Few doubt the potential in China, and with India boasting the world's largest single stock futures (SSFs) market, Asia's prospects look good. Yet markets beyond the continent are also showing signs of growth. For instance, by the end of last year South African Futures Exchange (Safex) had seen an 800% increase in trading of SSFs since their launch in 1999, making it the second largest market for the contracts. Year-to-date volume in SSFs was 22.22m by the end of July. By comparison year-to-date, Eurex had traded 21.76m and OneChicago, just 3.74m. This is just one demonstration of the potential wealth of opportunity open to international investors in these markets, providing the regulatory set-up is sound.
Opening up Emerging markets beyond Asia are opening up to global players. The South and Central American market has proved interesting to foreign investors with Mexico, situated in the same timezone as...