The Archegos story sounds awfully familiar to anyone in the financial industry.

A well-educated Wall Street professional who started a career at a traditional financial corporation, networked, moved on to launch their own hedge fund, made mistakes (insider trading), paid fines to the SEC (44mln) in 2012, banned by MMT from trading in HK for 4 years in 2014 (insider trading), and restarted afresh with a new company (Family Office) that didn’t have the limitations of the previous company (contrary to a hedge fund, family offices are not required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and file regular reports). Not to mention, founded and run a charitable organization that reported almost $500 mln in assets on 2018 tax forms.

Topics: Thought Leadership, Institutional Trader

Banking and payment solutions for regulated FX Brokers are usually straightforward. I say "usually" as even FX brokers with recognized licenses can have a hard time finding suitable options in today's era of strict bank policies. Entry-level offshore FX brokers from St. Vincent, Marshall Islands and etc. are quite limited in how they can process incoming and outgoing payments, deposits and withdrawals.

This article will cover the most common payment solutions available for offshore FX Brokers as well as shed some light on what can be expected\ with each.

Topics: Thought Leadership, Institutional Trader, Automatic Trading, FX Arbitrage

The year of 2018 announced the era when DDoS attacks exceeded 1 terabyte on an individual attack basis. The definition of a “DDoS” (Distributed Denial-of Service) attack is “a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target with a flood of internet traffic”. The most famous instance was the attack on GitHub that caused downtime of 15-20 minutes^[1]. Two days later, NETSCOUT Arbor confirmed a 1.7 Tbps DDoS attack but this one managed to fly under the radar as there were no reported service disruptions.

Topics: Traders, Industry Trends, FX Liquidity, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, Forex B2B, Regulation, MiFID, MiFID2, Wholesale FX, FX Liquidity Provider, Retail Trader, Retail Broker, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker, System Uptime

FIX API has been a trending phrase amongst Forex professionals for the past decade. The technology has proven to be the fastest and one of the most secure ways to trade in FX.
A FIX API is an application programming interface (API) that uses FIX protocol. It connects FX Liquidity makers with takers. In our case, FX FIX API is a way to connect directly with a particular Liquidity Provider or aggregator.

Topics: Traders, Industry Trends, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, MiFID2, Wholesale FX, FIX API, Retail Trader, Institutional Broker

The FX Landscape has changed dramatically this year, mostly due to the implementation of MiFID 2 regulations, and rulings by ESMA, in Europe alongside additional government scrutiny of the Chinese FX Market and the exposure of failed profit-sharing models. As a result, we are seeing quite a few licensed FX Brokers for sale, as well as acquisitions within the industry. Therefore, I want to provide you with a comprehensive comparison of regulatory jurisdictions in order to bring you up to speed with the latest trends.

Topics: Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, FX Broker Startup, Regulation, MiFID2, FX Jurisdictions

Our marketing team gets countless emails from retail traders requesting demo versions of our FIX API.
Advanced Markets does not work directly with retail traders (the firm only deals with institutional clients), however, upon researching these requests further I came to the realization that this particular topic is not covered very well online.

Let’s say we have a retail trader, interested in trading via a FIX API, and who is looking for the broker that will be able to provide one.

Topics: FX Technology Provider, FX Liquidity Provider, FIX API

As with most businesses, the operation of a Retail FX Brokerage involves a lot of moving parts that must be synced together to create an efficient and viable business.
These would include Legal (KYC, trading agreements, dispute management, regulatory reporting), Trading Platform Administration and Management, Liquidity and Risk Management Provisions, IB Management, Client Support, and, of course, Sales and Marketing.

Topics: Thought Leadership, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex Marketing, Know Your Client (KYC)

MAM is an acronym for Multi Account Manager, a plugin originally designed for the Meta Trader 4 Platform to allow the proportional (or any set) profit and loss distribution from Fund Manager (or Master) to Investors (or Sub Accounts).

