Garth Greubel, BESA's CEO explains, "The rollout of Justrade.com is an important component in the continued growth of our business as we maintain our focus of building better markets and the development of new product lines and revenue streams beyond the realm of our traditional bond franchise."

The platform is the brainchild of co-founders and directors of Market Tech, Rory Mackay and Michael Franze. Before starting the company, Rory spent his career in financial markets, trading currency, commodities, bonds and interest rate derivatives at ABSA, Standard Bank (SCMB) and Investec. Michael has a thorough understanding of telecommunications and has operated as a consultant in the past two years, particularly fixed mobile convergence, whilst at the same time developing the online platform for Justrade.

Says Mackay, "Justrade.com opens the door to trading for individuals and institutions in an efficient, affordable and exciting way. By allowing our users to choose the way they want to transact via the Justrade or Protrade platforms, both easily accessible on www.justrade.com, we hope to be able to satisfy the needs of novices new to the workings of financial markets, as well as those who are experienced market participants."

The concept of binary options exchanges, although new to domestic markets, is well established internationally, particularly in the US and the UK. Says Mackay, "In 2007, the Options Clearing Corporation proposed a rule to allow trade in binary options. In 2008, several exchanges began to adopt binary options, including the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOT) and American Stock Exchange. So, whilst binary options are relatively new, their potential has been noticed and embraced by some of the biggest names in the Exchange business."

Online binary options markets such as Betfair.com in the UK and Intrade.com and HedgeStreet.com in the US are well established. Betfair.com trades more transactions per day than the London Stock Exchange. Intrade.com has turned over USD4 billion since 2002. "Whilst these markets allow for trading in a range of contracts (political, sports or financial), our platform is differentiated by the fact that we offer trade in financial contracts only." continues Mackay.

Greubel adds, "The joint venture with Market Tech has allowed us to unlock the value inherent in our exchange license, whilst allowing our partners to bring valuable trading and technical expertise to the table. Collectively, these ingredients have been combined to produce Justrade.com, which we look forward to seeing grow in depth and liquidity in coming months."