New Neo-broker democratizes CFDs and goes commission free

It is not every day that a new brokerage arrives on the market, and perhaps even less common that a new electronic brokerage should be launched which steers away from the overly Brokerage market regulated within UK, Cyprus and Australia.

5 Years ago Robinhood, Mozno bank, Revolut, Starling bank have started to challenge the way we deal with banking, trading, exchanging online, this has cleared away a new era of challenger banks and brokers we never have foreseen within such heavily regulated, massively capitalized sectors, yet now has come for a time to offer a new Neo-Brokerage within Europe in offering all the trading options such as forex, stocks, and digital assets through Axes while committing to offer $0 free commission trading with any invested amount being welcome.

Axes aims in democratizing finance for all, offering all the asset classes within EU and world wide with $0 commission as well as being one of the few straight through processing companies regulated in the UK.

The FX market has been underdeveloped for a long time, having its business model driven by the same deliverables everyone offers, whether meta trader trading platform or the market maker model that brokers tend to counterparty traders that doesn’t really offer true market access having a house dealing against you for the sake of corporate profit, this truly has misconceived the idea of building a brokerage which the true intention is to provide clients with genuine market access without the hassle of countering clients nor manipulating data and trades to serve brokerage needs.

Here we are after 25 years of technological advancement yet the financial retail sector still lacks behind, yet brands differentiate they still all share the same trading platform (Meta Trader 4 or Meta Trader 5), same business intent which mainly deals in being a counter party to traders, the lack of transparency that brokerage have, high costs and of course the lack of equality of the trading community. 

The Problems of CFD Trading:

Expensive Fees:

• High fees on trading activity per each execution.
• High fees on exchange rates which results in high losses.
• High capital requirements from brokerages.

Difficult Access: 

• Difficult access to the market due to regulatory requirements and slow onboarding of clients.
• Complicated due diligence process brokers Impose.

Lack of Transparency & Safety:

• Market Makers are in conflict of interest due to business model of revenue on client losses.
• Market prices are manipulated as well as historical data of previous prices and charts.
• Fees are not fixed, they are variable depending on brokers decision of mark up.

The one sector that is perhaps free from this, although it has many challenges of its own, is the CFD sector, as CFDs are often traded on proprietary platforms designed for that purpose, with MetaTrader being mainly used for spot transactions, however with the regulatory purges on CFD trading by European and Australian authorities, restriction is definitely an existential hurdle.

Today’s launch of an all new brokerage aims to look at both of these factors and resolve them.

The Problems in the retail FX sector that Axes seeks to address are:

Transparency & Safety:

• Real-Time market prices with instant execution
• Axes business model is a transmitting company (No conflict of
• Interest).
• Fixed fee on spreads.

Access:

• Easy user journey and onboarding.
• Simplified due diligence.
• Complete access to all CFD in any amount funded.

Fees:

• Axes provides $0 fees on trading.
• Any amount funded is welcome.
• Only charge a fixed fee on spreads.

Axes, which goes live in a couple of months, is the first European CFD Neo-brokerage offering trading on Stocks, Forex, Metals, Indices, Energies and digital assets. Retail traders can place orders using Axes to buy and sell CFDs, and self-directed orders will receive the best possible trade execution across all CFD executing venues.

The establishment of Axes began almost a decade ago at www.apexum.com, where co-founder Khaleel Musleh started realizing how many brokerages lack technology within trading and operational sphere to run their brokerages smoothly. After spending long nights toiling on problem that the market faced, he established a company in Cyprus that made Customer Relationship Management & trading platforms for some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

He soon learned that institutional traders and electronic trading firms pay effectively nothing to place trades on the market. On the other hand, everyday investors were taxed up to $10 per trade. Mr Musleh realized it was time to bring this advantage to everyone. By automating many of the costly duties that existing brokerages maintain as a holdover from the pre-Internet era, He could build a much more cost efficient and enjoyable brokerage. This was an opportunity and challenge he was very excited about.

