ISSUE #1 | VOLUME 1
DIRECTORY Bridging the Gap
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Interview with Louay Amhaz
Ask the Experts
5-6
The basics to optimising your FX business
From Code to Bonds Interview with Denis Borisovsky
8-9
Bridging the Gap Louay Amhaz has forged himself the name of being one of the go to professionals in the MENA region when it comes to discussing institutional infrastructure. Tasked with spearheading the new Cyprus office for oneZero, Louay looks to bring his charisma and knowledge to a very competitive market. We met for coffee so he could give us more of an insight into the task ahead. Paul Orford Can we have some background on oneZero for those who are not aware? Louay Amhaz oneZero is an American technology provider considered an industry leader in providing connectivity software for STP, risk management, institutional-grade hosting services, and LP-bridge interfaces to MetaTrader (MT4/MT5 and FIX). We’re known not only for the quality of our products but also for our service and support. Our expertise in cutting-edge technologies makes our products and services unique in the financial industry. We believe we are at the forefront of market technology solutions. Moreover, our developers have decades of programming expertise and extensive market experience. Paul Orford You are opening a new office here in Limassol. It looks like you are expanding at a rapid rate. Louay Amhaz oneZero was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in February 2009, and we’ve been growing very rapidly over those seven years. Our company has expanded its physical footprint by opening offices in London and Sydney, and the next step is to open a Limassol office in order to offer and maintain our support and services at the highest level for our clients in Cyprus, the MENA region, and Europe.
Paul Orford I found that using the Hub was a straightforward process, and it has a lot of reporting tools on it. Is this the key strength of the software? Louay Amhaz oneZero’s Hub solution provides universal connectivity for retail FX platforms, B2B partners, and liquidity providers. Brokers, prime brokers, and banks use oneZero’s Hub technology to centrally manage risk and build custom liquidity pools for retail FX, CFD, and exchange-traded products. As a global leader in connectivity solutions, oneZero has built a platform that can stream trade-enabled liquidity directly into the most popular front-end trading platforms or via FIX API. Paul Orford There are a lot of bridge providers out there. What makes you different? Louay Amhaz At oneZero, we consider our clients our partners in the industry, and they are our top priority. We deliver services on time and as promised, and we are always up to date on the needs of the market. All of the specialist software we use is developed in-house and is fully owned by oneZero. oneZero has data centers in Boston, New York, London, HongKong, and Chicago. We offer co-location options for hosting the Liquidity Hub alongside a 1 2
broker’s retail platform (MT4, MT5, etc.). The oneZero Hub is also designed with an “Active Response” alert mechanism. In the event of any connectivity issues, risk trades, or unusual client activity, the Hub will notify oneZero support directly. The broker’s support team and dealing desk can be included in the communication to provide a seamless support and notification system.
own MT4/MT5 server(s) in the same ultra-low-latency FX Hubs within the same data centers.
At oneZero, we are able to approach trading systems in a unique way by analyzing problems from a market perspective and addressing them with flexible, optimal technology solutions. oneZero provides 24/5.5 support for our products via our highly qualified global support staff, with offices in the U.S., UK, Australia, and soon Cyprus. Paul Orford In our opinion, the retail market looks to be consolidating. Are you looking more toward hedge funds and the institutional space for the future? Louay Amhaz oneZero serves a large and growing clientele of leading banks, LPs, FX brokers, hedge funds, and asset management firms worldwide from its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its offices in London, Sydney, and soon Cyprus. We’re always looking to enhance our offerings; just this year, we released a margin engine that is being used by dozens of brokers to provide their peers with liquidity via FIX API. Furthermore, we do not provide liquidity and do not charge the banks/liquidity providers that our Hub clients connect to, leaving our Hub clients in a stronger position to negotiate tighter spreads and lower commissions with their bank/liquidity relationships, preventing conflicts of interest when it comes to liquidity needs. Our goal is to partner with all of the world’s leading liquidity providers and banks to provide a reliable and transparent service to our clients. This is why we currently support connectivity for more than 56 top-tier banks and LPs worldwide; we are co-located and cross-connected with these LPs, giving you the benefit of sourcing liquidity from these locations at sub-millisecond speeds and the ability to host your
LOUAY AMHAZ Business Development - Cyprus and MENA
The Hub is designed to run in a co-located environment as close as possible to liquidity providers in order to reduce network latency. Brokers requiring distributed solutions can leverage oneZero’s global network to provide optimized routes between data centers. oneZero’s Hub is a system that you can rely on for your operation. Paul Orford What is the future of OneZero? Louay Amhaz I'd be happy to provide a quote on the future of oneZero if this helps: "oneZero sees significant opportunities in the deployment of our solutions in a B2B model going into 2017. The success of our margin engine, back-office components and EcoSystem pricing have created an excellent foundation for our institutional partners. oneZero has always been known as a global leader in Retail connectivity, and we are seeing our clients mature into the Prime of Prime space, which is a trend we intend to foster through additional capabilities and development.
