“Young people want more than MetaTrader” – FinanceFeeds Cyprus Cup goes high-tech and institutional

The extremely comprehensive electronic trading industry in Cyprus has evolved tremendously over recent years, and is now home to an entire ecosystem including technology vendors producing specialist end to end systems for FX brokerages, digital marketing firms which dedicate their services specifically to the electronic trading business, trading platform integration firms, retail platform developers, retail brokerages with offices across the globe, liquidity providers and prime brokerages, signal providers, branding experts and educational service providers.

Today, here in Limassol, the thirteenth FinanceFeeds Cup FX industry networking event was hosted by FinanceFeeds, welcoming over 70 senior FX industry executives from across all sectors of the business.

Just a few years ago, Cyprus was synonymous with retail brokerages with a completely off-the-shelf white label trading solution from MetaQuotes, leading the company to become the de facto retail trading platform, its ubiquity still omnipresent today.

At today’s FinanceFeeds Cyprus Cup, however, it was absolutely evident that not only will this no longer suffice, the advancement of the expectations of astute and self-empowered clients being one factor, the other being, very encouragingly, the will of the brokerages to innovate and provide next generation systems which will evolve the electronic trading experience.

Companies in Cyprus excel in this area. All of the prominent third party platform firms are based in Cyprus, and two of the world’s largest liquidity management and connectivity firms, oneZero and PrimeXM have significant presence in Limassol.

From Cyprus, the world’s retail FX infrastructure is moving onwards and upwards, and is going international.

No longer is the island nation simply an aircraft carrier for overseas firms from which to approach a European audience, but it is the talent base in Limassol that is now part of a global FX industry when forging B2B partnerships.

Today, Ian McAfee, CEO of New York FX industry professional services company delivered a keynote speech on what the client base of tomorrow will require, stating categorically that those under the age of 25 who take up trading simply do not use MetaTrader at all, instead looking for applications which are interactive and deliver a diversified, broker-neutral experience, with a large bent toward cryptocurrency.

Mr McAfee explained that brokerages will need to adopt very adaptable and agnostic systems to be able to attract the new generation.

Following Mr McAfee was an informative speech by Travis Dahm, co-founder and Managing Partner of North American brokerage technology and CRM provider CurrentDesk.

Mr Dahm detailed the method by which brokerages can structure their technology in order to truly manage a global audience and optimize their operations with specific business intelligence.

The audience, which comprised of very highly experienced, mature and senior FX industry leaders, were very receptive to North American entrants into Cyprus, as the credibility of Cyprus and position as a global center for the FX industry continues to rise.

As critical networking took place, the subject moved from leading edge technology to the need for Cyprus to go institutional.

Indeed, some trade depositories such as CME already work closely with Cyprus based regulatory reporting and technology firms, however the genuine institutional business is now establishing itself in Cyprus on the buy side, as liquidity providers with former interbank FX executives are beginning to become part of the landscape.

…And a vital one too.

Ben Henke of GBE Prime, the institutional division of GBE Brokers, delivered a keynote speech on the importance of a full and detailed understanding of the Tier 1 FX liquidity sector within the banks and prime of prime price aggregators.

GBE stands out as a firm whose senior management have great experience with regard to trade execution across the complete order trail, as well as providing prime of prime services, as the majority have spent long careers at Germany’s Varengold Bank before establishing GBE.

Mr. Henke understands that the interbank experience plus German ethos of high quality and bona fide commercial conduct are relatively uncommon and this is a great benefit to firms in Cyprus looking to work with a very transparent provider which was founded on the principles usually garnered in major institutional global financial centers.

The event embodied very high level attendees, and demonstrates Cyprus’ continual advancement.

FinanceFeeds used a series of professional cameras to film the event, one of which was operated by a radio controled Unmanned Aeriel Vehicle – or ‘drone’, in keeping with the advanced nature of tonight’s event.

The video will be published next week for those who wish to gain an intricate and detailed insight into the networking opportunities in Cyprus.

Meanwhile, here is a montage of tonight’s event.