President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcements last week, imposing tariffs globally, sent shockwaves through the markets. However, one group that benefited was trading service providers.

Boost in Trading Activities

GCEX, a provider of prime brokerage services, told Financemagnates.copm that FX spot trading volumes on its platform surged by nearly 250 per cent following Trump’s announcements. The company’s crypto spot over-the-counter (OTC) business also “experienced a comparable uplift.”

“Following President Trump's April 2 announcement of new tariffs, referred to as 'Liberation Day', GCEX has recorded some of its strongest trading days to date,” said Lars Holst, Founder and CEO of GCEX.

Another firm, Gold-i, which provides trading technology, also confirmed that the “biggest activity was in Equity Indexes and FX.” However, it noted that crypto pricing and trading volumes remained mostly unchanged.

“We saw a tenfold increase in FX and Equity Index price rates and about five times as much trading activity,” said Tom Higgins, CEO of Gold-i.

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Extreme Volatility in the Markets

After US President Trump announced the tariffs, the S&P 500 index wiped out $6.6 trillion in value across two trading sessions. Global indices also experienced a similar drop. However, during Wednesday’s session, US indices jumped sharply after the Trump administration paused the tariffs for 90 days. The S&P 500’s single-day gain yesterday (Wednesday) marked its largest since the 2008 financial crash.

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It is worth noting that the figures from GCEX and Gold-i were recorded before the market rebound on Wednesday.

In addition to these two firms, brokers also gained from the surge in volatility. However, no brokers have officially disclosed the trading volumes they have handled since the tariff-triggered market swings.

Although brokers tend to benefit from extreme volatility, as traders open more positions, the stocks of three London-listed CFD brokers mirrored the broader market trend—dropping last week and recovering this week.

Source: Finance Magnates