The London Summit 2018 will kick off in less than two weeks, and ahead of the event, Finance Magnates has been speaking with leading executives and speakers for a sneak peek into sessions and panels.
In our latest piece, we delve into a trading world that is rapidly changing, while brokers and industry players have been forced to develop with it. However, what the driver behind these newest trends is has been somewhat debatable. In terms of platforms development, there are several questions that also need to be answered.
Wondering how to earn the trust from a new and demanding client base, or which features will help to attract and increase the lifetime value of traders? X Open Hub’s Michael Copiuk explores these questions as more, also touching on an overview of the new XT5 platform as well as entering Asian markets.
What is your position and what does your role entail?
I'm CEO of X Open Hub. In my daily routine, I maintain and develop relationships with Liquidity partners, work closely with account managers, sales and marketing teams. The second important part of my job is the introduction of all novelties of our vast range of products and setting on track those implementations.
In our company, we have decided to implement feedback-driven development. We are open to our partner's needs and requests, and therefore we have a monthly cycle of the upgrades of our trading platforms.
Our team makes the greatest effort to develop and maintain our trading infrastructure. We are focused on the ceaseless development, and due to our partner's feedback, we manage to successfully develop the low-latency trading system, which is reaching almost 100% of uptime.
What is the single most important market event or development in 2018 so far?
Many EU directives have come into force in recent years, including ESMA, PSD2, and MiFID II. There is no doubt that regulations have dominated the discussion in the financial services industry.
What are the biggest challenges that the FX trading community is facing? How do they affect your field?
The foundation of financial innovation is technology, and a stable legal environment is a prerequisite for the dynamic development of the FinTech sector.
As we all know, the legal systems are constantly evolving so the companies should stay agile. The ability to adapt rapidly to the new environment, new requirements and obligations will be paramount. It will determine whether the company fails or succeeds.
We have also noticed that institutional clients more and more, will be looking for solutions and trading systems, which cover all the needs of the regulators and provide them with a sufficient level of agility and flexibility.
With pre-trade and post-trade reporting obligations, as well as the more rigorous pursuit of best execution, there is a bigger demand for technology to support such transparency requirements. We are observing a growing demand for reporting facilities among our clients.
The access to the big data is also inevitable at the time when the machine learning and AI systems are flourishing. That’s why we have decided to expand our Data Warehouse and AI units to be at disposal for our clients.
Companies that are not prepared for the new changes may not be able to stay in business, which may lead to some acquisitions. In my opinion, the first wave of mergers and acquisitions of smaller players is about to come.
From your experience, which features or functions traders value the most in a Trading Platform ? And which do brokers in a white label solution?
Five years ago, I would say that the stability, reliability and seamless uptime are the most valued features. However, nowadays I would certainly add UX, modern design and cross-device coverage. Last but not least, the developers should remember about battery and data saving features - especially if you introduce your offer to developing markets.
We can’t also forget about the access to all types of analytical tools, news, videos, and alerts helping traders making their decisions. If it comes to WL partnership, the most important qualities of white label supplier are flexibility and immediate reaction to clients’ demand.
I also believe in building long-term relationships with business partners. That's why in X Open Hub each client has his own dedicated account manager, and the setup process can take less than a day.
Michael Copiuk will be speaking at the upcoming London Summit 2018 regarding the utilization of the XT5 platform and other developments from around the trading industry. The in-depth seminar will be held on November 14 from 11:30-11:45. Learn more and register here today!
