Good morning, everyone. I'm David Zruia, Plus500 CEO, and I'm joined by Elad Even-Chen, our Group CFO. Thank you for joining us today. Turning to slide two, we chose the agenda. We'll run you through a strategic overview, go through the results in detail, and then discuss the outlook. Once we have finished the presentation, we will take your questions over the audio line, or you can post them on the webcast facility, and Rob, our Head of IR, will put your questions to us. I will start with an overview of our vision and strategy. Turning to the next slide on our vision, which is for Plus500 to enable simplified universal access to financial markets across devices, across financial instruments, and across geographies. This will be driven by the continued evolution of our business as we transition to become a global multi-asset fintech group.
We have already made excellent progress in executing this strategy, supported by our success in accessing a number of significant growth opportunities, as we will touch on through this presentation. In line with our vision, we will continue to make organic investments and targeted acquisitions to ensure further revenue diversification and higher customer retention. I will now hand over to Elad to take you through the next couple slides.
Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide five. On the next slide, I wanted to highlight the journey that Plus500 has been on over the last eight years since we floated the company on AIM, during which time we have built a solid track record of growth across a number of metrics. Plus500 floated in 2013 with a market cap of around $200 million. Today, we are a FTSE 250 company with a premium listing on the main market in London with a market cap of around $2 billion. You could see that we have grown our cash balances by a factor of 22 times and our revenue and EBITDA by around eight times.
Our active customer base has grown from around 50,000 to over 330,000, while our customer deposits have grown from $74 million to around $1.1 billion in H1 2021, and approximately to $2.9 billion last year. We now have nine operating licenses from just two licenses in 2013. We can now offer three products to our customers, having started with just our CFDs product at the time of our IPO. These metrics emphasize that Plus500 is well-developed and well-managed business with a strong track record of financial and operational growth. This has translated into value for our shareholders on the next slide, which shows that Plus500 has delivered an uplift in total shareholder returns since our IPO of around 2,500% compared to the FTSE 250, which has grown by around 90%. I will now hand back to David.
Thanks a lot. The fundamental driver for success has been our technology, as presented on slide seven. Plus500 operates proprietary technology platforms for our customers to trade CFDs, shares, futures, and options on futures internationally. Our technology powers our products, our market technology capabilities, and our operations, and ensures that we can continue to develop our offering for online traders. Our technology is supported by our highly skilled people and regulated entities in each of our operations. Our technology provides Plus500 with an unrivaled ability to rapidly respond to news and market events and regulatory changes, providing the foundation from which we are executing our strategy of becoming a global multi-asset fintech group. Such capabilities are unique, as validated by Plus500 accreditation by the Israel Innovation Authority as a preferred technology enterprise. The next slide illustrates our technology stack in action, showing the main steps of our customer's journey.
This starts with our marketing technology, which efficiently positions our online marketing campaign at an attractive Return on Investment. The marketing technology includes artificial intelligence characteristics, and its optimization process is made thanks to its big data capabilities. Once a customer has decided independently to open an account on our platforms, the operational element of our technology is initiated. At that point, customers go through a stringent, rigorous verification and onboarding process in accordance with the applicable regulation, supported by 24/7 localized customer care and a best-in-class payment processing service, utilizing a range of possible payment methods for our customers. This is all achieved behind the scenes, ensuring the customer experience remains efficient and seamless.
Once onboarded, the next stage of the customer journey is the product experience, including a range of educational and training tools, which is being continuously updated and upgraded for new features, new analysis tools, new products, and financial instruments. All of these dynamics ensures that we can drive customer retention and value over time. This journey is supported and secured by a robust systems infrastructure with a powerful CRM platform, cyber security, and anti-fraud protection features, and a robust risk management framework. These elements are a crucial part of our wholly owned and managed technology platform. It is highly important to note our scalable and reliable system architecture and platform capabilities, which cater our customers' trading activities. The next slide further highlights Plus500's unique technological infrastructure, including a range of proprietary technologies, particularly in the areas of marketing, operations, and product.
These capabilities have been developed under one roof at Plus500, while elsewhere, such capabilities and technologies have been developed separately on a standalone basis by the highly valued and highly reputable companies you can see on this slide. We therefore believe that our integrated proprietary technologies represent hidden value for both customers and investors. Furthermore, there is additional value being derived from our ability to have all of these technologies developed and integrated seamlessly in-house. Such an integrated product is much more powerful than one which has been developed through a potentially costly, time-consuming, and high-risk integration of various standalone, off-the-shelf products. I will now hand over to Elad to take you through to the next few slides.
