Analysis: Expanding on the Interactive Brokers Metatrader 5 Broker Offering

Earlier this week, Interactive Brokers announced a new partnership offering for brokerages which involves a new solution for brokers that are keen to provide a significant MetaTrader 5 offering. In conjunction with the services of oneZero and MetaQuotes the U.S. brokerage company has enable access to about 15 exchanges initially for the retail FX brokerage industry.

While the company has already been in the market with white label offerings the new solution makes it much more accessible for firms that are interested in delivering to their clients a true multi-asset solution via the MetaTrader 5 Trading Platform .

the Interactive Brokers Gateway offers the ability to view and manage API orders and account data in a seamless experience

Interactive Brokers has been delivering its solutions to the market in a variety of ways up until now - it has a prime brokerage offering and delivers custody solutions for institutions. In addition to that the company has a white label and Execution relationship partnerships for companies which choose to operate in a different manner.

An Interactive Brokers spokesperson shared with Finance Magnates: “We have offered trading solutions for many years using our APIs that allow clients to connect either to TWS or our Gateway. The difference is that the Gateway offers the ability to view and manage API orders and account data in a seamless experience with a minimal interface while the TWS solution is a more immersive solution.”

A MetaTrader 5 True Multi-Asset Offering

Using the Interactive Brokers Gateway, companies and clients that are working with MetaTrader 5 get access to a thorough offering which for now includes a set of 15 out of the biggest 20 exchanges in the world. This way companies that are looking to employ the capabilities of the fifth generation of MetaTrader can offer some substantial variety to their own clients.

Using the features of MetaTrader 5 that have made access to a variety of exchanges possible, this new offering could prove to be a missing alternative in the market - combining a relatively popular platform with Direct Marker Access (DMA).

One of the main perks for traders is access to Interactive Brokers' direct market connections

DMA is frequently claimed by some companies, but evidence suggests that not all offerings on the market are really delivering this feature. The main benefits for brokers here is that they can use a trading platform that is slowly becoming more familiar to retail traders, especially after earlier this year MetaQuotes enabled hedging on MetaTrader 5. With the option from Interactive Brokers, brokerages can avoid using sometimes unfamiliar software to deliver a true multi-asset solution.

Commenting on the main benefits from the new offering, the Interactive Brokers representative shared: “The main perks for traders are access to our direct market connections to trading venues worldwide, the ability to trade multiple products in multiple currencies, and access to our best in class execution and low commissions.”

The partnership between Interactive Brokers, MetaQuotes and oneZero has been made possible via the use of the U.S. broker’s API solution. To enable the MetaTrader 5 offering, oneZero has committed substantial resources in order to integrate and test the solution to provide a good experience for clients.

Overall the offering enables one more entrant into the true multi-asset space in the retail industry. With a number of offerings already on the market, one more entrant to increase competition is always welcome. The launch will certainly make other offerings more competitive too, which is an overall benefit to broker and end clients looking for a true multi-asset solution.