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ASK
THE EXPERT By asking questions to the industries leading experts, we can show you how to optimize your brokerage and add value to your business without hurting your bottom line. Paul Orford, Head of Institutional Sales for AMB Prime, a well known industry figure with many years of experience in FX sales will give you the insights starting from the bottom level and working across all the areas in brokerage sales. He is one of the best industry insiders to help you efficiently optimize your brokerage.
Q
What is a simple way to aide in increasing the profits of my brokerage without too much upheaval being caused?
This is one of the most common questions that we are are often asked. There are a number of very easy and straightforward execution elements that can be carried out and significantly improve your bottom line on the brokerages performance. Here are some simple solutions to improve your brokerage that do not cost you a penny, in fact they save you money. 1. One price feed for FX and CFD’s. Without having to pay for 2 separate FIX connections, your overheads are reduced along with removing the need of having 2 different accounts in your risk department. This will not only give you significant savings, but also add to your product line at no extra cost. With the minimum monthly volume fee as one cost from day one, your MMVF will be reduced by 50% from then on. AMB Prime have the distinct advantage of being able to offer this, whilst our peers do not and offer them separately. 51
2. Expanding your product line. Some brokerages limit themselves to offering just the major FX currency pairs. Although they may be the most traded items in FX, by offering a wider product line you can bring in a new clientele. Rather than just running expensive marketing campaigns where you are in competition with your rivals. Extending your product line gives you something to speak to your old clients about to retain them and make them aware of your added services. The old clients in your database who may have lapsed, are from my experience, the best clients. They have already been sold on your services so your brokerage’s credibility is not an issue. Once you open the lines of communication again, you can see why they have not executed trades with you, address the matter in hand and bring back the client into the fold. We can offer you a CFD solution along with FX in one FIX API at no extra cost. When you take this service you can increase your product selection knowing you are in partnership with a world class liquidity provider.
Q
How does this help me?
With the MMVF counted as one fee and the commissions per million also calculated as one, your overheads and organisation can really flourish by saving not only your valuable time but also money. Furthermore, you can easily gain access to and implement this, all we would need is to send you the FIX connection. 6
From Code to Bonds "Protrader is for brokers who think outside of box" - Interview with CEO and Founder of PFSOFT, Denis Borisovsky.