Thanks, David. Turning to slide 10. Our business remains supported by our highly robust, customer-centric approach to compliance and risk management, supported by our strong relationship with the regulators in the markets in which we operate. We continue to ensure our risk exposures are aligned with our risk appetite, managing risks through a real-time monitoring technology and predefined risk limits. During the first half, we implemented focused, targeted hedging to help reduce market risk, and we will continue to deploy this approach in certain circumstances going forward as and when appropriate. In addition, we have a diversified customer exposure, with the largest customer contribution being less than 1% of revenue. Also, it's important to highlight our offering of the most liquid financial instruments in the world, rather than being exposed to higher risk associated with small and mid-cap companies.
We always aim to cater our customers with a best-in-class service to maintain a collaborative relationship with our regulators and still deliver robust financial results. From a regulatory perspective, we continue to support measures introduced by regulators with a view to ensuring better protection for our customers. Of course, we offer such measures as negative balance protection and maintenance margin requirements to all of our customers, both retail and professional. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission implemented its regulatory changes for the CFD industry in Australia on the 29th of March 2021. We remain supportive of and compliant with these changes, which are expected to provide additional protection for our customers. The impact of the regulatory changes in Australia is as expected at this early stage, and we will continue to assess the outcome of these changes.
We remain confident that Plus500 has the requisite experience and technological capability to ensure we continue to perform strongly in the CFD market in Australia. The next slide shows our global regulatory reach, emphasizes that we are well-positioned for potential future changes to the regulatory environment across our markets. You will notice that we now have an FCM license in the U.S., allowing us to offer futures and options and futures following our acquisitions of Cunningham CTS earlier this year. Also, we have obtained the license capabilities to offer our share dealing service, Plus500 Invest in Europe, from which we shall continue to roll it out on a global basis. On to the next slide, and ESG. We have made great progress in further improving our approach in this area.
There were a number of board appointments in the first half, including the appointment of Professor Jacob Frenkel as chairman of the board. Professor Frenkel is a renowned global economist and business leader with more than 40 years of experience in leading and advising multinational financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase International and Merrill Lynch International, and is the former chairman and CEO of the G30. In addition, Ms. Sigalia Heifetz and Ms. Tami Gottlieb were appointed as non-executive directors. These appointments also ensure that the representation of the women on the board is ahead of the 32% target set by the Hampton-Alexander Review. Through our ESG committee, we remain highly engaged with the key stakeholders across the ESG investment community, including specialist investors, shareholder advisory bodies, and rating agencies.
Turning to the area of social responsibility, we continue to ensure that the care and protection of our customers remains a key priority. We ensure our operations remain in strict compliance with the relevant regulations, thanks to our employees' deep knowledge, long experience, and our collaborative relationships with our regulators. Measures such as negative balance protection and maintenance margin requirements are free and available to all of our customers, including professional customers, as they have been since the inception of the business more than a decade ago. Customers can try our CFD products in a risk-free environment by using our free and unlimited demo account. Our group culture is based on creating continuous improvement in employee development and commitment to equality, opportunity, diversity, and a balanced working environment, all of which lead to enhancement of our technology. I will now hand back to David.
Thanks, Elad. The next slide highlights our great progress against our key strategic priorities during the period. We continue to successfully expand our existing CFD offering by introducing new CFD-based financial instruments, educational tools, and other new additional features. This is being supported by our continued investment in marketing technology and by our incremental investment of approximately $50 million over the next three years in R&D. This investment is primarily focused on our newly established R&D center in Tel Aviv, where a number of highly skilled engineers, programmers, web designers, and product managers have already been recruited. In July 2021, we achieved a major strategic landmark through the acquisition in the U.S. of Cunningham, a regulated Futures Commission Merchant, and CTS, a technology trading platform provider.
This acquisition instantly expands our geographic footprint and product offering in the significantly growing but under-penetrated U.S. retail trading market in futures and options for futures. The global addressable market is estimated to be approximately $2 billion, representing a massive opportunity for Plus500. To this end, we aim to leverage our best-in-class technology to drive market access for the millions of U.S. retail investors looking for the new trading opportunities through a wide range of asset classes. As a technology specialist, we also aim to optimize our position as a B2C operator in the exciting new market. Another major milestone was achieved in July 2021 with the launch of Plus500 Invest, a new share dealing platform. This was initially launched as a web app in selected geographies in Europe across a wide range of financial instruments comprising of the world's most popular equities and ETFs, listed on major exchanges worldwide.
