"I personally would choose an American or European broker with good credibility," - Igor Dombrowan, Saxo Bank

Igor Dombrovan, Managing Director of Saxo Bank Russia, is a guest of ForTrader.org magazine.

— Здравствуйте, Игорь. Давайте начнем беседу с вопроса о том, как Вы познакомились с биржевой торговлей?

— Здравствуйте, Юлия. Я заинтересовался биржевой торговлей в девяностых годах. Это было время, когда она только появилась в нашей стране. О международном рынке Forex в России мало кто знал, впрочем, как и о мировых фондовых и фьючерсных биржах. Приказы отдавались по телефону, издержки на торговлю финансовыми инструментами  в десятки, если не в сотни, раз превосходили текущий уровень. Тем удивительнее,  до какой степени смог  развиться рынок к настоящему моменту.

Thanks to the Internet today for online trading Russian investors have access to almost all foreign exchanges (here and shares, and indices, and exchange-traded mutual funds, or eft), more than one and a half hundred currency pairs on the , a huge number of derivatives - futures, options, contracts for difference... Transactions are made in a fraction of a second through brokers' trading platforms, of which, by the way, there is a large enough choice on the market. Costs on commissions have significantly decreased. Brokerage accounts are opened free of charge and in a matter of hours. The level of service and investor protection is incomparably higher, especially in serious brokerage companies....

— Какие биржи интересны именно Вам и почему? С какими площадками планирует развивать сотрудничество Saxo Bank?

— Главное в биржевой торговле – прозрачность, ликвидность и оперативная доступность информации. Исходя из этих критериев, мне наиболее интересны американские и европейские биржи. Здесь есть довольно много интересных эмитентов, к примеру, Volkswagen, Beiersdorf AG, Facebook, Apple, а также множество компаний, не столь известных широкому кругу инвесторов, но имеющих хороший потенциал для инвестирования.

If we talk about Saxo Bank, today we provide access to more than 30 exchanges around the world - almost all of them with sufficient liquidity and significant trading volumes. These include the U.S. exchanges (NYSENasdaq), European (London, Paris, Frankfurt, etc.), and Asian (Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo...) exchanges. A few foreign exchanges with relatively small volumes and the Moscow Exchange remained uncovered.

Что касается последней, хотя на сегодняшний день торговать на ней дороже, чем на других мировых площадках, тем не менее, мы прорабатываем возможности сотрудничества. Но, к сожалению, по ряду организационных причин (прежде всего связанных с отсутствием четкого регулирования рынка деривативов в России) перспективы взаимодействия пока не очень понятны. Конечно, российские и иностранные клиенты могут торговать через SaxoTrader акциями российских предприятий с помощью депозитарных расписок этих эмитентов на американских и европейских биржах (а депозитарные расписки имеют практически все российские «голубые фишки» — и Роснефть, и ВымпелКом, и Сбербанк).

In addition to the Russian exchange, we plan to expand the list of futures exchanges and, moreover, to develop the OTC market, primarily in the area of binary currency options. For example, starting from August, we will add to the current 40 currency binars euro-ruble, dollar-ruble options. And we don't plan on stopping there.

— Что Вам не нравится в устройстве биржевой или внебиржевой торговли, есть вещи, которые Вы хотели бы изменить?

— Я считаю, что самое главное в устройстве биржевой и внебиржевой торговли – это transparency and clarity. First of all, it concerns issues of regulation, protection of client funds. In America and Europe, these issues have been resolved. For example, in Europe everything is regulated by a single directive MIFID – и , и другие рынки. Взаимоотношения брокера и клиента максимально прозрачны. В Дании, например, где открываются счета клиентов Saxo Bank, за этими вещами следит DFSA. Кроме того, все банковские счета (включая и инвестиционно-брокерские) застрахованы.  В России, к сожалению, пока такой ясности нет, — надо сказать, ряд недобросовестных -компаний этим пользуются. Хотя приятно осознавать, что движение в сторону большего регулирования рынка и деривативов сейчас происходит. Не так давно был представлен законопроект,  предлагающий регулирование всего рынка деривативов (в отличие от предыдущих, слишком узко заточенных только на регулирование ). Если такой аналог MIFID будет принят в России, это существенно облегчит жизнь добросовестным брокерам и, в первую очередь, их клиентам.