The Master Account serves as the primary (and the only real) trading account, and sub accounts receive the results of the actions performed on the Master Account (only proportional COPIES of the original trades).

Topics: Traders, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, MT5, MT4, MetaTrader, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker

The MetaTrader 4 Bridge is one of the most popular add-ons for MT4 Servers. It was created in early 2000 and, ever since then, there have been many rumors as to who actually developed the first commercial version (of course, many industry veterans know the name).

MetaTrader 5 bridges are now beginning to emerge, and the speed of their development is directly correlated with the very recent growth in MT5 adoption rates.

Topics: Traders, Platforms & Technology, Thought Leadership, Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, MT5, MT4, MetaTrader, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker

While some industry sources are arguing whether or not MiFID II will dramatically affect the FX industry, most FCA and CySEC licensed FX brokers are rapidly adjusting policies in order to comply with the new requirements. 

One of the key changes of MiFID II is an implementation of the term “best execution” and a directive to ensure “All Sufficient steps” (Article 64 -4) are in place to support that.

Topics: FX Liquidity, Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, Licensing, Regulation, MiFID2, FX Liquidity Provider, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker

Yesterday, I got an email from one of my old contacts thanking me for persuading him not to go into the retail FX brokerage business last year. The email was sent from the corporate domain of his new business venture, one that is apparently doing well with only a 30% involvement with the FX industry.

His experience has inspired me to write a short article that can serve as a wake-up call to anyone contemplating starting their own FX Brokerage.

Topics: Forex Brokerage, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, Forex Marketing, FX Technology Provider, FX Liquidity Provider

Traditionally, December is the month when the majority of FX professionals take some well-deserved time off. Fund Managers are avoiding any major market participation that could negatively impact annual return statistics; bank employees are trying to use up their remaining vacation time, and the overall the spirit of holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Omisoka, Kwanzaa, and many others) makes December the perfect time to relax ahead of the January hype.

Topics: FX Liquidity, Platforms & Technology, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, STP, MT5, MT4, Wholesale FX, FX Technology Provider, FX Liquidity Provider, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker

Topics: Traders

FIX (Financial Information Exchange) API (application programming interface) is a highly scalable electronic communication protocol to facilitate the real-time exchange of information related to financial markets. It has become the de facto standard method of pre-trade, trade and post-trade communication. Market participants including banks, hedge funds, prime brokers and “prime of primes” utilize FIX for their own trading needs or to connect directly to clients.

To give you an indication as to how popular FIX is: the FIX Trader Community has around 110 000 registered members and 275 corporate members (including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and so on).

Topics: Platforms & Technology, Thought Leadership, Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup, Forex B2B, FX Technology Provider, FX Liquidity Provider, FIX API, Institutional Trader, Institutional Broker

The world of online Retail FX has become increasingly competitive and congested but, regardless, the industry remains extremely attractive to investors, insiders and entrepreneurs alike. One key factor adding to the attraction is the ease by which a person can actually start their own brokerage. In past years, starting a brokerage normally required expert technology and market knowledge combined with a significant amount of free capital but today, advances in technology and an increase in the options available for regulatory licenses have greatly reduced the cost and the “time-to-market”.

Topics: Start Your Own Forex Brokerage, Brokerage, SYOB, FX Broker Startup

As a VP of sales, I have noticed that during many of my conversations lately I am helping brokers and fund managers identify the most appropriate trading venue to serve the needs of their respective businesses. This has become a very hot topic after the January 2015 Swiss event as the major Tier 1 Prime Brokerages have raised capital requirements, introduced tighter onboarding processes and, in many cases, revised their pricing models in order to mitigate the risks associated with FX prime brokerage.
In order to help ease the process of selecting the right partner I will briefly describe the 3 most popular options available for retail FX brokers, asset managers and corporates and point out each of their pros and cons.

Topics: Prime of Prime