We will continue rolling out Plus500 Invest across various platforms such as iOS and Android to ensure the further expansion of our product range and geographic footprint, and to provide customers with additional product functionality. As well as driving another important revenue stream, this new product line unlocks a number of new marketing channels and geographies for our business. We will continue to make organic investment and to execute additional targeted bolt-on acquisitions, as well as potential strategic partnerships with the view to further driving our position as a global multi-asset fintech group. Let's now turn to the operational review for the first half, starting on slide 15. During this and the financial review, we will be comparing the first half of 2021 to the more directly comparable period of H2 2020, rather than the unprecedented period of H1 2020.
Our positive momentum during the period was evident by another very strong period of customer acquisition, reflecting our ongoing success in onboarding a substantial number of new customers through continued significant investment in our marketing technology. We continue to successfully manage heightened trading volumes, supported by our technological capabilities and our dedicated workforce. These factors help to drive further growth in our active customer base. Customer income, our key underlying growth driver, was around $380 million, supported by over 33 million customer trades. Client deposits remain strong at around $1.1 billion, reflecting customers' continued trust in Plus500 and the strength of our customers' resources. In the context of strong customer numbers, ARPU remained resilient while AUAC was relatively low compared to historic levels, and customer churn returned to more normalized levels. Elad will now take you through the financial highlights on slide 16.
Thanks, David. We delivered a strong financial performance during the period, with total revenues of $346.2 million, up by 12% against the second half of 2020, and EBITDA of $187.6 million, up by 22%. EBITDA margins remained strong at 54%, supported by our efficient operating model and our lean and flexible cost base. This drove cash conversion of 87%, helping us to end the period with cash balances of $722 million, up from $594 million at the end of last year. Turning to slide number 17 on key market trends. The unique market environment which emerged during early 2020 and the sustained level of volatility that it produced across global markets has driven an unparalleled number of opportunities for customers to trade. In addition, the global trading industry has seen further automation, creating additional market potential for technology-based companies such as Plus500.
This highly attractive market environment has continued and is a significant potential driver of growth and value for Plus500. For our customers and for prospective customers, including the new and emerging generation of traders with a technology-focused attitude to trading and investment. There continues to be regulatory focus on driving ongoing customer protection across the industry, with full alignment and collaboration from compliant operators like Plus500. In this new global financial system, driven by the strength and adaptability of our technology, Plus500 is extremely well-positioned to access the significant market opportunities that are currently available. On the next slide, you can see that our ability to maximize the market opportunity has resulted in continued leadership positions across key markets.
We remain the largest CFD provider in Germany and Spain, we are the fastest-growing platform in the U.K., and we have the best CFD mobile app in Australia, according to Investment Trends. We have a leading position in mobile app installs and rankings. I will now hand back to David.
Thanks, Elad. Looking at our technology developments on slide 19. On the product side, supported by the first phase of our $50 million R&D investment I mentioned earlier, there was much focus in the first half on ensuring that Plus500 Invest was aligned with the advanced characteristics of our existing CFD offering. You can see screenshots of the Plus500 Invest product on the right-hand side of the slide, along with our news and market insights page. Our product teams' work on Plus500 Invest included ensuring that the web app product was fully mobile compatible, providing a user interface consistent with the existing CFD trading experience, offering a wide range of financial instruments for customers to trade, and offering an optimized customer support.
Additional features are being developed for Plus500 Invest, as well as iOS and Android-based apps, and will be included in the product offering as it is rolled out in new geographies. We continue to invest in our systems architecture with the further rollout of Google Cloud services to provide additional flexibility, security, and scale to the platform. All this activity and hard work ensures that Plus500 continues to lead the industry across the mobile and tablet space. Over 82% of our CFD-related revenue were generated through mobile or tablet devices, and more than 78% of CFD-related customer trades took place on mobile or tablet devices in H1 2021. This ensures we remain well-positioned to address directly the emerging technology-focused generation of traders I mentioned earlier. Moving to slide 20 on KPI by region. Importantly, all metrics remain well ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
Our active customer base remained extremely strong at over 333,000, which was ahead of the record period in H1 2020. This was driven by another strong period of new customers onboarded of 137,000, supported by our continuous marketing technology investment. Average revenue per user in H1 2021 was strong at just over $1,000, while average user acquisition cost was $622, supported by high levels of historic marketing technology investment, our advanced marketing technologies, and our continuous strong brand presence. AUAC is expected to rise steadily over time as our customer profile continues to shift to higher value customers and as we start to invest in attracting customers to the new product and target customers in strategic geographies. Elad will now take you through our marketing investments, starting on slide 21.