In addition, you need statistics on completed customer transactionsIn order to know what the trend is now, what is being sold, and what is preferred to buy. Publication of such information would definitely help not only novice traders, but would also make professionals with experience think. Saxo Bank is working in this direction, trying to provide its clients with maximum information in an aggregated form.

ForTrader.org: Many people think that trading on the stock exchange is either a frivolous endeavor or a scam. What do you have to say about it?

— Это очень интересный вопрос. Думаю, как один из факторов, этому способствовало опять же некорректное поведение ряда компаний, которые пользовались и пользуются "holes" in the law and tempting, but unfortunately untrue, promises attract inexperienced clients.

The second factor is, of course, Lack of investment culture and rather low level of financial literacy as a whole.

Thirdly, for some reason many people think that trading is something that everyone can do. Although it also requires certain knowledge and skills, like any profession. Need to know the basics of financial managementIn addition, you need to understand the market you are trading in and constantly monitor information on the selected instrument.

Yes, on the one hand, trading on the stock exchange has become very easy now, thanks to the Internet and professional trading platforms that give access to virtually any market. But on the other hand, the importance of the human factor and client service has grown tremendously. Professional support from a personal manager in the native language is a great help both for a beginner and an experienced trader. A consultant helps to orient in some market trends and financial instruments, and will answer specific questions of the client. This is what we try to emphasize in our work.

— Биржевые торги – в общем-то, уже привычное для России явление. Трудно найти человека, не представляющего, что такое Forex. Many are holders of securities. And almost all investors who have developed serious competence in trading, at some stage face the question of choosing a broker. Tell me honestly, as a private trader, which broker would you choose?

— Я лично выбрал бы American or European broker with good credit. Ideally, with a banking license. First of all, because this is reliability and financial transparency. For example, the operational activities of any European bank are strictly regulated: a brokerage bank registered in the EU must report to the regulator on every transaction, and this information is publicly available. In addition, any Danish bank guarantees clients the safety of funds, as all client accounts, including trading accounts, are insured for up to 100 thousand euros. This is a requirement of the Danish FSA.

The second point that is important for the private trader is. access to a wide range of financial instruments and, accordingly, tactical diversity of techniques in the investment policy: the opportunity to experiment with interesting trading strategies to choose the optimal trading system.

The third is. convenient trading platform with a full range of financial instruments for trading. It is important to be able to collect diversified a portfolio of stocks, bonds, indices, exchange-traded funds, commodity futures, as well as being able to hedge, for example, currency risks with options.

Большой плюс — Availability of applications for popular mobile devicesIt is obvious that one of the main requirements of a modern investor is the ability to monitor his positions online, wherever he is. Everything is changing very quickly in the market.

Another important point is that quality analytical support.

Finally - customer serviceideally in Russian.

In general, if I were choosing a broker, Saxo Bank would be, if not the first, then in the top three in the selection list.

ForTrader.org: What qualities should a trader possess to become a professional?

— A trader must have a certain mindsetA professional trader must be able to analyze a huge amount of information, absorb it, keep in mind and process large amounts of data, as well as be able to identify the main thing and discard information noise, and not drown in this flow, but, having organized it, build his strategy and then implement it. Besides, a professional trader must have psychological stability. Online trading is a constant stressful situation, so a trader must be able to choose the most successful decision from all the decisions at the moment - this, of course, is not easy. This, of course, applies first of all to active traders practicing intraday or daily trading.

On the other hand, there is another strategy, which, in my opinion, may be interesting for people who would like to invest their funds in financial markets, but are not ready to devote all their free time to trading. This is a variant of the so-called "perpetual portfolio"which is formed for a medium- and long-term perspective. Investments are diversified, in a certain proportion invested in various instruments - shares, indices, exchange funds. Perhaps, some percentage will be invested in marginal products such as futures, options or currency pairs. Anyway, after the portfolio is formed and the necessary positions are opened through the trading platform, the investor checks the portfolio not more than once a month or even once a quarter. He can make some adjustments, and after that he closes the trading platform again - until the next month or quarter.

