Today, in Paris, Saxo Bank is launching its revolutionary trading platform, which is device-neutral and set to advance the method by which retail traders interact with their brokerage.
An industry leader in terms of proprietary technology, Saxo Bank is once again standing itself out as a highly avantgarde company which is shaping the path that the retail FX industry will take as SaxoTraderGo makes its debut.
LeapRate senior executive Andrew Saks-McLeod joins Saxo Bank co-founder and co-CEO Lars Seier Christensen, along with the company’s Global Head of Sales, Products and Platforms Matteo Cassina, Head of Trading Experience Christien Lund Hammer, Paris-based CEO of Saxo Banque and Head of Western Europe Pierre-Antoine Dousoulier, to launch the new platform, and discuss its position as a technological tour de force in retail FX.
Speaking today is Formula 1 racing driver Romain Grosjean, whose career within the Lotus team is worldwide renowned. Romain Grosjean is, as well as being a key motorsport figure, highly experienced in financial technology, as he is a trader with a deep understanding of the electronic brokerage industry.
Lars Seier Christensen is currently presenting the opening speech, in which he is detailing the creation of what Saxo Bank heralds as the trading platform of the future. “This is a pretty big task for a small Danish bank” Mr. Christensen explained.
“One of the reasons that we have continued to further the trading platform and gone down this route is that we have been at the forefront of technology and we like our reputation as a Scandinavian disruptive force in the financial industry. We are very dedicated to endeavoring to reshape the financial industry, and demonstrate what we beleive in” he continued.
“When we first founded Saxo Bank in 1992 we could not see how the world would develop, but what we did have confidence in is the democratizing of the financial markets. We believe that all participants in the electronic trading industry, small and large, should have equal access to products and services.”
“When we started building the new platform, bearing in mind that our first proprietary platform came out in 1998 as one of the worlds first trading platforms, we can build on our extensive experience, therefore today we are luanching an entirely new one” Mr. Christensen enthused.
“We have thoroughly researched this matter, and clearly understand that our clients want a faster, better and newer trading experience.”
Mr. Christensen then explained that there are matters within the electronic brokerage industry in general that require addressing, and elaborated on the three particular areas in which he considers trust to have broken down with end user clients across the entire global industry over recent times.
“Trust has broken down with clients” said Mr. Christensen. “That lack of trust has accelerated major trends. The first is the wish for self empowerment. There is so much information available these days, and everyone has the chance to see world affairs and financial markets. This is very important and because of the lack of trust, users want to be more self-reliant” he explained.
“Customers want to understand their assets and have immediate access to their portfolios. They want fast and accurate access” he said.
Moving on to the second factor, Mr. Christensen said “Traders in the retail sector these days increasingly rely on each other rather than financial advisers. There has been a general explosion of social networks across all walks of life, and some of the most successful businesses in the world across all sectors have been those which provide social media platforms. We think this is the same with the financial markets. people would prefer to speak to other traders rather than have traditional client/salesman relationships and we think many others will go into that business” said Mr. Christensen.
“Trading floor is a stand alone effort to create a conversation between clients and we have fully integrated this into the platform for the first time” revealed Mr. Christensen.
With regard to the third aspect, Mr. Christensen considers this to be a need for greater transparency. “The days of opaque, difficult to understand products are gone. The investor wants to understand products, pricing, risk and conflicts of interests. Customers want to know if the firm that they open an account with has a vested interest in selling the product to them.”
“We incorporate that with SaxoTraderGo. Self empowerment underlines what we aim to achieve here. Technology is essential, costs are on the rise everywhere and technology is the only way to keep a competitive edge” concluded Mr. Christensen.
Photographs: Top Right, Saxo Bank co-Founder and co-CEO Lars Seier Christensen launching the SaxoTraderGo platform. Center Left: LeapRate senior executive Andrew Saks-McLeod takes a detailed look at the new platform. Lower right: Formula 1 racing driver Romain Grosjean prepares to assess the new platform.