Thanks, David. We continue to invest in targeted marketing technology initiatives to further drive customer acquisition and retention, to help us onboard new customers at an attractive return on investment, and to increase market share. The success of our marketing investment is validated by the value of our long-term customer cohorts, outlined in the graph on this slide, which shows cumulative revenue per customer from their initial deposit over time on a half-yearly basis. Taking as an example the 2015 customer cohort, the long dark blue line. We have generated total revenue of nearly $5,000 per customer initially deposited during 2015 on a cumulative basis over a period of 6.5 years. This highlights the long-term value delivered by our marketing investments, which will also include offline marketing to drive brand awareness in key strategic markets.
The next slide shows the returns achieved from our investment in marketing technology over the last three and a half years, with each bar chart showing cumulative returns from annual customer cohorts. For example, the graph on the right shows that we have already generated revenues of $346 million in one and a half years from the investment of $221 million we made in 2020. There is much more to come from that particular investment, as there is from the investments made in previous years. Interestingly, we onboarded over 40,000 new customers in the first half of 2021 from users who registered with us but did not immediately trade, going as far back as 2015. There is a significant and growing base of registrations who could become new customers in the future. I will now hand back to David.
Thanks a lot. Slide 23 shows the stability and strength of our revenue, even through periods of market movement and regulatory changes. This highlights our average customer income by trade, which as you can see, has generally tracked the number of active customers using our platform. You can see the impact of key events and regulatory changes here, but overall, this metric has remained very consistent and stable through this eight-year period. Turning to the next slide on customer retention. By delivering the best possible experience for our customers, we have delivered a step-up in our base of active customers over the years. This has been achieved through a consistently high level of service, through a 24/7 localized customer service, and ensuring customer requirements are always met. We have also continued to develop our products and expand our product range.
Customer churn during the first half was more normalized at 29% compared to the just 8% during the unprecedented first half of 2020, and remained well below pre-pandemic levels of over 60% in full year 2019. The graph on the right highlights the step-up in our active customer base. After each period of volatility, we have built a sustainably higher base of active customers in the more normalized market conditions thereafter. The next slide is on customer tenure, where we have ensured that our customer relationships remain high quality and long-term, with 31% of H1 2021 revenues driven from our customers trading with us for over three years, including 40% trading with us for over five years.
As you can see, this is a significant improvement from full year 2016, where just 2% of our customers had been trading with us for over five years. Now back to Elad to the financials.
Thanks, David. Slide 27 highlights our significant track record of cash generation and subsequent shareholder returns. Since IPO in 2013, we have generated a total of $2.1 billion cash from operations, supported by an average operating cash conversion of 99% since that time. This has supported our approach to shareholder returns, for which we have delivered around $1.3 billion through dividends and share buybacks. During this time, we have purchased over 13 and a half million shares, equivalent to approximately 12% of the company's issued share capital. We are delighted to announce today on further attractive shareholder returns, including an interim dividend of $60 million and a new share buyback program of $12.6 million.
Our shareholder return policy is to return at least 50% of net profit to shareholders as a normal return on a half yearly basis, with at least 50% of this distribution being made by way of dividends. In addition, the board will continue to consider paying special dividends at each year-end. We will maintain an optimal balance between shareholder returns, continuous investment in future growth, and in driving business and operational continuity, in particular, to ensure that appropriate levels of available capital are maintained. Now let's look at the financials for the first half, starting with our income statement on slide 28. The great revenue performance was driven by the high volume of customer trade throughout the period, while our EBITDA performance was supported by our lean and flexible cost base.
Net profit for the half was $165.1 million, and basic earnings per share was $1.62, supported by the updated corporate tax rate of 12% for Plus500, following the accreditation we received as preferred technological enterprise announced last year. Our lean and flexible cost base on slide 29 remained well controlled. 73% of our costs were variable, and therefore positively correlated to enhanced performance and higher volumes. Marketing investment remained at the relatively high levels of $85.2 million and will continue to be made to ensure that we can capture opportunities to drive attractive return on investment. Total SG&A expenses were at the level of $159.8 million. The major elements of which were marketing investment, as mentioned, and processing costs driven by the high levels of customer deposits. Turning to the balance sheet on slide 30.
