Forex Magnates reached out to Nick Bortot, CEO of BUX, for an exclusive perspective and interview regarding the firm’s unique stock trading app for users in both the UK and Netherlands. His full length interview can be read below.
1. Can you trace your career ascension and how your path coalesced into the position at BUX?
I was one of the driving forces of Binckbank, one of the largest online brokers in mainland Europe, worth half a billion euros, having worked there for 13 years. What I experienced is that there are many people who trade stocks, but there are even more people out there who are excited about stocks, getting into it, etc. However, only a few ultimately ever get started.
2. What is the vision or impetus behind BUX that necessitated such focus into its unique offering?
My vision is that the stock trading market is way bigger than the current market. Why do people not get started with trading? In my opinion it is because they perceive it as complex, time consuming, and expensive, which collectively holds people back. That’s why we created BUX – it’s a casual trading app available on the iPhone that makes it more affordable and accessible. By doing this we are addressing a way larger market than the current markets.
Our main philosophy is that people don't trade just to make money but they trade because it is fun and exciting. It’s fun and educational and that’s what we want to give them, the experience. My personal vision is that trading is the best gaming on earth. It is a game that people all around the world play. At BUX we want to give people this opportunity around world to experience this exciting game. It is important to note that this is not a replacement for serious trading platforms - we compare it to football manager, just as there is a PC version of football manager there is also the simplified app version that allow people to play on the go.
3. What sort of audience is BUX designed for?
Trading platforms on websites have the bells and whistles that are available and conversely BUX is the mobile and simplified version. You can experience this commuting home, etc., in parallel with normal trading brokers. Another important aspect of BUX is that we are a Fintech firm – we simplified trading and made it easier and affordable. Basically we aimed to make trading much more accessible to the regular guy on the street.
We launched a month ago in the Netherlands, where we come from. Already, the app has been downloaded over 15,000 times. Moreover, we launched in the UK last week with 10,000 downloads already. The early reception we found so far is that people love it and are getting hooked to it, used in parallel with the aforementioned means of trading.
4. Do you have any plans to expand to the United States?
We currently have a European license – once we see continued traction in both the UK and Netherlands we want to push the borders to expand to other European countries. One step a time, Europe first – we are also very excited about Asia in particular. Based on the people we have been speaking to, the Asian market would enjoy the combination of gamified trading and casual trading that we offer.
As to where in Asia we wish to target, it really depends. We believe it’s very hard to set up a full-fledged broker. We do a customer service, trading, customer facing activities and have a trading partner in Europe. By doing this we can completely focus on the product, legal compliance, onboarding, risk, etc. This depends on where or if we find a good trading partner in say Korea, China, for example. We must be opportunistic.
A lot of people have difficultly with spreads, but we don’t offer bid ask spreads, they can buy and sell at same price. This is one example of how we simplified trading.
5. Is there any social compatibility with BUX, engaging traders, etc.?
There is also a large social component in BUX. You can invite friends, make friends, chat with, and battle with friends. BUX battle is for certain periods such as for example 48 hours, in which we compare the trading results of both you and a friend in which the highest wins the battle – we aim to continue implementing fun things such as this to help engage the users.
Finally, what we want to do in the near future is the ability to trade with both virtual currency and real money. If we do a battle in virtual currency we are eying real money prizes. To start virtual money trading all u need to submit is your email address.
