Exclusive: Spotware’s Panagiotis Charalampous on cTrader and “Open Trading Platform”
Spotware Systems is one of the leading software vendors within the FX and CFD industry ever since it launched its flagship product, cTrader.
The Cyprus-headquartered fintech is currently comprised of a team of more than 100 experts that works to solve real problems for banks, brokers and their clients.
cTrader has grown to reach 1.5 million traders registered with over 50 FX and CFD brokers worldwide. The trading platform features charting, copy trading, manual and algo trading, web and mobile, server hosting, Open API and FIX API, and spreadbetting.
This introduction only scratches the surface, but Finance Feeds took the liberty of interviewing Panagiotis Charalampous, Head of Community Management at Spotware Systems, to gain a better understanding of what cTrader is capable of nowadays and where it is heading.
cTrader has been adopted by a multitude of traders in the past 12 years. What are the platform’s main advantages?
Yes, indeed. cTrader has been adopted by a lot of traders, especially in the last few years. The reasons behind the fast growth and adoption are many. First of all, the range of brokers offering cTrader is expanding and this is because cTrader is a unique platform. We position ourselves as an open trading platform and we are unique in our approach. No other trading platform allows you to build your own applications on top of it, integrate with competing services and make it truly yours. cTrader has been used by brokers not only as an off the shelf trading solution but also as a solution to build any trading service you wish on top of it. Examples include integrations with charting solutions like TradingView and NinjaTrader, custom made trading UIs and customized InApp user experiences.
cTrader is a platform that offers brokers everything they need, from a full collection of client UIs to all kinds of APIs and LP integrations. We have been at the forefront since the beginning by inventing STP trading, we are at the forefront now by adapting to current market trends like crypto accounts and we will be at the forefront in the years to come as well, with whatever the future brings to us.
On top of that, cTrader is a platform that is loved by traders. Our Traders First™ approach ensures that there is no trade manipulation and that there is extreme transparency and multiple safety layers to traders. Also the vast range of trader oriented features like advanced charting and trading tools, various types of alerts and other protection features make cTrader the platform of choice for traders.
Spotware announces new tools and features and upgrades with a striking regularity. Don’t you ever run out of ideas?
No we don’t! It is in our DNA to be on the edge and always lead innovation. We have invented STP trading and chart trading and we introduced the first HTML5 trading platform. Today we continue innovating by offering native crypto balances, branded mobile apps and customizable InApp controls. And there is more to come, like cloud cBos, a native MacOS app and Chart Streams, just to name a few. Our backlog is endless!
You have rolled out the Manager API for cTrader brokers. What can you tell us about the product?
The new Manager’s API is a huge step for broker control expansion, and, of course, in line with cTrader’s business scope – it delivers complete and meaningful solutions that solve real problems.
Our Manager’s API provides one of the most powerful tools for server-server integration and allows brokers to receive historical values about all entities, to send managing requests to work with all entities of the server – create/update/delete – Accounts, Groups, Profiles, Charts; make deposits/withdrawals, and even trade on behalf of traders.
Additionally, the functionality allows brokers to build applications easier, even trading terminals, compared to the usage of the Open API. Brokers can now also replace Webservices API with the manager’s API and implement more logic inside their CRM. Working with the manager’s API is based on the manager’s permissions – the same permissions that are used for operations in cBroker.
In other words, through our Manager’s API, brokers can control and operate cTrader in the manner they see most appropriate and beneficial for themselves and their traders. I suppose the real value here is that the broker is only limited by what they can envision!
Spotware was behind the integration of Pepperstone into TradingView earlier this year. Are you looking to expand third-party service integrations in the future?
The Pepperstone/TradingView integration is an excellent example of what can be achieved using our Open API. Therefore we are looking to expand third-party integrations, especially the ones using the Open API. We already have a lot of well respected and widely-used platforms integrated with us, from charting solutions to CRM platforms and Data Providers. cTrader is a mature product with a solid ecosystem of integrated third-party solutions, making it quick and simple to deploy and connect with any existing business. All integrations leverage cTrader’s open architecture, using one of the available API protocols. If there is a service a broker is interested in, Spotware’s dedicated integration team will take care of it.
You recently won the 2022 “Best Multi-Asset Trading Platform” Award by Global Forex B2B Awards. Congratulations! And please tell us what this award means to your company?
Thank you very much for the congratulations. First of all we would like to thank everyone that voted for us. For us this award means a lot! It shows that we are on the right track, and is a testament of Spotware’s dedication of delivering complete and meaningful solutions that either solve real problems or purely add value to banks, brokers and their clients. This award goes to all of our employees for their hard work and unparalleled dedication!
What does Spotware have in store for the foreseeable future?
A lot! For manual trades we are focusing on charting improvements, further connectivity improvements and on social features.
For algo traders we are considering 1-click cloud cBot execution and monetization tools for cBot authors.
For copy traders, we’re only working on availability, accessibility and on making UX improvements as the product is very mature now and popular with traders and partners.
For partners we’re bringing amazing attribution and conversion tools.
And for brokers we will soon offer custom mobile push messages, revamped whitelabel functionality, as well as many add-ons. But most importantly we will offer In-app broker oAuth, so that users can log in to cTrader with their broker credentials.
