Achieving record trading volumes, some Asian exchanges left behind US and European derivatives exchanges.

Last year, the Taiwan Futures Exchange faced year-on-year trading volume rising by 103 per cent, a performance which is unsurpassed this year.

The National Stock Exchange of India increased by 74 per cent while the Tokyo International Financial Futures Exchange extended by 60 per cent the number of its traded contracts.

While domestic investors have driven a significant growth in some markets, experts recognise the need to draw foreign investors. Both domestic and foreign hedge funds and proprietary traders are creating offices in the region in order to have access to new asset classes.

Laurent Cunin, managing director of the Tokyo branch of broker Fimat, said in an interview with Jeremy Grant: “People need to invest the additional money that they continue to raise and, with more markets liberalising and opening up, there will be more opportunities for arbitrage within Asia.”

Since foreign investors account for only 5 per cent of volume on the Taiwan Futures Exchange, the exchange disclosed to regulators recently a practical study on how to make financial futures available to foreigners.

For the present moment, foreigners can only use futures as hedging instruments for cash deposits exercised to trade Taiwanese equities. Fimat is among a small number of foreign brokers opening an office in Taipei to benefit from the changes.