FinanceFeeds spoke today to Khaleel Musleh of Axes, who explained the technological and ideological ethos behind the establishment of Axes.

“The fees, safety and working models of current brokerages is unfair at all, many claim to secure, be transparent, offer their services in good intent yet all brokerages these days manipulate, overcharge, lack the transparency In order to serve the highest profit they can” he said.

“The main problem we face is the costs and untransparent brokerages we have these days, regulation has not served anyone within the market, giving access to such business models has truly shown how clients are being manipulated in losing their funds, while paying extensive fees to enter the retail CFD trading sector, this inspired us to challenge the status quo of todays firms, our aim is mainly to disrupt such activities by allowing all traders fairness, democratizing finance is a hard word to claim, specially while we strive to radicalize the current models, technologies brokers have established that has adapted the market to their offerings such as meta trader, lots, and the over complexity of such trading settings that does not allow onboarding traders to fully understand the market and dynamics of it” – Khaleel Musleh, Axes

Mr Musleh explained “Unlike many other brokerages which use MetaTrader, or those which built their own such as Plus 500, Axes sought to build a neo brokerage company that serves the industry at ease through offering trading on mobile applications, making it easier, smoother, faster, more secure and transparent in the market. We aim to provide true access to the market, and to bring genuine fairness, transparency, equality and trust back to the Forex and CFD Retail Business.”

The company detailed that it charges no inactivity fees, and has no minimum deposit amount, and does not act as a market maker at all, as it is a distributor which passes trades to various venues for execution.

Mr Musleh explained that its iteration of straight through processing means that trades are routed to prime brokerages and banks which ensure that trades are executed with the best prices and guaranteed market execution rather than acting as a counterparty.

Axes neither charges trading fees, minimum fees or exchange fees, instead taking the spread which is the difference between BID/ASK price and rebate from liquidity providers, and the company does not operate offshore entities to onboard clients. “This is crucial as many world wide investors lose the security and protection of funds when diverted to another entity that is not established within a well recognized regulated jurisdiction, along with lack of protection under the government operated FSCS should something go awry” said Mr Musleh.

In terms of capitalization, Mr Musleh explained “Over the last decade, technology has enabled the building of the most efficient businesses in history. Building an automated, electronic brokerage from the ground up allows Axes to eliminate the costly touchpoints where other brokerages require human intervention and physical Support. Rather than relying on primetime advertisements and costly brick-and-mortar offices, Axes maintains a lean bottom-line, allowing it to attract and retain customers far more cheaply” he said.

“Axes will offer margin trading as well as API access, which will allow partnered developers to build applications in conjunction with Axes. Axes will also receive remuneration for providing trade volume in certain markets. In the future, we plan to offer premium services for active investors” said Mr Musleh.

Axes understands that there is a current issue within the retail FX sector in that many of today’s traders are not being replaced by new traders as they move away. The current retail trader base is mature, and active traders used to existing MetaTrader systems are highly active currently, but new traders are hard to acquire specially with the imposed fees brokerages charge, and the younger generation is largely underserved.

As a result of this, Mr Musleh explained that Axes aims to provide its services directly to retail traders, and seeks to engage the Millennial generation, and the early Generation Z demographic.

Research by the company has determined that Generation X, Y, and Z have trended to be potentially high value clients in today’s ever changing market, showing interest in online platforms for managing their online investment, however these generations have doubts regarding trading due to current business models of brokerages, and are seeking low fees as well as and true market pricing with which to trade.

Mr Musleh considers that Generation Y alone accounts for over 40% of trading the markets utilizing a mobile device as a main interface.

Mr Musleh said “Axes started with a simple idea, that being the use of technology. We can re-think the way brokerages operate. We changed the complete concept of establishing a forex brokerage, by cutting out offices and eliminating the ongoing and shackling costs of Fintech providers. We do not have large internal departments such as sales or retention, and solely focus on supporting and sustaining our clients.