Sheer Markets launches long-anticipated retail NDF trading

June 01, 2021 - Having successfully worked through the challenges of the Coronavirus Pandemic during 2020 to establish the company, and having received a regulatory license from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in mid-December 2020, Sheer Markets has today announced their official launch of Non-Deliverable Forwards (NDFs) and Emerging Market FX (EMFX).

"Established with a mission to introduce a new range of products in retail FX", Sheer Markets is among the first financial institutions to launch live streaming of NDFs, which until now, have been largely unavailable to online traders and investors through the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms.

With a 300% increase in institutional volume over the past 12 years, NDFs give retail traders and corporate entities the opportunity to enter an untapped market with new investment potential, allowing them to trade currencies like the Brazilian Real (BRL), Indian Rupee (INR) and Korean Won (KRW).

In addition to live streaming NDFs, EMFX and FX, Sheer Markets will be offering CFD trading in cryptocurrencies, equities, indices and commodities.

**Sheer Markets Co-Founder and Chairman Alex Ladouceur **commented: “It is with great excitement that we take our first step in introducing the online trading community to NDFs, as this is a product which has long remained undeveloped and conceals unprecedented investment potential. As the economies of EMFX and NDFs develop further, demand for these types of products from existing and new FX users is set to widen and accelerate, accompanied by an expansion in liquidity and increased turnover. Whereas so far there has been no viable streaming NDF service through many of the regular online trading platforms, now Sheer Markets will now be there to fill that gap and meet that need.”

Sheer Markets also intends on extending its product offering to not just retail, but also to corporate clients, with a unique opportunity for institutions. This means that while retail traders can invest and trade directly with Sheer Markets, institutional clients can benefit from Sheer Markets’ CFD and NDF liquidity provision.

The management team of Sheer Markets is made up of industry veterans with long track records (average of 30 years each) of building and managing FX businesses in both institutional and retail fx environments.

Prior to Sheer Markets, Alex Ladouceur, Chairman, was president of Jefferies Bache’s Commercial Division, responsible for global market-making, trading and brokerage activities in all commodity related businesses including precious metals, base metals, energy and agricultural products. Before Jefferies’ acquisition of Bache in 2011, Alex served as chief executive officer of Prudential Financial Inc.’s Bache Commodities group for more than a decade.

Alex served as President of Credit Lyonnais Rouse Ltd. [CLR] from 1992 and as a Board Director of CLR in London from 1994.In 1998, he was appointed Managing Director of Global Cash Markets at CLR and Managing Director of Foreign Exchange at Credit Lyonnais. His responsibilities included leading their global market-making and sales of OTC services, including structured derivatives and asset management products.

Howard Carr, CEO Sheer Markets, has had a 35-year career covering the management of multi-market trading intermediaries including US securities houses, FCM’s, boutique investment management / financial advisory firms, international banks and regulated online brokerage firms. In the mid to late 1990’s Howard relocated to London where he became Global Head of Foreign Exchange for CL Rouse, the French derivatives arm of Credit Lyonnais. This tenure also involved a 2-year relocation to New York, where Howard became Director of Foreign Exchange Trading for Credit Lyonnais.

In 2001 Howard relocated back to London to join Prudential Bache, a division of Prudential Securities Inc where he was appointed as a member of the Executive Board, with the responsibility of managing Global Derivatives for the group in the UK and Europe regions.

Between 2011 - 2019 Howard owned and managed various Financial Advisory businesses in Australia.

Gareth Thomas, Executive Director and Chief Commercial Officer, has 25 years of experience covering FX and Derivative Sales, Trading and online technology. Gareth started his career at NatWest Markets, providing treasury services and FX dealing for UK corporate clients. In the mid 1990’s Gareth moved into the FCM Credit Lyonnais Rouse, London, where his focus was market making and pricing of EFP currency futures.

During this tenure Gareth was posted to Copenhagen to oversee the development of one of the very first online trading systems under the banner name CL Markets.com, a precursor to Saxo Bank. He then continued with Credit Lyonnais Rouse where he relocated to New York, to operate their Capital Markets broking desk, before moving back to the Credit Lyonnais Rouse London operation to set up the soft commodities (sugar) desk.

Gareth then became the first employee of GFT in London, and over the course of the next 10 years as Head of Trading, Gareth helped guide GFT to become one of the market leaders globally in the global eFX space. Subsequent to the purchase of GFT by Gain Capital, Gareth has remained very active in the eFX space, and has held senior positions in the eFX space in New York, working with names such as BGC (Mint) and BTIG.

Glenn Grant, Executive Director, has a career of 34 years in London, Sydney, Copenhagen, New York and Dubai, working in senior positions for Saxo Bank, Rosenthal Collins, Meridian Forex and Kraken, amongst others.

Glenn started his career with Northern Trust in London in FX before moving on to Coutts and JP Morgan in client relationship and liquidity management roles respectively. Glenn moved to Denmark in the mid 90’s to be part of the initial team which founded Midas taking charge and building the Asian desk to its eventual opening in Singapore based on record client growth.

There then began a period of e-platform development and roll-out with Meridian Forex in Australia in the early 2000’s where Glenn was instrumental in building from the ground up a high frequency trading platform before returning to Saxo Bank to head the US sales/trading desk in 2007.

Glenn moved to Rosenthal Collins in New York and where he was involved in providing NDF liquidity to institutional clients, he was then recruited to set up in conjunction with an Saudi investment group a Shariah compliant derivatives brokerage in the United Arab Emirates under the auspices of the DMCC.

He then was commissioned by Kraken to assist them in securing the first cryptocurrency exchange license within the Abu Dhabi Global Markets ahead of a wider GCC launch.

Ashraf Agha, Chief Compliance Officer, also has over 30 years' experience in FX and CFD Operations and Compliance.

Ashraf was a Director and the Head of Treasury in Saxo Bank (2000-2008) where he was responsible for the Bank’s liquidity management, hedging of FX exposures, Compliance / AML, short term investments, Clients’ Money reconciliations & SWIFT administration

In 2008 Ashraf a was Co-founder and Executive Director of CFH Markets (Finalto), accountable for all operations including back office, risk management, liquidity, payments & cash management, end of day processes & bank relations.

Between 2011 and 2014, Ashraf was COO of the Foreign Exchange business at Marex Spectron with responsibility for business development & strategy, liquidity, execution, designation notices, prime brokerage, clearing, margin management & regulatory matters.

Since 2015, Ashraf has been working as a Compliance and Regulatory consultant, helping Financial Institutions on a Strategic level in change management and in digitising their processes. Ashraf has held many Senior Management roles with various UK FCA regulated firms and he is currently a Compliance Officer and an AMLCO in Cyprus.

Ashraf is a Member of the Association of Professional Compliance Consultants (APCC), Affiliate of The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and he is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).

Scott Mehlman, Non-Executive Director, has over 30 years of derivatives experience, with two decades as the Chief Dealer for Credit Lyonnais Rouse, running and providing leadership for its 24-hour Metals and F/X trading desk. He then spent 15 years as Technology Director for Bache Commodities. After Bache, Scott was recruited to be the CEO of Orebits Corp. a startup, and one of the world’s first Asset Digitization companies.

For more information and to be among the first to gain access to the NDF market, click here.