The evolution of ancillary services which are provided by specialist third party software developers in order to enhance the trading environment of retail customers is becoming ever more sophisticated.
Trading strategies are the focus of many retail customers, thus the tools which assist traders to perfect such strategies are becoming increasingly valuable, based on their effectivity.
At the annual FXIC Latin America conference in Mexico City which was hosted by Shift Forex on February 10 at the prestigious Marquis Reforma Hotel, Bobby Richards, founder and CEO of fxtickr.com spoke to LeapRate’s Andrew Saks-McLeod in order to detail the new service.
Mr. Richards views the demand for technologically advanced systems which improve traders’ existing strategies whilst providing optimization, notifications and trading facilities is increasing among retail traders worldwide, with Latin America being no exception, along with high levels of interest from traders in the Asia Pacific region, Middle East and Europe.
The fxtickr system provides its own trading platform, which comprises live alerts and a personalized, visual trade history displaying strengths and weaknesses of a traders’ strategy. The company considers trading history to be the only proprietary data that is owned by a trader, thus aims to optimize existing strategies based on time, size and price.
“Traders can be their own worst enemies” Mr. Richards explained to LeapRate. “Every trader, no matter how new they are, is going to have winning trades, but often they overtrade and then lose capital. Using analytical tools, traders can work out what trades are good and which do not create profit” he continued.
“I am an advocate of the use of technology, and therefore if technological solutions can be placed between the trader and the venue, then risk management can be conducted on a calculated basis, and traders can improve their methodology, and mitigate losses” enthused Mr. Richards.
On this basis, Mr. Richards demonstrates his modern approach to development which is evident in the design of the homepage of the fxtickr.com website. In line with LeapRate’s industry predictions for 2015, fxtickr.com’s website follows the new format which is becoming increasingly popular. At the end of last year, LeapRate noted that in an industry which supposedly is on the cutting edge of technology, as well as embracing of change, the GUIs of most forex brokers remain very old-school.
Going are the days of standard buttons, lists of information, and offers which are prominent on broker and technology company home pages, alongside a small currency rates table and bullet points pointing to the particular company’s unique appeal.
fxtickr.com’s website follows this new trend in its modern design, which has yet been pioneered by just a handful of companies but is becoming increasingly embraced by the more avantgarde companies in the business.
With regard to market presence, Mr. Richards had some points of interests to make regarding new and interesting markets according to region: “As a company based in the United States, I have customers from across the world, and the need to develop business in new markets is imperative.”
This moved us on to discussing the exciting opportunities which are beginning to present themselve in Latin America, and in particualar, Mexico, a region of interest to Mr. Richards as well as being close to his native Texas. “Mexico has a growing middle class and a young population that is open to taking calculated risk, there is fast internet and high technology here” said Mr. Richards.
“Mexico almost has an advantage over other regions in FX, because it has the infrastructure of a western country, close proximity to the United States, and the possibility to develop into one of the strongest FX markets, and lead the way for the rest of Latin America” Mr. Richards explained.
“I was optimistic about Asia, but now I am more optimistic about Mexico. Culturally, Mexican investors have gone through market turmoil in the past, had the short end of the stick in economic situations so by being able to take control of their own destiny, I am sure that many Mexicans and South Americans will find that aspect appealing.”
Mr. Richards draws a comparison between Latin America and the existing target within emerging markets for many FX industry participants: Asia. “Asia has many similarities in terms of its standing as a region of great opportunities for FX, and many companies have gone there for the same reasons that I think Mexico is a future hub for FX, however the advantage that doing business in Mexico has is that it has the attributes that attracted brokers to Asia – young population with the will to trade and improve their circumstances, a large number of potential clients and no home-grown FX industry, however Mexico is North America, therefore it is culturally more aligned with other Western countries in terms of business ethic, and is not subject to the strict entry barriers posed by the Chinese authorities, and has a totally free market.”
As far as entry to the market is concerned, Mr. Richards considers that there is some work to be done on the part of FX firms and technology firms from abroad, in order to pave the way ahead for the industry: “Mexican customers do not really know what the FX market is yet, however they are not jaded by economic crises or poor reputations created by improper broker behavior in other regions of the world. Going back 5 years in the US, before the Dodd-Frank Act, brokers often had very bad ethics and the industry suffered because of that in terms of reputation. Now, despite extremely high levels of regulation in the US market, customers are extremely cautious.”
“Now in Mexico the FX industry can enter and work closely with the traders with success in mind, having made alot of mistakes in the development ground for retail FX in other regions, which were met with regulatory backlash.”
“In this market, brokers and vendors can enter their own way and form the entire market. I met with some brokers today, and they seem to care about their integrity, and really want to build a long term business firstly in Mexico, then extending to other parts of Latin America” concluded Mr. Richards.