Our business has never incurred any debt, our balance sheet remains very healthy and further strengthened. Consequently, Plus500 remains in a great position to continue to invest in growth opportunities and business continuity. Slide 31 covers the cash flow. Plus500 remains highly cash generative, supported by our low levels of capital expenditure due to our automated processes and technological capabilities, with 87% operating cash conversion achieved during the first half of 2021. With cash generated from operations of $163.4 million, after the completion of two share buyback programs totaling at $42.5 million, cash balances and cash equivalents at the end of the half increased significantly to $722.5 million. It is worth noting that we received in August another cash rebate from the IIA due to the accreditation of being a preferred technological enterprise, amounting to approximately $37.2 million. I will now hand back to David.
Thanks a lot. As a result of the significant positive momentum achieved so far this year, supported by our further progress in delivering against our vision to evolve into a global multi-asset fintech group, the board is increasingly confident about Plus500 performance during the remainder of full year 2021 and beyond. With this in mind, the board expects revenue to be significantly ahead of current compiled analyst consensus forecasts. Plus500's market-leading proprietary technology platforms, flexible and scalable business model, our recently diversified product portfolio, and robust financial position ensure we are well-positioned to deliver sustainable growth over the medium to long term. This will continue to be supported by further organic investment and targeted acquisitions to drive further growth. That's it from us. We will be happy to take your questions now.
As I mentioned earlier, feel free to ask us questions directly over the phone or post them on the webcast facility, and Rob will ask your questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Our first question today comes from Ian White from Autonomous Research. Ian, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Morning. Thanks for the presentation. I just had a few questions from my side, please. First of all, can you talk us through what you consider to be your differentiator in the U.S. marketplace? I guess it strikes me as an increasingly competitive market there, and Cunningham, I think, still has understand your conviction there with regard to potential for market share gains in the U.S., please. Second question, during the first half of 2021, what % of new clients from 2020 were active? How would this compare to cohorts from prior years, please? Just finally, on the guidance, I know you're pointing to revenues ahead of your consensus.
I guess what I'd like to understand is if your view of the strength of the existing CFD business has changed at all over the last six months, or if the guidance is more about factoring in the new products you've mentioned in the acquired businesses? Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, Ian. It's David here. I'll take it. The main differentiator of Plus500 is our technology. Basically, over the last 10 years and more, we have developed great technological capabilities. We have many components that can be added to any B2C, and specifically trading platform out there. We plan and already started in the last few months to enhance the current business of Cunningham Commodities. As well, we started to develop a new platform to cater retail customers, in the States using the Cunningham Commodities license. We know, to do this, we have done this in a very good way in Europe and across the world with the CFDs over the years, and we are sure and confident that we can do the same in the States.
As for the second question, obviously, from a compliance perspective, I can only refer to what is public domain, and it's not a reference which was made within the presentation or announcement. I can't specifically refer to that metric. Obviously, as part of the customer relationship, the client tenure, with respect to the numbers that are available there, you could say that a significant portion of the customers that were added within the last six months of 2020 were actually also a driver to the revenue recognition also in 2021. You have the metrics there, slide 25, by the way. As for the forecast, obviously, when we are estimating the guidance internally and the assessments onwards, we're very much looking on the 3 verticals that we're nowadays having and potentially should have onwards, i.e. the CFD, the futures and options and futures, and the Plus500 Invest.
The two first ones are more specific with their capability to generate revenue in the shorter term and with the Invest in the medium term and the longer term, because we just launched that new product last month. Obviously from the CFD point of view, there is much more to be generated. As we've seen, Plus500 is in a great position to continue to generate that revenue stream also when market volatility is very low and also when new regulatory implications are coming and are obviously affecting the revenue stream. As we continue to expand our customer base and to provide the best-in-class service and the best-in-class technology, we see the recognition of our customers and for many more to come. This is for the forecast as well.
Thanks. Helpful. Thank you.
Pleasure.
Thank you, Ian. Our next question comes from Martin Price of Jefferies. Martin, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. Thanks for the presentation and for taking my questions. I've actually got three, if I may. The first is just on the stockbroking rollouts. I was wondering if we should expect growth to be primarily organic, or are you confident that partnership deals with banks or brokers could potentially accelerate growth and possibly provide more of a step change in revenue? Just be interested to know if you're having fruitful discussions with interested parties there. Secondly, on the strategy, you referred in your prepared remarks to potentially launching a range of new additional financial products to diversify the business beyond CFD trading, share dealing, and the futures offering. I just wonder if you could provide some thoughts on where you see the most exciting potential future opportunities.
