring an infuencer for the day etc. Could be another $100k.

IC Markets' Formula 1-themed stand.

How many accounts do you have to sign up to make it pay off? I would be very interested to know if it actually does pay off. With roughly 20,000 visitors, you need quite a few of those who might be opening $50 accounts to make a dent. But hey, you may get a whale client. You have to be in it to win it. Of course, account openings are only one measure. An introducing broker or affiliate with the right audience might justify the whole trip on their own.

The Attendees

Tickets to attend this expo are free, which is a good strategy to get the crowds in. In 2025, it was very difficult to walk along the lanes between the stands because there was so much human traffic. It was a little less dense this year, but the halls were bigger, so maybe in total it was the same or more people, just more spaced out. The actual experience of wandering about was more comfortable than last year.

The attendees seemed very heavily weighted towards the Indian community, of whom perhaps 70 to 80% were men, mostly in their 20s and 30s. Maybe 5% seemed to be local men in traditional kanduras. Once you notice that, a lot of the marketing strategies on the floor makes sense.

The main large hall was focused on retail brokers with huge flagship stands. I find the designs of these stands and how they compete to get visitors, fascinating. There was a B2B hall off to the side, perhaps a fifth of the size of the retail hall. The stands in the B2B section were, of course, much more sober and understated.

So what were some of the competing retail brokers' tactics for getting the punters' contact details, or getting them to sign up?

Gold Giveaways - The Instagram Audience

The organisers themselves had some interesting ideas. As an affiliate (which is what I chose as my 'persona' for the event), you were given a 'passport' with all the key sponsors' and exhibitors' logos. If you collected at least 12 stamps from these different sponsors, you could enter a draw for a 100g gold bar. Nice idea to get provable minimum traffic from affiliates.

kept seeing these bright neon transparent bags that people were carrying around with SGFX branding. I had to go and see where they were coming from. At their stand they had a promotion called the 'Gold Rush'. These were regular raffles through the day, announced over the digital signage above their stand. A very enthusiastic lady with a radio mic, separated from the punters behind the defensive wall, was encouraging the gathered crowd (about five deep at this point) to take a photo of the stand, post it to Instagram and tag SGFX for the chance to win a small bar of gold, worth about $50.

The crowd at SGFX's 'Gold Rush' raffle

An English guy next to me with a bright orange affiliate lanyard around his neck explained what was going on. He seemed to be of the opinion that it was worth bothering with. Again, you've got to be in it to win it, I suppose.

Interestingly, he seemed to be part of a large posse of affiliates with the same lanyard, which appeared to be their own design. A clever way of signalling that you are an affiliate for hire. Again, a subtle but perhaps effective way of vying for attention from the right partners. (Someone actually stopped me at one point and said "hey you are an affiliate (having seen my badge), we need to talk".

Influencers definitely seem to be the name of the game these days. I don't think a successful influencer is going to be bothered to post a photo of a brand for $50, but you've got to start somewhere.

There were two or three punching balls on different broker stands. Seems a bit of an odd one, that. Not sure of the appeal or the logic. But hey, it adds to making the place feel like a fairground.

VT Markets had the old grab-the-bar-of-gold challenge (or, as it turned out, a bar of gold-coloured plastic) from a hole in a block of ice. Now, it seemed to me that there isn't really any benefit to having the hole in an actual block of real ice because, as the day wears on and the hole gets bigger, the ice melts to water (which a couple of the marketing people seemed to be spending their time dealing with) and the w/hole thing seems to lose its appeal.

Why not just have a challenging hole in a thick, transparent plastic box? The hole stays the same size, there is no running water to deal with and the challenge remains the same.

VT Markets' ice-block challenge: the attraction with a melting deadline.

Bodyguards and Bollywood

Later on, standing deep in catch-up conversation with someone, we were both suddenly pushed to one side by a rugby team's worth of bouncers in black suits chaperoning someone onto the WinproFX stand. Next to him was someone in an NFT-looking fox or wolf mask, dressed in what looked like a fur coat. Then this crew carried on up the lane, visiting other stands.

At first I thought that was all a bit rude, but then we thought we might as well tag along behind, as they were actually making it really easy for us to go where we wanted to go as they pushed everyone out of the way. Then I thought maybe I might hire some bodyguards next time to make myself look really important and significant, and see what happens.

It was all a bit intriguing, but also a bit weird. Maybe another influencer? Maybe an Indian film star?

Later on, when the fox/wolf person looked to be off duty and was hanging around with the bodyguards off to the side, I went over and asked one of them who the person in the mask was. He had absolutely no idea. If you do actually know, please let us know below.

