Integral is announcing a collaboration with FC Stone, one of the largest futures and forex brokers in the world. FC Stone is already a price giver on Integral's platforms and now this is a technological collaboration where Integral and FC Stone will partner on creating StoneX. StoneX is the next-generation FC Stone's FX platforms which amongst other things provides brokers with a modular suite of products and also allows customers to see a complete list of market makers with their price streams.
This is an interesting collaboration no doubt which will create a powerful platform which in turn will enjoy from FC Stone's large customers base and volume. It's interesting whether for Integral this is a pure technological collaboration (where its rewarded only for providing the technology) or will Integral will enjoy from transactions upon this platform as well.
CHICAGO and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (June 29, 2010) —Integral Development Corp. (www.integral.com), a leading provider of FX trading solutions and services, and FCStone Forex LLC, (“FCStone”) a wholly owned subsidiary of FCStone Group, Inc. (www.FCStone.com), a leading commodity risk-management advisory and execution firm, announced today that they partnered on a number of initiatives to launch the firm’s next-generation FX Platform. The comprehensive FX Liquidity aggregation solution provided by Integral addresses the business needs of the broker, and of its retail, institutional and algorithmic trading clients. FCStone is also offering prime brokerage services to participants on Integral’s FX Grid®.
“We have chosen Integral to support our focus on expanding our business, improving operational efficiency, managing risk and controlling cost,” said Edgar Ramon, Global Head of FX, FCStone. “Integral’s highly-developed technology spans all the key areas required, and as on demand services, offers the inherent flexibility and rapid deployment of that delivery model.”
FCStone is using Integral’s FX Liquidity Aggregation services to offer its clients the richest possible inter-bank liquidity through a number of trading venues including a robust API, MetaTrader 4, and Integral’s own retail margin trading solution FX Power Trader™. FCStone also selected Integral’s multi-sided trading platform FX Grid to become the backbone of StoneX. StoneX is a next-generation FX platform that provides brokers with a modular suite of products (“building blocks”) designed to enable any brokerage firm to quickly launch and easily maintain a world-class FX brokerage service.
“Integral is proud to be working with FCStone on what is essentially the implementation of a superior risk management and execution strategy for FCStone’s entire FX business,” said Harpal Sandhu, CEO, Integral Development Corp. “To that end we are connecting with and improving on their business processes as they relate to their FX strategy, including providing the operational infrastructure for FCStone’s no dealing desk operations.”
A unique feature of FCStone’s next-generation FX platform is the ability for customers to see a complete list of market makers with their associated price streams. This option gives them full visibility and transparency of the liquidity FCStone will provide to them. As a result, customers are empowered to enter into direct discussions with liquidity providers and negotiate liquidity streams that more closely fit their particular trading patterns.
FX Power Trader, Integral’s White Label retail margin trading solution is a complete, managed service, retail FX trading system including advanced trading application, online demo system, partner marketing support, and 24X7 service. FX Power Trader allows a broker to rapidly deliver a powerful eFX retail solution with that broker’s brand supporting his business model and meeting the needs of its clients.
FX Inside Professional™ is an institutional-level Execution Management System (EMS) which aggregates and ranks prices from FCStone’s liquidity providers, giving its customers unmatched depth of liquidity and best execution. FX Inside Professional eliminates the need for viewing multiple FX applications on multiple screens by consolidating them into a single interface. FX Inside Professional's algorithmic capabilities support executing large trades across multiple liquidity providers with minimal slippage.
The FX Inside API™ is a set of application programming interfaces for accessing liquidity directly from FX Grid. The APIs are used by institutional takers for direct market access to multiple liquidity providers’ price streams. The APIs can also be offered by brokers to their clients for access to the broker’s price streams. The FX Inside API can be used to integrate proprietary electronic and algorithmic client/server, browser based, and mobile application trading systems. The FIX protocol, as well as Java and C++ interfaces, are supported. All these solutions are delivered on demand on FX Grid, a global inter-institutional connectivity and trading network, linking market making banks to FX market participants.
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About Integral
Integral develops and operates FX Grid, a global Multi-sided Trading Facility (MTF) connecting active market participants with all major sources of FX liquidity. Together with FX Inside, its real-time Execution Management System (EMS), Integral's products represent the intersection of direct market access and algorithmic trading in the foreign exchange markets. Founded in 1993, Integral maintains development, support, and sales offices in Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Bangalore. Investors include Accel Partners, Adams Street Partners, Hudson Ventures, Ignite Group, Mizuho Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. For more information, visit www.integral.com.
About FCStone Group, Inc.
FCStone Group, Inc. and its affiliates provide risk management consulting and transaction execution services to commercial commodity intermediaries, end-users and producers. The firm assists primarily middle market customers in optimizing their profit margins and mitigating exposure to commodity price risk. In addition to risk management consulting services, FCStone, LLC, operates an independent clearing and execution platform for exchange-traded futures and options contracts. FCStone Group, Inc., serves more than 8,000 customers and in the 12 months ended May 31, 2009, executed 73.7 million derivative contracts in the exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets. The FCStone Group companies work in all the major commodity areas including agriculture, energy, renewable fuels, foods, forestry, cotton and textile, dairy and currency exchange. Headquartered in the Midwest, it has offices located throughout the world and is a clearing member of all major North American Futures exchanges. (www.FCStone.com)
