Forex - MoneyShow.com

RETAIL e-FX CLIENT
Marilyn Mcdonald
“broker integrity, execution and spreads is the
trifecta of must haves..”
customer is in the world. The tolerance for server
outages or platforms that lack basic functionality has
dropped. The customers are demanding higher and
higher levels of service and infrastructure from the
brokers.”
On the key features and functionality that retail
traders need from FX trading platform providers,
Patrick Meier, vice president at Dukascopy, notes: “It’s
all about choices. Clients sometimes would like to be
able to trade with a platform of their choice, which
may differ from the platforms the broker offers; in the
future brokers will need to be more flexible. With
automation being in the midst of a tremendous
growth phase, brokers need to provide an API in
order for the client to connect external black boxes
and robots to the feed of the broker. Many brokers
still don’t provide clients with the API’s needed in
order to connect such trading programs.
Programming functions could be available directly
inside the platforms in the future, removing the need
for external programs altogether.”
He adds: “FX is all about liquidity and it will become
increasingly difficult for brokers to only quote prices
without showing the liquidity as well; showing the
market depth will become indispensable. Imagine an
equities broker offering trading on the Nasdaq Market
without providing Level 2 quotation; they almost
certainly wouldn’t have many clients. “Brokers are
moving towards instalment and development of
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proprietary infrastructures. Rented and third party
platform licensees are struggling to keep clients if they
cannot solve technical challenges in-house,” concludes
Meier.
Improve the experience
Abu-Hamdan says the most important steps that can
be taken by online brokers to improve the overall
trading experience for retail FX clients is perfecting
platform stability and fault tolerance, which he adds is
an obvious point, but critical nonetheless. “Nothing is
more frustrating to the client than to experience a
service interruption while they are in the midst of
trading. At MIG BANK, we are building out our
infrastructure to be truly redundant and fault tolerant
with the ability to cope with minor service
interruptions and disaster scenarios alike,” he explains.
“The FX market is such a congested, competitive
market place. Spreads and account offerings are
practically the same at all houses. It is the trading
experience that is the critical success factor. Retail
customers will not tolerate the interruptions caused to
their trading from platform instability. The closer one
can get to a streamlined account opening process and
a stable fault free platform the more likely one is to
gain the trust of the retail client and an increased
market share,” Abu-Hamdan continues.
Michalowski believes that the market has made great
strides in providing interbank forex price transparency
to various groups of people. As a result, market makers
Greg Michalowski
“I believe the mobile experience has the potential to be the
next major advancement in Retail FX…”