For years Retail Forex Technology has been dominated by the ubiquitous MT4 Trading Platform . Early on MT4 was able to gain mass appeal by charging brokers a fixed setup and monthly fee for its services. The brokers who purchased the MT4 license all spent money marketing the MT4 platform. Further, MT4 had a trading tool called Expert Advisor which is one of the first free Algo trading tools for the retail fx trading community.
EA’s over the years created a cult-like following amongst FX traders and is one of several reason MT4 is still the most popular FX platform. Meanwhile, other technology vendors built tools that made the MT4 platform even more popular by increasing the platforms’ functionality. These technology vendors added functionalities including, mobile, social and one-click trading.
In the past year or so MetaQuotes began to “crack down” on these technology vendors.And, as it simultaneously releasing its own social, mobile and one-click trading solutions. The effect of these actions was many unexpected partnerships. For example, technology vendors such as Tradency and Autochartist are now partnering with other technology companies such as Tradable and MT4i.
Many brokers are scrambling to sign up alternative platforms such as CTrader and FXOne. As this partnering is taking place on the technology side of the FX Market and consolidation continues on the Broker side of the market one can only wonder…. what will happen if a broker pursues a rollup strategy of the FX Technology Vendors?
And even more intriguing is what would happen if a broker such as FXCM or SaxoBank bought MetaQuotes outright?
