NEW YORK, May 4, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider; and FXCM Inc., a global online provider of foreign exchange trading and related services; today announced they have collaborated to launch the Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index.
The new index reflects the change in the value of the U.S. dollar – the world's primary currency and a major economic indicator for traders, investors, financial institutions, corporations and governments – against a weighted basket of four of the most liquid currencies in the world: the Euro, British pound, Japanese yen and Australian dollar.
This four-currency combination accounts for more than 80% of worldwide spot market activity within the foreign-exchange marketplace, which itself is the largest marketplace in the world with $4 trillion a day in notional trading activity in 2010. This currency combination also provides a balance of geographic and geopolitical exposure to European and Asian economies from a currency perspective.
The Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index employs a methodology that utilizes FX quantities as the basis of its calculation, rather than FX spot rates, in an effort to ensure a clear and transparent index. Further, this approach seeks to replicate real-world FX portfolio construction, allowing the index to serve as the basis for a wide range of instruments such as ETFs, mutual funds, forwards, futures, swaps, options, and structured products.
"The Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index is an effective, straightforward and easily replicable measure of the value of the U.S. dollar compared to a diversified global basket of the world's most liquid currencies," said Michael A. Petronella, President, Dow Jones Indexes. "It provides investors with a unique tool for following real-time changes in the relative value of the world's most economically significant currency. And, the index benefits from the knowledge, infrastructure and distribution network of two industry leaders: Dow Jones Indexes and FXCM."
For Dow Jones Indexes, the announcement of the FXCM collaboration represents the second new co-branded indexing effort within the past week: on April 26, Dow Jones Indexes announced an agreement to develop an index family utilizing a proprietary strategy created by LSP Partners, a risk management research consulting firm.
Journalists may regarding this press release to media@djindexes.com.
About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes is a leading full-service index provider that develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best-known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes offers more than 130,000 equity indexes as well as fixed-income and alternative indexes, including measures of hedge funds, commodities and real estate. Dow Jones Indexes employs clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. Dow Jones Indexes is part of a joint venture company owned 90 percent by CME Group Inc. and 10 percent by Dow Jones & Company, Inc., a News Corporation company (Nasdaq:NWS) (Nasdaq:NWSA) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV).
The Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index is a joint product of Dow Jones Indexes, the marketing name and a licensed trademark of CME Group Index Services LLC ("CME Indexes"), and Forex Capital Markets, LLC including its affiliates and subsidiaries ("FXCM"). "Dow Jones®," "Dow Jones Indexes," "FXCM" and "Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index" are service marks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC ("Dow Jones") or FXCM, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by CME Group Index Services LLC ("CME Indexes"). The Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index is published pursuant to an agreement between CME Indexes and FXCM.
The Dow Jones Indexes logo is available at
About FXCM
FXCM Inc. (NYSE:FXCM) is a global online provider of foreign exchange (forex) trading and related services to retail and institutional customers world-wide.
At the heart of FXCM's client offering is No Dealing Desk forex trading. Clients benefit from FXCM's large network of forex liquidity providers enabling FXCM to offer competitive spreads on major currency pairs. Clients have the advantage of mobile trading, one-click order execution and trading from real-time charts. FXCM's U.K. subsidiary, Forex Capital Markets Limited, also offers CFD products with no re-quote trading and allows clients to trade oil, gold, silver and stock indices along with forex on one platform. In addition, FXCM offers educational courses on forex trading and provides free news and market research through DailyFX.com.
CONTACT: Dow Jones Indexes press office: New York: +1-212-597-5720 London: +44-20-7796-7247
