About the Client
The client is an EU-based fintech startup established in the 2010s by a team of senior experts from the Forex trading industry. The company provides brokers with an open API FX trading platform featuring an embedded app store. The app store enables traders to install free and paid third-party applications (e.g. automated trading tools, algorithmic trading strategies, social trading apps, charting tools, market news, etc.). These apps allow FX/CFD traders to build their own integrated trading environment. The client has offices in Copenhagen, London, and New York.
Business Challenge
In 2012, the client identified a gap in the financial software market. The market lacked a trading platform for brokers that would also connect traders and developers. They decided to turn this gap into a business opportunity by developing the industry’s first trading platform equipped with an integrated store with custom applications.
The client also required an open API, so anybody willing to contribute to the platform could develop a custom application. Traders, meanwhile, would be able to leverage the apps to create custom platform layouts. The platform was intended to continually evolve as new tools would have been built by the developers’ community. This would ensure that traders’ ever-changing needs would always be met.
Such innovation had not been developed in the financial software industry yet. After a new round of investments, the client decided to hire an experienced financial software development company to work on this project.
Solution
The client approached Devexperts with this project due to their previous successful collaboration. The client knew Devexperts had the needed expertise to facilitate the project release within a short time frame and with all the intended features.
As the basis for the client’s product, Devexperts took DXtrade Enterprise, our multi-asset trading platform, and introduced several customizations. We developed an app store from scratch and integrated it with the trading platform. We also equipped the platform with a dealing desk for brokers’ risk management teams and a mobile trading frontend based on DXtrade Mobile.
To turn the client’s idea into reality, we developed an open API that developers could use to create applications for the platform’s app store.
Results
Devexperts developed and launched the first-ever open FX/CFD trading platform with an integrated app store and open API. This setup enabled traders to create their own trading environment using third-party applications developed specifically for this ecosystem.
Traders could choose from an extensive catalog of globally crowd-sourced apps that would correspond specifically to their needs. Upon release, several financial and tech organizations developed apps for the platform, leveraging Devexperts’ open API. Thus, the app store was filled with custom automated trading tools, algorithmic trading strategies, social trading apps, charting tools, and market news. By the time of the platform’s release, the client had also onboarded their first six brokers regulated by the Financial Services Authority (now the Financial Conduct Authority).
The trading platform was awarded “The most innovative financial product” at the Forex Magnates London summit.