One to one with James Banister as FXeco-Eye hits the market

Earlier this week, FXecosystem launched its real-time performance monitoring tool in order to allow professional and advanced clients to actively monitor their order flow on a granular level.

Today, FinanceFeeds’ Andrew Saks-McLeod met with James Banister, CEO of FXecosystem in order to go into some detail as to the modus operandi of the new FXeco-Eye.

How important is network performance monitoring for retail brokers/FX traders?

It is extremely important for banks or brokers who are actively trading FX to be able to monitor the data flowing through their switches in real-time, right down to data packet level.

FXeco-Eye has been designed to provide a clear and simple graphical overview so that banks and brokers can see exactly where their prices are being projected and who is looking at them at any given time.

Many of the larger banks have spent a lot of time and money gathering this information and we have devised a tool to shortcut this – a simple tool which lets them pinpoint exactly where they are projecting their liquidity and where they are taking liquidity.

The reporting tools available from FXeco-Eye are invaluable, too, providing great insight which can be used for planning purposes. With FXeco-Eye you can set up reports that automatically get emailed to interested parties within an organisation at certain points throughout the day. Users can also run TCA reports, which are very topical with MiFID II requirements.

Do you think retail traders are becoming more technologically advanced? If so, what should brokers bear in mind to keep up with their requirements in terms of execution and analysis?

Definitely. The market has become so much more sophisticated and smarter brokers are seeking much more information about their liquidity and pricing than ever before in order to maximise their profitability. They need to know where they are taking pricing from and how that affects their overall positions.

Many retail brokers we meet have not come from a pure trading background and therefore it can be challenging for them to interpret the data they currently receive and assess how they are performing in the markets. Looking at the liquidity that you are taking or receiving in a graphical format is a much more constructive and impactful way of viewing it.

FXecosystem has taken our years of experience in the markets and transposed it into a visual format. We’ve created something we believe is like having the equivalent of a Bloomberg screen on your desk just for liquidity management and analysing the performance of your latency. In essence, we’ve brought all the data together to combine it into something which is meaningful, visual and valuable.

Who are you targeting with FXeco-Eye?

We are targeting our existing client base of institutional top tier FX banks. In addition, this is the first product in our portfolio which isn’t aimed just at clients using our connectivity services. It enables us to go to a wider market and offer it as a standalone product. As it operates across multi asset classes, we envisage demand will be high for FXeco-Eye from network managers and front office e-commerce trading teams across the world.

How will FXeco-Eye connect to a bank or broker’s existing infrastructure?

In simplistic terms, FXeco-Eye taps the feed in and out of the switch. It’s a Software as a Service (SaaS) product and so does not require any software to be downloaded. What’s also critical is that it doesn’t impact latency performance.

It’s simple to set up and is very flexible in terms of the number of users who can access it. An average Tier 1 bank may want up to 10 users, for example, to enable the network team and the e-commerce trading team to have access to the relevant data they need. It’s also very simple to add in additional users or take off anyone who no longer requires access to the information available.