In a move to expand its product offering to include mobile trading, technology provider Fair Trading Technology (FTT) has recently made a deal to acquire mobile trading APP maker iPhorex. To learn more about the mobile deal, what FTT is currently involved with and their goals for the future, Forex Magnates spoke to Fair Trading Technology’s CEO, Tim Haman.
Tim Haman, CEO and co-founder, Fair Trading Technology
Q: Please describe the iPhorex deal – is it a merger, acquisition?
A: The iPhorex deal is a “merger”. Primarily it is based on finding a mobile platform that complements our product offering on the desktop and bridge (backend) offering. We researched several mobile platforms and offerings and found iPhorex met our expectations in terms of technology, features and tools provided to a mobile offering.
Q: Did you have your own mobile solution which was replaced with iPhorex? If so, why did you replace it? If not, was adding a mobile solution a part of your strategy?
A: We did not have an existing mobile platform although the development of it was in our pipeline of product offerings. iPhorex was a good fit.
Q: What specific technologies or resources do you benefit from acquiring iPhorex?
A: As part our merger, we have developed and integrated the mobile platform to be compliant with MT4, MT5 and Jforex. Thus, it is fully synchronized with all three trading platforms. This enables us to position our mobile platform to conform and be compliant to the poplar MT4 platform as well as any proprietary desktop platform with minimal incremental resources and costs. The platform also provides tools such as a live economic calendar, Live TV news, market updates, Autochartist chart tools and live price alerts.
Q: Does iPhorex provide openings to any particular client base?
A: Yes! Many brokers, group of Institutional platforms and IB’s do not offer a mobile platform as part of their solution. In addition, the mobile solution that is offered by Metaquotes does not permit to white label the brokers offering and thus does not permit the broker to brand and position their mobile offering to their customers effectively. Hence, we strongly feel our product significantly differentiates what is offered in the market today at no additional cost for implementing the mobile platform.
Q: What future plans do you have for the firm? (after integration).
A: We will be expanding our offering to the MAC OS desktop/laptop and Android platforms. We have been somewhat reluctant to “jump” into the Android platform, primarily due to the open source nature of the OS that leads to security concerns and also the fragmentation of the OS versions between several hardware smart phone suppliers.
Q: Will you be offering additional products? CFD’s / Futures etc.
A: It is easy to add additional symbols/products into the application, and when customer demand picks up for those products it will be implemented.
Q: Why does FTT only work with Dukascopy? Which other LP’s are you working with?
A: FTT started it's development with a business to consumer setup together with Dukascopy and we are now adding business to business offerings of our integration technology.
Q: What solutions do you have (or plan) for social trading?
A: The social-follow-me trading is not yet fully matured and not fully in a controlled mode. As an example to this it is possible for a trade leader to a run demo account and the followers will apply trades into their live accounts. In the long run, the model that will evolve or be sustainable will have a set of control functions to verify that the trading executed is well planned and fully transparent. One very important part here is that social trading needs to be; cross brokerage and cross platform, which our technology fully supports, then it can really grow.
Q: The intermediary bridge space is getting congested. How can you (FTT) be different? What can you offer brokers looking for a quick, easy to set up a brokerage solutions with A and B book functionality and a diverse range of products?
A: Chances are that a broker’s systems has grown over time with the addition of new trading platforms and new Liquidity providers. The chances are that what a broker has now is a collection of bridges and patchwork solutions that aren't as efficient as the could (or should) be and aren’t necessarily integrated well.
FTT is offering a lot more than just a bridge. Fair Trading Technology's modular system enables you to easily add any platform or liquidity provider and have them work together seamlessly, almost as if they were meant to from the start.
Our solution was created from a need to connect platforms and Liquidity Providers in a seamless, transparent fashion. Traders should be able to just trade with the platform of their choice and brokers shouldn't have to fight with technology to provide that.
We provide solutions, connecting your systems, offering shared wallet accounts, social trading, white label NOC, tradeflow intelligence and more.
We can set up a demo environment for any customer within a very short time period. One has to remember that each delivery is different, we do adapt all technology to the brokers business model and optimize all components to save a lot of money for brokers.
