In June 2011 Saxo Bank launched forextrading.com as a retail alternative to its more high end regular offering. For instance Saxo's minimum account size is $10,000 while forextrading allowed opening accounts from $2000. In a market where many brokers offer live trading account from $1 it wasn't big news, but it was a big change in Saxo's way of thinking.
Later on (as its 'retail' thinking evolved) Saxo acquired 25% of Leverate, one of the world's largest MT4 providers, with a clear intention to launch its own MT4 offering.
The planned transformation is now complete: forextrading.com is a new and exciting forex brokerage, regulated by CySEC in Cyprus, enjoying all the benefits of Saxo's backing and technology however operating completely separately from it and hence is much more flexible and geared towards MT4 traders. On the face of it it's great news for retail forex traders worldwide however only time will tell whether this new brokerage gets enough traction and lives up to the expectations.
I had the chance to talk to Niels Vahman the CEO of forextrading.com:
Q: Please tell us what is the difference between this offering and the 'standard' Saxo Bank one? Why did you separate this brand from the main Saxo Bank one? Why out of Cyprus?
It's a simpler solution, it tackles a different segment of the market and it is more apt for the segment that we are going after. We emerged as a brand in a context where there is a fast growing generation of traders seeking to trade in a simple, transparent and interconnected way. We live in an era where traders would like to be independent yet Included e.g. belong to a group to share insights and trade in an interconnected way. Since we are an independent company we will also be able to be more flexible and move faster to meet the needs of our targets. Clients will get the benefit of dealing with a brand with Saxo Bank´s heritage but using our differentiated services and trading via the MT4 platform which they are familiar with. This offering will also cater for their automated trading and social/algo trading activities.
We chose Cyprus because it has a great infrastructure for brokers and there is an easier access to a pool of talent with MT4 related capabilities.
Q: Will you market to existing Saxo's clients?
We are not going to market to existing Saxo clients since we are targeting a different segment and the overlap is very small. We are going to build a brand from scratch with the promise of delivering an offering which is high in quality and low in complexity.
Q: I see that minimum deposit is $1 unlike Saxo's $10k - does it mean any trader now can access Saxo Bank's technology and Liquidity with basically no minimum?
Yes there is no minimum requirement, again - because the segment is different but then again the platform is different and our service too. Not having a minimum deposit and not having different account types e.g. platinum, gold, silver etc. keeps our offering simple, straight forward and transparent. Our aim is to deliver the best MT4 trading experience with our Saxo Bank values and heritage for the new generation of traders looking to trade using MT4. Our target segment is the young and savvy who prefers searching for something in Google before calling in.
Q: You are offering three platforms MT4/Web/Mobile - can you tell a bit about your MT4? is it Leverate's? How is it different from other MT4 brokers out there? Why do you not offer other Saxo's platforms?
It is technology powered by SaxoLeverate. The difference is in concept and execution - our execution is a real 'what you see is what you get'. It's instant execution - clients will be able to execute the prices they see and this way we would like to raise the standard in the market. Although the market is highly competitive we strongly believe that our brand with its parent company heritage and our marketing will get a fair market share and will become one of the leading MT4 brokers out there over time. We are a new and agile organization which would like to make a difference in the MT4 segment. Therefore our brand promise is that Forex Trading will never be the same.