The mystery loan wolf in a fur coat (maybe a regulator??)

It kind of made more sense later in the afternoon, when there was a huge crowd blocking my path at the WinproFX stand again and loads of people had their phone cameras out above their heads. There was a very glamorous lady on the stand having her photos taken everywhere.

She was Bollywood actress Urvashi Rautela, whose appearance she had announced on her Instagram feed the day before - she has 67.4 million Instagram followers and her feed has photos of herself with Leornardo Di Caprio, Gianni Infantino Bonfante, Benjamin Netanyahu. She moves in elite circles. As a face for a broker's brand, that's quite a catch.

While she was talking about the increasing possibility of a rate hike out of the US and rising bond yields, the crowd was busy taking photos and posting to Insta. The photos would all have the broker branding in the background and her name in the hashtag. Voilà! Job done. Neat idea.

Phones up at the WinproFX stand for Urvashi Rautela

The organisers were playing the same game. They invited Mo Vlogs, a Dubai-based lifestyle influencer whose feed runs from Bugattis to casually buying luxury properties, with 5.7 million Instagram followers. He announced his appearance at the show on his own feed.

FortressFX had a similar strategy, with another successful trader, obviously well known to his followers, on the stand and people queuing up to have a photo taken with him - Atul Patil, known on Instagram as TopG Traders, with 476,000 followers. His feed is Ferraris, watches and the lifestyle many young traders aspire to, with a bio offering free knowledge every day with one post carrying the offer: "You register, I give you free accounts." A much smaller audience than Urvashi Rautela's, but one that is trading focused. For a broker, that may be worth more.

Queuing for a photo with TopG Traders (Atul Patil) at the FortressFX stand.

Fortress FX - The 'Money Shot'

To give an example of how much clout influencers have now, I spoke with the CEO of multiple broker brands. He has one main brand and 5 others. When I asked why he manages so many, it comes down to the power of influencers. One main influencer cannot work with another influencer on the same brand. So to keep everyone happy, he has to create a new brokerage for each influencer to keep them separated. This is real clout. But it does make me think what does it take to keep influencers (IBs/Affiliates) tied to one broker or another. I have heard examples of Influencers moving their audience lock stock and barrel from one broker to another. A windfall for one, but a nightmare for the other.

Anyway, it's clear that now it's all about Insta, baby!

The Prop Firms Were Busy

The prop firms deserve a mention too, because their stands were some of the busiest I walked past. Funded Firm was advertising challenges from $39, with 1-step, 2-step and instant accounts, and LegionFunding was offering four ways to get funded. It is easy to see the appeal to a young, ambitious crowd.

Long line at the LegionFunding prop firm stand.

The Funded Firm stand with another celebrity /influencer

Does Your Stand Invite People In?

Equiti @EquitiCapital had a well-measured stand. Not as big as last year's, and the style had changed, but it oozed local presence and local confidence. For me it sat right in the sweet spot: very professional, but still attention-grabbing.

Equiti's stand Forex Expo Dubai 2026

VS Capital @VSCapital went for cool colours and a very welcoming feel. It was the place you would go for a decent conversation. To be honest, that is my favourite style of stand, and the kind I would go for myself. TradersHub had a very similar feel.

VS Capital's cool, welcoming stand

TradersHub stand Forex Expo Dubai 2026.

ATFX @atfx Not too flashy.

Hantec Markets' stand - business has come a long way under CEO Bashir Nurmohamed, who co-founded Hantec Markets in 2009.

One stand that had me a little confused was OPO's. It was effectively a Perspex castle with a wall around three-quarters of it, with a meeting room inside. Yes, it was striking, with strong branding, but I wasn't sure it was encouraging walk-in conversations. OPO is a well-regulated brand, and perhaps passing traffic wasn't the point. If the stand was built for pre-booked meetings rather than punters wandering past, it may have been doing exactly what it was designed to do.

OPO's Perspex enclosure. Difficult to know what was going on here

Exness had obviously spent huge. Big stand, with a video wall around 80% of it. The large video screen was on the inside as well as the outside. (If I had to guess, Exness most likely paid the most for their stand in terms of the infrastructure.) The AI theme was strong here.

This was the first time I had seen one of these 3D-type corner video displays that look so impressive on TikTok and Insta. From my photos, the 3D effect actually looks better in photos than it does up close and personal.

Exness corner video wall - (the 3D effect is better on photos than when there). Maybe this is also the point?

