LeapRate Exclusive Interview… Our coverage yesterday of the new partnership between Saxo Bank and Autochartist apparently raised a lot of questions with LeapRate readers.
Why did Saxo Bank, which generally prides itself for developing in-house solutions, go with an outside vendor like Autochartist?
How did the partnership come about?
So we thought we’d go to the sources to find out.
We’re pleased to present the results of our conversation with the two key people behind the deal, Autochartist CEO Ilan Azbel and Kim Cramer Larsson, Platform Manager and Technical Analyst at Saxo Bank. Here is what they had to say.
LR: Hi Ilan and Kim, and thanks for joining us today. Can you let us know a little more about how the agreement to implement Autochartist in the SaxoTraderGO platform came about.
Kim Cramer Larsson, Saxo Bank
Kim: Over the past 10 years Autochartist has proven themselves to be the leader in fully automated pattern recognition. We have been monitoring their service for a while and have had ongoing discussions being close to implement the their tool a couple of years ago on our Windows-based platforms.
But when we could see that technology was shifting towards open source technology like HTML5, we decided to wait until our new platform SaxoTraderGO was ready. Deciding to build our new platform on HTML5 technology and change our infrastructure to Open API give us much more flexibility to offer an across devices experience for our clients and open up our platform to 3rd party content providers. So from there it was an easy choice to select Autochartist leveraging on their experience in pattern recognition and combine it with our experience of developing intuitive and user friendly trading platforms.
Ilan Azbel, Autochartist
Ilan: Interestingly enough this collaboration was 4 years in the making! So much has happened in the markets over the last 4 years that its difficult to recall all the events. We had setbacks during SNB and other such black swan events. Finally, we made it through what I would regard as the most rigorous due-diligence and evaluation process our company has even been through.
The thing that makes me the most proud of this collaboration is the fact that Saxo’s evaluation has confirmed to me that we are leaders in our field. Its a huge sense of achievement for me. In the same breath, Kim has done an amazing job on this matter; I don’t think I have ever worked with such a rigorous and detail-oriented professional.
LR: Kim – how did you come to the decision to use an outside vendor for a technical analysis and signal trading tool. Most of SaxoTraderGO was developed in house. And why add this product now?
Kim: Traders and investors have shown an interest in easy to understand trade ideas delivered directly to them. That’s why we decided when implementing Autochartist it should be fully integrated into our platform. No stand alone or opening up a new browser window or anything like that. We wanted it to fit in with our own design and the way our platform works using our in-house developed chart to show the pattern signals on. Combining Saxo Bank’s and Autochartist’s strengths, we believe will give our clients the best user experience.
LR: Ilan – this is obviously a big win for Autochartist. Which other brokers currently offer Autochartist? Do you see this as a lever to get you in the door with other brokers as well?
Ilan: There are of course dozens of brokers that offer Autochartist, and yes, this will be great publicity for our company. However, what Saxo has achieved goes far and beyond what most brokers are capable of doing; integrating the content into all aspects of the trading experience, from trading signals, to technical analysis, to watchlists, to open positions. So for me this integration is more about a display of what can be achieved rather than being just another broker that has Autochartist.
LR: How do all the changes in Forex regulation affect each of your businesses? What changes do you foresee in the retail forex sector in 2017 due to regulatory changes, and some of the other competitive pressures we’ve seen?
Ilan: We are seeing brokers spending more and more on regulatory aspects of their business and this results in smaller budgets for 3rd-party tools like ours. However the counter argument is that because of these additional operating expenses, brokers are under immense pressure to increase their client base and trading activity; so whereas in the past brokers used us for technical analysis only, now we are seeing brokers use our content more in the area of sales and marketing.
Certainly licensing an automated analysis tool is a very cost effective means of producing multi-language content. So one could say that some brokers are even seeing us as a cost-saving tool.
Despite the above, lets all hope that Mr. Trump chooses to deregulate the US FX industry and bring to lucrative new market to the table.
Kim: Since Trade Signals from Autochartist are not regarded advice, new regulations haven’t affected us much in implementing this feature.