The following are very well suited for the implementation of such a strategy exchange-traded mutual funds (or ETFs). These instruments were initially formed taking into account the need to diversify assets - they include securities of companies from different sectors, different capitalization, etc.

- Why traders should work with your company?

— Saxo Banк может предложить клиентам все то, что можно ожидать от серьезного брокера: широкий спектр финансовых инструментов, удобная торговая платформа, качественный клиентский сервис, уникальный опыт в сфере онлайн-торговли. Мы на рынке более 20 лет. Фактически мы были в числе первых брокерских компаний, которые ввели само понятие онлайн-трейдинга и запустили первые торговые терминалы. Saxo Bank is present in more than 20 countries: Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, etc. Client accounts are opened in Denmark, Singapore, Switzerland - economically stable countries with well-developed protection of client rights.

Covering such a large number of jurisdictions, each of which has its own specifics, we have developed competencies in our field and very serious experience - both in terms of building honest and open relationships with clients and in terms of technological innovation. The SaxoTrader platform was launched in 1998, and since then it has not only remained relevant, but has been constantly evolving to meet the demands of the times. Today it is a serious trading terminal with a full range of modern tools for convenient online trading. Here you can find more than 160 currency currencies crosses , 15 тысяч акций на 30 мировых биржах, несколько сотен наиболее ликвидных фьючерсов (как товарных, так и, например, валютных), контракты на разницу, валютные и биржевые опционы, биржевые фонды, облигации. Кто-то в Saxo Bank подсчитал, что в совокупности это порядка 35 тысяч финансовых инструментов, — которые можно торговать с одного терминала, с одного брокерского счета.  В первую очередь, особой популярностью пользуются CFD на акции и CFD на индексы: акции трендовых западных эмитентов, таких, как Apple, Google, Facebook, депозитарные расписки на акции российских «голубых фишек» (Сбербанк, Роснефть, Мегафон и т.д.). Второй по популярности, конечно, – валютные пары (как традиционные евро-доллар, так и «экзотика»), -опционы, валютные фьючерсы.

Наш московский офис работает в России уже почти два года, и можем отметить, что российские клиенты приходят именно в Saxo Bank потому, это европейский банк, работающий в рамках европейского законодательства, — в отличие от некоторых присутствующих на российском рынке компаний, зарегистрированных в офшорах. Мы, как зарегистрированный в Дании банк, можем предоставить клиентам гарантии сохранности средств. Кроме того, в России нас любят за наш качественный русскоязычный сервис. Далеко не все зарубежные брокеры, работающие на российском рынке, предоставляют клиентам возможность общаться с сервисной службой практически в режиме 24х7 на родном языке. А это важно: клиенту всегда проще позвонить, задать вопросы и тут же получить на них ответы квалифицированных специалистов.

— Наверняка за время работы в Saxo Bank у Вас были забавные ситуации с клиентами?

— Да, пожалуй, смешных историй не было. Our Russian clients are serious people and organizations. These are mainly entrepreneurs who have decided to invest profits from their main business, to diversify their assets, or financial market professionals. Another category of clients are investors who have already had experience of trading on the Russian market, but due to the fact that opportunities on it are still limited, decided to include in their investment portfolio shares of large foreign issuers and derivative financial instruments on them. Our institutional clients include many banks, corporations and brokerage companies.

What is characteristic of Russian investors is that they are characterized by thoroughness and a desire to understand everything on their own experience. For example, one of our clients opened a position on a real account in order to test the operation of a margin call and held it until this mechanism was triggered, in order to see exactly how things would work in practice. In no other country do clients test our mechanisms and procedures so thoroughly.

- What advice would you give to newcomers to the exchange?

— Новичкам на бирже я бы советовал trade very responsibly. In order to minimize your risks, you need to study markets, instruments, understand the economic situation both in Russia and in the world, forecast possible developments - in general, spare neither time nor effort to broaden your horizons. At the same time, if you have decided to trade, you need to properly think through your strategy and calculate the risks - for example, it is better to diversify your portfolio to include stocks and bonds, commodity futures and other instruments.

Of course, the more experience a trader gains, the more advice he or she will need, but for a successful start, you should pay attention to these basic parameters.