What was going on inside the space behind the wall? Inside, you could choose your trading persona and go on some sort of journey of discovery with a sales rep. All very futuristic, and actually quite cool. But I wasn't sure how a punter strolling by would end up in there. Was this phase two of the conversation with the sales rep at the defensive wall?

Behind the wall at Exness, visitors could "bring your trading archetype to life"

I didn't have time to digest it, but there was another robotic (presumably AI) themed thing going on at xChief: one of those Boston Dynamics-type dogs doing sit up and beg, and a lady in a neon-lit suit from the future. There were a few photos taken by a small crowd, but I might have missed the main event here. Mostly it seemed like people were waiting for something to happen. I moved on.

A robot dog and a suit from the future at xChief

Service With A Smile

Customer service. Top tip: if you are spending $100k+ on a stand, please try to make sure your salespeople are friendly, smiling and welcoming. I was with someone I know as we went up to one of these stands (we had been told we could win an iPhone) and were 'welcomed' by a couple of very surly, unfriendly representatives who were pretty dismissive. I mean, we could have been the next big whales their company was looking for, for all they knew.

MultiBank Group @multibankgroup were in your face as soon as you walked in through the door. Great position. Catch them fresh. And I have to say, the times I went past that stand, their reps were very friendly, smiling and working hard at welcoming you. Shout out to Aristos Panteli, who was helpful, welcoming and positive even late in the day at the end of day two.

MultiBank Group, the first stand through the door

The STARTRADER team were the same: really polite, helpful and welcoming, on a bright stand that drew people in.

STARTRADER's stand

It was really surprising how many other stands had staff who generally seemed quite surly. Some were sat in their chairs scrolling through their phones.

What A Stand Often Doesn't Tell You

I was surprised by the number of Saint Lucia-registered brokers (and at least one from the Comoros) there with large stands, sitting as next-door neighbours to the 'Tier-1' regulated brand names. I kind of think that the brokers should be organised in terms of their regulatory seniority, but that doesn't seem to matter to the potential clients. If you're a Saint Lucia or Comoros entity and your stand is as bright and flashy as the next stand, which belongs to a broker regulated throughout the world, you are literally on the same level playing field.

Doing a bit of deeper research there seems to have been at least 9 brokers with significant presence at the Expo who were exclusively registered in St Lucia. When I went to the website of one of the more prominent brokers in this group, there is an FAQ about its regulatory status which is answered in its 'Trust Centre'. Could I find the "Trust Centre" on their site? There were also at least 2 brokers exclusively registered in Comoros.

But a company registration is not a forex licence. Saint Lucia's Financial Services Regulatory Authority has said explicitly that forex business is not licensed there, and that documents from a forex broker suggesting it is licensed by, or affiliated with, the Authority are false and misleading. Yet one Saint Lucia-registered exhibitor I looked up after the show ends its website footer by saying it is licensed in Saint Lucia. Licensed by whom, exactly? The same website lists India and the United Arab Emirates among the places whose citizens and residents it does not serve. This company had a big stand at the Dubai expo.

Comoros is the other jurisdiction to watch. A number of offshore brokers describe themselves as licensed in Anjouan, one of the islands of the Union of the Comoros. The question is who issued that licence? The Central Bank of the Comoros, which licenses and supervises financial institutions in the country, has publicly warned about fictitious bodies claiming to issue financial licences there, and names the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority among them. It first issued that warning in 2022 and republished it last December.

(If you are a retail trader reading this - if a broker's licence comes from Anjouan, it is worth asking exactly who supervises the business, what protection you as a client will have, and where you can turn if something goes wrong.)

Which brings me back to the money. If a broker can find $100k+ for a large presence at this type of an event, why isn't a proper licence, in a jurisdiction such as Seychelles or Mauritius, a priority? I appreciate that a licence involves much more than a fee: capital, suitable people, controls and ongoing compliance, with no guarantee of approval. But that makes it a question about the priorities of the business, not the size of its stand. At the very least, visitors should be able to see which legal entity would hold their account and who regulates it. Some multi-regulated brokers made a point of proudly displaying their regulations on their stands. Others were hiding the fact they are not regulated.

Then there are the awards. The awards hall was Oscars quality. Many of the exhibitors suddenly had to down tools around 5.30pm to go off to get their awards (One industry veteran said with a cheeky smile, "I have to go to get my award for best event sponsor"). Winpro Prime has announced that it won Best Liquidity Provider at Forex Expo Dubai 2026. Hmmm. What exactly was assessed? Execution quality, depth of liquidity, financial strength, the legal counterparty, regulatory permissions? I would be interested to see the criteria and how they were applied. A trophy is a great marketing asset, but it cannot answer the questions a broker should ask before choosing a liquidity provider.

