CMC Markets, a provider of spread betting, foreign exchange and contracts for difference trading, has selected smartTrade Technologies’ LiquidityFX trading solution for FX and precious metals on the basis of its no brokerage fee model, delivery as a cloud-based managed service and collocation with liquidity providers across Equinix data centres in New York, Tokyo and London.
The broker used smartTrade’s trading front-end and open application programming interfaces to be up and running with LiquidityFX in weeks, and is using the software to support aggregation and order routing. Greg Niebank, group head of products at CMC Markets, says: “We are seeing seen tighter spreads and improved fill ratios thanks to the no brokerage fee model offered by smartTrade. We are also seeing the benefits of being cross-connected to our liquidity providers. The smartTrade solution has also simplified our infrastructure, allowing us to respond to changes in the market environment more quickly.”
David Vincent, CEO at smartTrade Technologies, adds: “Using LiquidityFX, CMC Markets will have enhanced hit ratios and reduced execution latency leading to additional revenue and profitability. CMC Markets has chosen a low risk soution as the software is tried, tested and in production in many FX trading organisations. The company has also entrusted smartTrade to provide and run the complete solution as a service for a low predictable cost, allowing it to concentrate on running its business.”
CMC Markets is one of many Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks, brokers and dealers using LiquidityFX, which has a modular structure that allows users to cover specific initial requirements and later extend use of the software to cover additional functionality and capacity.
Building on this structure, Vincent describes smartTrade’s roadmap for LiquidityFX, saying: “Our roadmap is very rich and tied to the industry. For instance, we are currently adding specific reports for regulatory purposes that will provide greater transparency around transaction cost analysis and market impact analysis. We are also bringing a more sophisticated execution methodology to the platform as FX trading is becoming more mature. An interesting trend we are seeing is the need to bring fixed income and FX solutions together. With this in mind, we are working with clients in the fixed income space to develop LiquidityFX to support swap execution facilities aggregation and meet fixed income market requirements.”