Finally on the cash balance of $723 million at the end of the first half, I just wonder if you could provide an update on how much of that you aim to ring-fence for regulatory and working capital requirements and how much is potentially available for future deals or potential distributions. Thank you.
Sure. Hi, Martin. It's David here. Of course, we are aiming to market the Plus500 Invest using our marketing technology that we have developed over the years. We are not counting on this stage on any partnerships with banks or brokers to do so, rather to do the same as we did with the CFDs globally. I hope it answers the first question.
Yeah, that certainly does.
As for the second question, Martin, obviously on an ongoing basis, we are examining our potential expansion plans. Very much in-house, we have more than a few technologies, which you could have also seen today as part of this presentation. There are certain areas that we do believe may bring more synergy. Without going into much of the specific reference points, once those may be applicable, we'll very much announce and provide the information to the market. That was also the case with the futures and the Invest and some others that are currently under examination. That hopefully answers your question. As for the balance sheet, very much we are having that strong balance sheet. Indeed, we are having a strong position over the years.
The amount that we intend to have at all times is roughly sticking at the level of ±$450 million, as a minimum or as the reference point that we as the board believe should be kept in-house. Residual amount may be considered for other matters such as potential acquisitions and dividends by the et cetera.
That's very helpful. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Martin. Our next question comes from Shailesh Raikundlia from Liberum. Shailesh, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, morning, guys. It's a great set of results. Thank you. I just had a couple of follow-up questions from some of the ones that have already been asked. Just follow up on the share dealing side and the commencement of that in various markets. I'm just wondering whether there was any color as to sort of the rollout on that in terms of the timing of the certain markets, and whether it comes into the U.K. sometime soon. Following on from that, obviously we've seen the IPO of Robinhood in the U.S. and the huge volumes that have gone through there. I was just wondering whether you could give us any color as to whether you had any ambitions to do the share dealing in the U.S. as well anytime soon.
Just finally on Cunningham, just wondering whether you could give us an update of, once the deal is completed, what you think of the acquisition, whether you think that the opportunity is as you had anticipated in terms of the $2 billion market, or you think it's even more attractive given the fact that you've now had time to look at the business a bit closer. Thanks.
Thanks, Shailesh. It's David here. Far, we released the Plus500 Invest in seven European countries. We are now working on enhancement of the product on the release of development and release, the iOS, the Android versions, as we far released the web app version, and adding new features while we roll out the product in additional countries. We plan to release the product in several more countries in Europe until the end of this year, not including the U.K., which is expected to be added during H1 2022. I hope it answers the first question. The second question was on Cunningham Commodities regarding. Sorry, can you repeat the second question?
Yeah, sure. I was just wondering, obviously the deal is closed. You've had a better look at the business and also the market over the last few months since the announcement of acquisition in April. I was just wondering whether you had reassessed it or you've seen whether the potential is there or even more so. I'm just trying to get a color as to what the potential of that business is in the next, let's just say a year to 18 months.
Sure. Currently, we are working on the enhancement of the Cunningham Commodities business. We are going to enhance the current product and use the Cunningham Commodities brand as it is a good business. We are working on adding many of the technologies and the methodologies and processes that we are using at Plus500 and apply them on the Cunningham Commodities business to make the product and the process, the marketing, and the operation better. While we are doing this, we are working on the development of the new product, which will take a bit longer. When I say a new product, it is more intuitive trading platform, quite similar to the CFDs look and feel platform to be offered to futures traders. We do see great potential within the business.
It's more above the existing $2 billion market. We do believe that we'll be able to create a market in the U.S. by offering an intuitive, more simple to use platform, which will allow retail customers to trade futures in a more intuitive way, one thing which currently does not exist in the U.S., as most platforms are more old school.
Great. That's very useful. Thank you so much.
Welcome.
At this time, we currently have no further questions, so I will hand the call back over to David for any closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for the questions. Just to sum up, Plus500's outstanding performance in the first half was driven by the ability of our technology to capture the current market opportunities. Following this performance, we are increasingly confident that Plus500 will continue to deliver further growth and value over the medium to long term.
Thank you, everyone