Paul Orford can you give the readers an outline your professional background? Denis Borisovsky I graduated in Civil Engineering, and then moved on to Informational technologies. After graduation I was working in many IT companies while developing my own projects in my spare time. I was looking for interesting and challenging ideas, such as voice generation from text file or signature recognition for identification. Once I faced online trading, it was kind of magic for me that seemed to be the most challenging - so later I returned to this field and established a company. Paul Orford How did it happen that you have created PFSOFT and then Protrader? Denis Borisovsky In my early days of work, I was very interested in trading and the mechanics of the financial markets. I knew that finances (capital markets) could work better across the world, and I was inspired by an idea that modern technology can make it much more effective. The idea was to integrate all markets - both geographically and asset classes, to make it simpler and effective. At the beginning we have started with writing simple pieces of software for charts and quotes. It was the time when retail trading started gaining traction and becoming really popular in Europe. As usual in such circumstances, technology and services were somehow lagging behind. Our first products – ProCharts and ProQuotes – quickly gained interest
from international companies, but at that time I was already seeing many possible enhancements. Then we decided to combine as much functionality as possible in a single platform to improve efficiency and usability of our products. That was when the idea about “Protrader complete trading platform” was born. Paul Orford What difference do you see between trading platform and brokerage solution? I guess these are not same things for you. Denis Borisovsky By trading platform most people understand a front-end terminal only where they can place orders. What is important is that behind every front-end platform, there has to be some server controlling all operations, and also often a middle office. All the components together we call a brokerage solution. Additionally, there is an exchange platform, which we also have as part of Protrader. So we strive to meet requirements of all market participants in one complete solution. That makes it probably the most universal, relatively simple and effective solution on the market today. And we will never stop this progress towards our vision - effective resources allocation (ERA). Paul Orford What I found appealing regarding your product was the ease of implementation? There is no bridge required so makes life a lot easier? Denis Borisovsky You may say that only in case of FX/CFD products. But please keep in mind that Protrader was created as a multi-asset solution which is able to handle not only FX/CFD products, which are relatively simple from technological point of view, but our 8
solution supports also Futures, Equities, Options and Bonds which are far more difficult to implement. We usually make a lot of additional development for partners, who wish to offer equities, futures, options and bonds trading, mostly around integrations with execution venues, as every case has its specificity. But speaking of solution for FX/CFD industry, we have a full suite that includes server, front-end, integrations with liquidity providers and all bunch of APIs. Implementing of such solution is usually quick but also depends on our partners and their partners’ capabilities. For example, a broker has to host the solution in his own data centre as well as to arrange liquidity for himself. The process of finding the right liquidity provider could take a while.
Paul Orford For who is Protrader the ‘first choice’ solution? Denis Borisovsky I think that it is for everyone who views their business with a long term goals. I would suggest it is for someone who wants to think outside the box and beyond the normal standards assumed by the industry. Paul Orford I guess a common challenge you may face from retail brokerages is that it is not MT4. Although they are massively different how do you outline this to potential clients? Denis Borisovsky We get this sort of questions pretty often – ‘How is your platform different from MT4’. Well, it is different in all kinds of ways. The only similarity is that you can offer FX/CFDs trading through both of them. But here is where the similarities end. When you compare solutions tailored only for FX and CFDs, you will notice that from the front-end side trading experience is completely different and tools available for traders give much more possibilities. That’s why traders and money managers are very happy with Protrader front end posting nice reviews and comments across our social media community. What you will also find out Is that Protrader contains many features which requires plugins within MT4 setup, starting from external connectivity - where MT4 requires bridge, Protrader has a set of APIs – ending on tool like Multi-Account Management. And still, with Protrader you can expand to new markets and asset classes if circumstances will force you to do so.
DENIS BORISOVSKY CEO and Founder
Paul Orford In our opinion the retail market looks to be consolidating, are you looking more to hedge funds and the institutional space for the future? Denis Borisovsky We are not concerned much about the retail FX market. Protrader was never a platform of first choice for retail FX brokers. Those retail brokers who implemented our solution are multi-asset brokers with FX among their asset classes and they seem to be attracting a variety of clients – for example, they attract money managers, high net worth individuals and professional traders. Those investors tend to be more stable, while multi-asset brokers have their offers diversified into many markets and asset classes. So I am pretty calm.
Paul Orford What’s the future for PFSOFT, any big announcements? Denis Borisovsky Yes. We have about 100 people in the main office working constantly on making our solutions better. Aside of regular updates and minor fixes, we have also a major release every couple of months which is a result of some big customisation for our partners or proprietary upgrade in line with our philosophy. Recently we have added bonds to Protrader’s asset-classes which was an important change, because it enables Protrader to combine more markets in a single environment. Soon we will release something, that’s barely available on the market and it’s been a huge pain for millions of traders. First half of 2017 will be very important for PFSOFT and Protrader.
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