Regardless of the fact that the competition in online retail FX industry is all time high, more and more entrepreneurs and investors plan on starting a Forex Brokerage.

Presently, the Forex sector witnesses a daily trade of over trillions of dollars worldwide. The exceptionally huge size of the industry and its potential to yield handsome returns keeps investors motivated.

However, incorporating a Forex brokerage isn’t exactly a breeze. While setting up a Forex brokerage, an individual is faced with a series of choices that must be made very carefully.

Each choice affects the business in a number of ways including the amount of capital investment that will be required, and the clients they will be dealing with.

In this post, we will point out the most important thing to consider for choosing an appropriate Forex trading jurisdiction to operate from along with the recent trends regarding start-up.

Consider the revenue potential.

While drawing up a business plan for your Forex brokerage, one of the most important things to consider is the how profitable such a business in today’s environment will be. Figuring out the scope of annual revenue in the initial stage of inception helps set realistic goals and drives the business to success. Profits in the Forex brokerage can be unrivaled. Here is a fair estimate of what you can expect:

Low: under $100k

Average: $100-500k

High: Over $1million

Do you have an existing network?

If you have a strong network anywhere in the world, it can significantly impact your prospects reach. Having an existing network also gives you the option to go with a jurisdiction that is less expensive and has minimum regulatory jurisdiction.

Target Markets and Regions

The markets and regions you are planning to target have a direct impact on your profits. The answer to “who you are going to target” defines the roadmap for your business operations. In order to find a high opportunity market that can help you drive demand and generate quality leads look for the following:

High Net-Worth Markets: This niche is brimming with traders and investors who enthusiastically invest substantial amounts in online currency exchange market. You must remember that the investors here are brand loyal and unless you establish high curiosity about your brand and product, it will be difficult to grab their attention. Examples of such market include UK, Australia, and China.

Emerging Markets: Markets such as Mexico, Canada, etc. are new to Forex industry. The investors are novice and hence the market tends to be cheaper in terms of investor acquisition costs. The only downside is that it might take longer for beginner clients to get to intermediate or advanced levels.

Risk Takers: These are the markets with customers that are easy to attract and are willing to switch to another Forex brokerage for an attractive offer.

The right market for your Forex brokerage will be defined by where your current network is, what your marketing budget is and what your business goals and objectives are.

Type of services you plan on offering

Ask yourself, “what type of Forex brokerage do you intend to be?” Whether you want to run a standard Forex brokerage, a Fund Manager or perhaps are willing to offer a service combination of both. Certain jurisdictions like Cyprus require a separate fund manager license while others do not.

Financial Risks that you are willing to take

The financial risks that you are willing to take determine if you should opt for full STP where all the trade flow and risk passes directly to a bank or liquidity provider, or perhaps you should utilize Market Maker/Dealing desk model. The regulatory capital required for market maker model is higher since the risk is taken “in-house”.

Once you have considered the factors mentioned above, you compare regulatory jurisdictions for the start-up brokerage based on the following:

• Capital requirement initially
• Incorporate time,
• Requirement of a physical office
• Operational expenses,
• Overall reputation among retail traders and industry in general

Below we have provided a comparative overview of the regulatory jurisdictions in a range of popular Forex markets. Take a look.

USA, Japan, and Switzerland: High capital requirements, considerable operating cost, intensive and detailed reporting requirements.

Cyprus, UK, Malta, Australia: Moderate to high capital requirements, moderate expenses for operation, reputable regulatory environments and moderate reporting.

Belize, BVI, Seychelles, Labuan, Bulgaria: Low capital requirements, low to moderate operational expenses low to moderate regulatory environments and minimal reporting.

St. Vincent, Marshall Islands: No capital requirement, non-regulated jurisdictions, and no license or reporting requirements.