Cambodian traders test derivatives market
Sitting in a cafe on Phnom Penh’s Sothearos Boulevard in August, a group of young Cambodians gazed at their computer screens, watching the movement of currency around the globe. During their regular weekday trading session in the foreign exchange market, dubbed forex or FX, they anticipate market moves, debate price points and evaluate risk. Yosof Ibrahim, the group’s Cambodian mentor, has been trading from his laptop since 2012, four years before the government granted the first two official trading licenses for derivatives in August. Mr. Ibrahim and his budding traders typically deal in three generally stable currencies: the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen. Britain’s vote in June to leave the E.U. battered the British pound the day after the vote, leading to what analysts described as the biggest intraday fall of any major currency in decades.