Preparing the hall for the Dubai Forex Expo Awards

Brokers Are Building Their Own Solutions

I spoke to a few broker CEOs and COOs who are reducing third-party software costs, such as their CRM, by building things in-house using, you guessed it, Claude Code. One of those actually has a computer science degree, so he knows what he's doing, and has fully tested his products to optimise the business and bring all these tools together. Some brokers are looking to minimise third-party dependencies and costs, and ultimately make their company valuations stronger. This is also what I am hearing in London and other trading firms elsewhere. The tools seem t be available now for trading businesses to go for their own development in house, and from the conversation I had, trading businesses are building in-house tools from aggregators, to GUIs, to CRMs. Everyone seems to have an AI project on the go.

Maybe this is a trend which the incumbent software providers are aware off - they need to make themselves sticky somehow to retail the business (adding value with their wider broker ecosystem, such as Tapaas?) or double-down on the aspects of their software suite that is hard to replicate in-house.

I also sat down with Ricardo Dias @RicardoDias , Business Development Manager at Spotware, the company behind cTrader @cTrader . Spotware used the show to debut cFinancial, its new liquidity arm, which means a broker can now get the platform, the bridge and the liquidity from one supplier, at low cost per million on FX and metals. We also covered how Spotware polices brokers, AI agents placing trades on cTrader, running algos from your phone, and two new products he would not tell me about. I suggested prediction markets. He might have said maybe. Article out shortly.

The Spotware stand (photo taken at the end of day 2 when most people had left)

I am also hearing more and more brokers announcing 24/7 Gold, Silver, Oil products, but I am also hearing that there is not much volume at weekends.

I also caught up with Adnan Khan ( @AK4xportal ) the CEO of @4XPORTAL and his COO Uzma Nighat ( @atariamarketing ), power users of LiquidityFinder! Was great to get their feedback on the site and what's happening in the industry. They understand the power of social media and how to use it (I recommend contacting them if you are a Dubai broker needing help with marketing. They now how to play, and win, the attention game).

Catching up with the CEO of 4XPortal, Adnan Khan

One of the most forward-looking conversations I had was with an outsourced dealing desk (ODD). The argument for an ODD is simple: running a dealing desk in-house is expensive. You need a minimum of two or three traders to run a desk effectively, they take holidays, and they can be poached by another firm. Why not outsource risk management to a firm that has the expertise? This one goes above and beyond on customer service, and they are exploring futures and options for risk management to improve client hedging. To me it seems that working with an outsourced dealing desk can make a lot of sense as they can share the expertise they are gathering from dealing with multiple brokers.

I also caught up with XTB Institutional @XOpenHub CEO Michal Copiuk. XTB had a huge advertising presence on the side of the highway outside the Expo centre. More on that conversation coming soon...

XTB side of building advertising outside the Expo

With XTB Institutional CEO Michal Copiuk

My Prediction on Prediction Markets

I got the sense that brokers are still very keen to get prediction market pricing out to their clients. One LP firm I was speaking to is almost ready with a product they can offer their clients. Another tech firm is doing something similar.

I am predicting that we will see access to prediction markets take off in 2027 as a widespread product. There is a missing piece in the jigsaw, the bridge between the major platforms, such as Kalshi, and the brokers: a way to turn their markets into CFD products that brokers can offer to clients, and on which they can choose whether or not to warehouse the risk.The other piece of course is understanding the regulation of these products region by region.

After The Stands Get Packed Away

I left Dubai thinking about the different ways brokers are trying to get ahead. On the floor, most of the competition was for attention: gold, celebrities, enormous screens and anything worth posting on Instagram. In private conversations, it was about cutting software costs, building technology in-house, handing risk to specialists and finding the next product clients might want to trade.

Getting someone to stop at your stand is a marketing strategy. Giving them a reason to become a client, and stay one, is a much longer job. And for visitors, the first question worth asking is not how big a broker's stand is, but how quickly it pays out.

Even with two full days, I only really covered about half of the expo. There was so much going on that I could easily have done with another two. (Which is, when I think about it, the whole idea behind LiquidityFinder: an industry expo that stays open all year).

Credit to the teams who put it all together, particularly those who were still welcoming and enthusiastic late on the second day.

There really is the sense that Dubai is where it's happening. Not just becaise of the expo but because so many firms are located there and the regulator both on the CMA side and VARA side are forward thinking and encouraging business. Dubai is a place where business gets done.

Leaving the expo - Dubai skyline

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