Regardless of what many think of social trading, there is no denying it is one of the fastest growing products in the Forex space. The product appeals to both brokers and traders. Traders enjoy social and copy trading as it provides users a network to learn about trading from and a place to throw off ideas and gain feedback. For brokers, the product provides their customers a 24/5 engaging trading environment. This leads to more educated clients and higher overall volumes being traded.
Entering the growing field is ForexGlobes. The startup is an independent, broker agnostic social trading network. According to its founder, Eliav Kordova, ForexGlobes differentiates itself from the competition due to its technological advancements. Kordova explained that unlike existing cross broker solutions, ForexGlobes is server based and installed directly on the partnered broker’s hardware. The advantage is greater connectivity between the broker’s servers and the ForexGlobes network which leads to low latency, minimal Slippage , and fewer failed trades.
Being server based also means users of the ForexGlobes network need to have accounts with partner brokers. While this limits ForexGlobe’s target audience, Kordova explained that “we wanted to limit the network to brokers that we have a strong relationship with to ensure the best possible trading connection and executions.”
Kordova added that another advantage of ForexGlobes is the simple interface. Rather than needing to move around to different pages to access features, ForexGlobes provides key social actions on its main dashboard page. On this, Kordova said “It’s true social trading, with all the different feeds fused into one interface.” The product also provides the ability to access accounts from multiple brokers within the single interface.
Like other social networks, ForexGlobes home dashboard is the social hub of the platform. Traders see a real time feed stream of activity from all users and those of their network. The main page also includes an order entry interface with real time pricing streamed from their broker. On the main social stream, users can click on each trader to see their results and decide whether to follow them or copy their trades. One cool feature is that users can elect to only copy trades in specific currencies. As such, a portfolio could be created to copy traders who excel in different asset classes.
In addition to the main dashboard, on separate pages, the platform provides economic news, trading headlines, and charts that are powered by TradingView. The goal of these add-ons is to provide traders with a fully powered social and trading environment that can be used in replace of a traditional platforms.
Having played around with ForexGlobes, I found the product fairly easy to understand. Having reviewed and being a fan of TradingView charts, their appearance on ForexGlobes was a pleasant surprise. Another item I liked was the ability to filter copy trades based on currency. I would have liked more customization on the home dashboard. For example, the ability to click on a symbol from the quote box and see the chart popup (Kordova explained that this feature will be enabled in March).
Like all social networks, the fate of ForexGlobes will depend on its network. Regardless of the product, if a social network is lightly populated, even diehard fans will leave as the site’s value diminishes. Therefore, it’s too early to tell how successful ForexGlobes will be. However, in its early phase, it appears to have found a steady balance between providing the social characteristics traders’ desire, without sacrificing on execution.
The product is currently in beta form where new users can join and demo the social trading network, with live trading set to be added from ForexGlobes partner brokers soon.
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