Last week LeapRate brought first reports of a deal between little known Slovakian FinTech holding company PineByte acquiring the largest social network website of forex traders in USA based company FX Junction.
PineByte bills itself as “A provider of innovative technologies in the financial sector” and will provide significant more IT resources available to the FX Junction operation.
Today we spoke with PineByte’s Head of Sales Darina Ferenc about PineByte’s entry into the Forex trading sector with their purchase of FX Junction and future plans for the company going forward. You can read the interview below.
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LeapRate: Congrats on the deal, how did this deal come about between a U.S. based social network of FX traders and a Slovakian FinTech holding company?
PineByte: Thank you. PineByte’s strategy was to build a social software which would act as central meeting place where advisers, robo-advisers and investors can interact together, but would be neutral to any broker and technology as well support Securities, Futures, and FX instruments. We had surveyed the market and noticed that all social trading software was operating under a brokerage umbrella, only worked with one trading technology and supported mostly Forex. We discovered FX Junction as the only social software which was completely broker neutral. Due to the time and cost which would have taken us to build and grow our own software, we approached FX Junction in the 4th quarter 2015 and were able to strike a deal to acquire them this year.
LeapRate: Will the concept of FX Junction change at all, and was management retained for daily operations of the site?
PineByte: As the previous owners were engineers, included in the agreement is that they would provide technical support to us for a period of time. We have a team which is experienced in building financial software systems and we are in the process of integrating their software in our infrastructure as well as developing FX Junction to be more accessible through mobile technology and improving the interface with more analytics and functions for our members.
LeapRate: You guys support over 750+ brokers? Can you talk about the geographic strengths?
PineByte: That’s correct, our members have linked their trading accounts from over 750 brokers to FX Junction. Our geographic strengths are where the 750+ brokers target their marketing efforts. We can assist them in their efforts to target the specific geographic segments of our community.
FX Junction is an open social trading network connecting over 24,861 Forex traders and 774 brokers worldwide.
LeapRate: Does FX Junction only work with MT4 brokers?
PineByte: Yes, at the moment FX Junction members can connect to any MT4 broker. We plan to introduce access to other technologies and asset classes. Our members will dictate to us which technology direction we move toward. Our strength is that FX Junction remains broker and technology neutral.
LeapRate: Do FX Junction connected traders get the advantage of commissions or performance fees? Why should I signup and connect my MT4 account as a trader?
PineByte: At this time, our members do not get compensated from FX Junction for posting or copying trades from each other. We generate revenue on selling advertising space as well as through our white label software solution for brokers. We will be releasing soon a marketplace feature, so members can promote their services to other FX Junction members. FX Junction is the only truly open social trading community that is broker neutral and has not conflicts of interests with its members. You should sign up with FX Junction if you want to meet with other traders and share ideas, post and copy trades without having to move from your existing broker. Our service is completely free for any member.
LeapRate: What are the advantages to retail brokers to bring this platform on board?
PineByte: Social trading is the future of investing in the markets, there is more and more brokers entering this space with their own solution or white labeling a solution from FX Junction. The advantages of FX Junction’s white label solution is that it is turnkey, brokers are able to nurture their leads and clients in a controlled environment, improve demo to live account conversion rates, increase trading volumes, achieve greater number of new account openings and most of all have an edge over their competition.
LeapRate: PineByte also has a product called PineVestor, can you elaborate on this in a nutshell?
PineByte: PineVestor, currently under active development, is our next generation front-to-back solution for asset management companies, wealth advisers and family offices. Developed using state of the art technologies, PineVestor will help these companies manage the full extent of their daily operations including trading, positions aggregation, market data feeds, advanced analytics, risk management, compliance, accounting and reporting.
LeapRate: Will PineByte be open to more expansion within trading?
PineByte: Yes, we will evolve FX Junction into more trading venues and asset classes. We will be initially targeting adding more trading venues so more members can join FX Junction and share the same experience as our members using MetaTrader.