Barclays Wealth

Barclays Stockbrokers launches the BARXdirect suite of trading platforms

• Designed specifically for the sophisticated retail investor
• BARXdirect gives retail investors access to multiple asset classes across a wide spectrum of global markets with a range of powerful tools
• BARXdirect provides retail investors with exclusive institutional quality research and market comment from within Barclays Wealth and Barclays Capital

Barclays Stockbrokers, the UK's largest stockbroker, has launched BARXdirect, a suite of trading platforms aimed at the rapidly expanding community of sophisticated investors.  It offers a range of powerful and cutting-edge tools, allowing clients to invest across many different markets with confidence and control. 

BARXdirect is designed for clients who invest frequently in equities or in leveraged products, specifically margin FX, CFDs and Financial Spread Trading, which are high risk investments.

Offering much more than multi-asset class trading platforms, BARXdirect gives retail clients access to knowledge, primarily in the form of investment research, which is difficult to access anywhere else.

BARXdirect: Equities gives investors access to breaking news with up-to-the-minute feeds from six providers, including Dow Jones newswires and the London Stock Exchange's Regulatory News Service, in addition to Level 2 market pricing direct from the LSE.  Clients can also access Barclays Wealth publications such as Compass and Signpost, in addition to Barclays Stockbrokers own Investment ViewPoints, which offer trade ideas geared toward more sophisticated investors.  BARXdirect: FX provides daily technical and fundamental research directly from Barclays Capital.  BARXdirect: CFDs and Financial Spread Trading offers clients the ability to trade on the price movements of thousands of underlying financial instruments including UK, US and European equities, as well as major stock indices, sectors, currencies and commodities, on our intuitive state-of-the-art web-based platform.

Des Byrne, Managing Director at Barclays Stockbrokers says: "Multi-asset class trading is key for today's sophisticated investors, who we characterise as ‘Instividuals' given the types of transactions that they are increasingly comfortable with.  Almost four in every 10 spread trades placed by clients in August were either on a commodity, or a currency."
 
Catering for the huge growth in demand for foreign exchange, Barclays Stockbrokers has continued its investment in its leveraged FX product.  BARXdirect: FX offers sophisticated investors access to some of the tightest spreads in the retail market – down to less than a pip in EUR/USD.  In addition to a fully integrated margin management system, BARXdirect: FX offers proprietary order management tools, for example SlipFiX puts clients in control of the price at which their order is filled, overcoming a problem frequently experienced by FX traders on other retail platforms.  Clients can also access BARXdirect: FX whilst "on the go" through a web-based platform or through the desktop based version, through which clients can access popular features such as the ability trade directly from charts.

Des Byrne continues: "Looking at August, trading volumes on BARXdirect: FX increased 50% year on year.  FX is a key asset class and we have continued to invest in our platform and offering. BARXdirect: FX is set to redefine the retail FX space by offering sharp transparent, neutral pricing, underpinned by a state-of-the-art trading platform, exclusive investment research and the peace of mind that clients' margins are held securely by one of the world's largest and most robust financial institutions.

"The trend towards investors adopting sophisticated techniques and services to generate returns has increased dramatically in recent years and we are constantly working to enhance our BARXdirect range to offer the best possible experience to our clients. We believe the products and services that we are offering will empower sophisticated investors to have all the information at their fingertips to make their investment decisions with confidence. Through provision of such products and services as institutional-grade research, LSE Level 2* price data on equities and interactive charting, we aim to provide our clients with the power and the knowledge they need to stay ahead of the game."

Notes to editors
* Level 2 data allows investors to view the order book, i.e. the buy and sell orders for each share in the market as they are entered, amended and executed in real time.

For further information contact:

Jignasa Patel /Will Bowen
Corporate Communications, Barclays Wealth
020 7699 2483 / 020 7114 8434

Or:

Katherine Hobby / Charli Scouller
Lansons Communications
020 7566 9704 / 0207 294 3602