The archive

All essays

XM, Reviewed for the Region

The education-first broker of Southeast Asia's webinar circuit, reviewed entity-first: what the teaching is worth, what the Belize paperwork means, and where the strings are.

Exness, Reviewed for the Region

A large, unusually transparent offshore broker — reviewed the way a reader in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta or Ho Chi Minh City actually meets it: through an offshore entity, with contractual protections only.

The Patchwork, Mid-2026

Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam regulate retail FX in three different ways — one polices its border, one licenses inside it, one has drawn almost no onshore territory at all.