In today’s interview, Finance Magnates is speaking with Albina Zhdanova, the COO of Tools for Brokers, about trading today, the role of technology in the process for brokerages and hedge funds, and the shifts that the industry is going through.
It’s been a busy half-year for Tools for Brokers: new partnerships, some significant hires and the launch of a new Trade Processor Synthetic Liquidity offering. Tell us about the first half of the year for Tools for Brokers:
Yes, indeed, the first six months of 2022 felt like an entire year. Besides Synthetic Liquidity, which is an excellent tool for all clients looking for unique currency pairs, we have also released the TFB Toolbox that manages all TFB plugins under one console, had several major promotions, and we are also working behind the scenes on several big releases.
We work really hard to improve our products, and I am pleased to say that our clients have been noticing it, too. We get a lot of positive feedback along with new accounts actively signing with us.
I’m curious about your opinion: With the stock and crypto market going through, what seems to be a recession, how does that affect forex trading?
Those three types of assets are interconnected and, at the same time, serve very different purposes. Long-term investment, high risk, and active trading, and they each behave differently in various circumstances. Most macro analysts and famous fund managers are building up more cash holdings and adjusting their portfolios right now.
The FX market is now influenced by some highly volatile currencies and defaulted countries. With some of the volumes increasing, I believe our industry has a 'delayed' effect and expect there will be fewer retail traders for a while, and those trading will be more cautious, choosing to have some stable assets, or assets that are more or less predictable (if there are any left). There are many questions about the world, stock markets, macroeconomics, and the current monetary system, and very few answers. What we see as of now is brokers handling their risk exposure differently and looking to add alternative instruments.
How does Tools for Brokers help brokers and hedge funds accommodate such changes?
To be up to date with the trends, we’ve been working extra hard on speed – executing orders and adding new LPs. With TFB, it literally takes one week to add a new asset class.
We also help our clients sustain growth in their volumes. In fact, we’ve been creating our solutions with the initial goal that they must be scalable and meet the needs of brokers and hedge funds of different sizes.
For example, our Trade Processor liquidity bridge performs equally well when the brokerage has 20 or 2000 active traders. It means that if the client experiences a sudden growth in their customer base and volumes, they can rest assured that the bridge will handle order execution for all of them without issues.
We also offer clients a pool of trusted liquidity providers who they can choose based on their preferences. And, should something happen with the broker’s primary LP, the backup functionality will auto-switch to a backup LP, so traders won’t experience a disruption and won’t miss out on getting good execution prices.
Does it mean you have to be technical to utilise TFB’s products?
Not at all. We have clients with different backgrounds, and some of them are, indeed, very technical. However, most brokers and hedge fund managers are more on the business side, so they take advantage of our user-friendly interface that helps them configure everything easily and start working without requiring a deep dive or extensive training.
We offer insight into what goes on behind the UI, and we allow clients to make use of it. But, even there, the process is intuitive and relatively simple. Plus, we’ve made an effort to build a professional technical support team who are there to help should clients have any questions.
And, going back to our talk about the challenges, the cryptocurrency trading space is evolving and the winds of regulation are blowing in. What changes are you seeing and how, in your opinion, is a balance achieved between regulation and not stifling growth?
We are happy to see that regulation is finally catching up with cryptocurrencies. It is still a highly volatile and high-risk tool, but with some of the regulation rules already implemented and more in the works, we hope to see more safety and protection for all market participants. Also, as a company, we would feel much more comfortable working with crypto if there was clear guidance and legislation to back us up.
In terms of stifling growth, although regulation might slow it down a little or stop it if crypto trading is prohibited in certain regions, we believe it’s a healthy way and will ultimately benefit all market players in the long term.
You mentioned the release of the TFB Toolbox earlier this year. Would you mind telling us more about it?
The TFB Toolbox is a console where clients can access all of their TFB plugins. Because we have a wide range of plugin solutions, we understand that managing them all separately is not very efficient. That’s why we’ve decided to create a single solution that would essentially act as an admin portal. Clients can go there to securely change settings and apply new configurations whenever they want.
What would you recommend to your clients, given what we’ve discussed today?
I would say it’s definitely worth revisiting your current processes and technology. We’ve been in a turbulent state since early 2020, and with so much still going on today, it’s best to ensure your workflow is optimised and the solutions you use to deliver the best results.
Second, I’d say is to look after your clients and offer additional services that you can provide to boost volumes and meet more of your traders’ needs. Solutions like PAMM, for example, cater to traders with less experience or less time that they’re willing to commit to the trading process.
And, maybe the final recommendation is to talk to your technology provider. They know you well, so they can recommend an alternative setup and additional options and products to strengthen your business operations and raise customer satisfaction rates.
