Jay Mawji of STARPRIME reveals how a recent gold rally exposed a brutal divide in liquidity resilience, prompting industry-wide shifts towards risk control and innovative trading models ahead of Forex Expo Dubai 2026.
Jay Mawji, chief executive of STARPRIME, says the latest surge in gold trading has exposed a sharp divide in the liquidity business: firms that can withstand violent price moves and those that cannot. In an interview with Finance Magnates Intelligence, Mawji said the institutional CFD liquidity provider and market maker saw volumes jump 60% during the most intense phase of the rally, which he described as a severe test of the firm’s model. While wider market spreads widened to around 40 cents, he said STARPRIME kept pricing between 6 cents and 8 cents without cutting depth.
The episode, Mawji argued, has altered how the market thinks about risk. He said the old assumption that liquidity could be built around calm conditions no longer holds, adding that overnight fees have risen, prices have widened and depth has become thinner as providers take a harder line on risk. He also said that as much as 70% of order flow can now be flagged by liquidity providers as “sharp”, a sign that the industry is becoming more selective about the flow it is willing to warehouse.
That view fits with STARPRIME’s recent product push. Liquidity Finder reported that the company is expanding its gold offering with AM/PM Fixing and XAU24/7, two products designed to give traders and brokers more ways to access and manage gold exposure. The additions are due to be available ahead of Forex Expo Dubai 2026, where STARPRIME is set to appear as a platinum sponsor, and they build on an existing suite that already includes spot XAU/USD and gold futures.
Mawji also sees the pressures on liquidity provision feeding into a wider reshaping of the foreign exchange and contracts-for-difference industry by 2030. According to the interview, he expects brokers to rely more on their own trading systems and risk controls, reducing dependence on outside intermediaries. He also pointed to peer-to-peer liquidity models and structures resembling multilateral trading facilities as possible next steps, while separate reporting from Liquidity Finder said STARPRIME has completed beta testing of its market-maker model with selected clients, focusing on execution quality, pricing and risk management.
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