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Have you ever faced the forex A-book/B-book risk models while choosing a broker for trading? Or maybe you've wondered which of these models to choose for your own brokerage business? What kind of concepts are these? Who is a forex market maker? And how much do forex brokers earn? Let's figure out!

From the trader's point of view, forex trading looks relatively simple: you just need to press the button to open an order and see a confirmation of the transaction on the screen. But how does it work? In order for a trader's deal to be executed, there must be a counterparty in the execution chain: if someone buys an asset, then someone must sell it. 

 

There are two types of broker operating technologies - A-Book and B-Book models, which differ in the way client orders are brought to the market. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

 

Forex A-book model

A-Book model is the business model of a broker where all trader's orders are forwarded directly to the forex liquidity provider, who then redirects them to the interbank market. 

A-Book broker gets commissions for a fixed volume of transactions (usually for 1 lot) or a spread markup. The broker in this scheme is only an intermediary providing financial services. The final counterparty is the traders placing opposite orders in the market, or a liquidity provider. This is the main advantage of the A-Book model - no conflicts of interests. The broker receives its commission irrespective of whether traders earn or lose their money. While perspectively both traders and the broker are interested in the successful trading. The more transactions traders make, the more commission their broker receives.

However, Forex is rarely that simple. A-Book model has its drawbacks both for traders and brokers. The broker needs to sign agreements with a liquidity provider (or with several of them), obtain licenses, provide technical support to bring client orders to the external market. It all costs time and money. Accordingly, the A-Book broker is forced to increase the mark-up to the spread to justify its costs.

 

Forex B-Book model

The B-Book model is a model, where the broker itself acts as a forex market maker, processing orders in house. In other words, traders' orders aren't displayed anywhere outside the broker's platform. There is no external liquidity pool. Obviously, a conflict of interest arises since the broker takes on not only the role of an intermediary, but also a counterparty. That's why the B-Book model is often wrongly associated with a fraud. In fact, Forex is unpredictable and the B-book model goes with both high profits and big losses. 

The trader's earnings are equal to the broker’s losses. Therefore, dishonest brokers may be interested in setting non-market quotes in the terminal, spying on the set client stops and knocking them down with plugins in the server side of the platform to make the trader lose money. Unfortunately, there are many such “bucket shop” brokerage companies, but we won't dwell on this — we analyze forex brokers, not scammers.

If the broker behaves this way, it signs its own death warrant. Deceived clients won't remain silent and surely destroy the broker's reputation, which is actually a key for successful operating in Forex. It is long-term cooperation that rules the show. 

 

Hybrid model

To avoid the shortcomings of the A-Book and B-Book schemes, brokers came up with a hybrid model. This is one of the most frequent options among large brokers. Hybrid model means that the broker executes small transactions within its platform, while large transactions can be withdrawn to the liquidity provider and then to the interbank.  

This model is an optimal solution for both brokers and traders, but a tricky one. The main headache for broker is to categorize traders properly. That’s where a special software comes into a play, tracking the amount of a trader’s deposit, the leverage used, the risk level of each transaction, the use or non-use of protective stops. All this data helps the broker to determine which of the 2 models (A-Book or B-Book) to use for executing an order. 

 

Сomparison of A-Book and B-Book brokers' profitability

Perhaps after reading all the information above, you have a logical question: which broker earns more A-Book or B-Book one? Which model should I personally choose for my business to reduce my brokerage risks? There is no definite answer to this question. It all depends. 

Statistically, the profit of an A-Book forex broker is less, but more stable. It is well known that 80-95% of traders lose their initial deposit within 6 months, which plays into the hands of the Forex B-book broker. But don't forget about unforeseen circumstances that regularly occur and make B-book brokers suffer huge losses, often for many months in a row. 

We conclude that none of the schemes can be a panacea for losses. You must decide which business model to choose for you, depending on your business plans and strategies. The same goes for traders who choose their broker. Everything is very individual.

Neither A-Book nor B-Book model guarantees a successful business or a profitable trade. These models are just tools for doing business, and your personal benefit depends only on how professional you can use these tools. 

Forex trading provides you with unlimited opportunities for success and financial well-being, if you approach running your business responsibly, acquire patience and use business models that are suitable exact for your purposes. 

Interested in forex A-book, B-book? Read an interview with Vasily Alexeev for Forbes.

If you have carefully read our step-by-step guide on opening your own brokerage business and have followed the entire algorithm of actions, now you probably already have your own brokerage firm (if not, then close this article, immediately tap the link and read the previous one). If you are still here then it is time for an upgrade of your startup – starting a good affiliate program. 

 

Affiliates can make $5 000, $10 000, $50 000 and more per month. It depends on a target. If you want to expand your FX brokerage business, increase traffic to your website and find new customers, you surely need to run a kind of partnership program. First, let's have a general look at what types of programs exist. 

The most common are:

1. Affiliate programs, where partners (affiliates) get reward for each client they attract. 

2. Referral programs, where sales come in through referrals, often generated by current customers with the help of coupons or discounts as incentives to bring in new clients.

3. Reseller programs, where the reseller sells products as if they are his own. Client gets services from the reseller and doesn’t deal with the main company at all.

Today we will focus on the first type, namely introducing broker programs, since this is the easiest and the most effective way to attract new customers with minimal costs.

 

What is an Introducing Broker

An introducing broker (IB) is a person who acts as a middleman between a client and a brokerage firm. Introducing broker looks for new clients and has direct relationships with them, but delegates back office operations to the brokerage in exchange for commissions. IBs in Forex deals with the clients better than the brokerage firm since they are local, and customer service is their primary goal. They not only recruit new customers but help them with onboarding as well as keep them engaged in trading. This kind of partnership is a win-win and risk-free situation for both sides.

 

How to start an affiliate program

Hopefully, we have convinced you of the necessity and usefulness of introducing broker programs. Now let's take a closer look at how to launch such a program for your business. 

 

1. Hire managers 

First, you need to hire 1 or more (depends on the size of your firm) affiliate managers to run the program. Don’t underestimate the amount of work they should do as well as the amount of time this work requires. There are quite a lot of procedures you need to go through to make the program work and bring you real profit. 

 

2. Check your competitors 

Explore multiple partnership models that other brokers use, their working conditions and introducing broker fees. Make sure your commission is average on the market, fair but not overpriced. Good IBs interested in well paying programs, but assess your capabilities realistically.

 

3. Set up an affiliate management software

When it comes to managing an affiliate program, you have two paths: go with one of the ready made software solutions or build your own. At the very beginning we advise you to choose one of the ready-to-use solutions with basic functionality, since it will be much cheaper and easier. The software must help you scale, but not eat up all the revenue from the affiliates.

 

4. Recruit affiliates

Probably, the most difficult and time-consuming step. Many brokerage firms have the majority of their sales from only 10-20% of their affiliates. This means that in some ways, recruiting the right IBs is a numbers game. The main problem here is that you can choose partners very carefully, but there is still no guarantee that they will bring you profit. On the other hand, you have nothing to lose in case of a bad choice, since IBs are only paid for each client they attract. You are in a risk-free situation as we already said before.

We offer you 4 strategies to hire introducing brokers:

1. Approach your own customers

2. Reach out to influencers, experts, and educators

3. Find competitors’ affiliates

4. Paid advertising

 

5. Affiliate sign-up, onboarding and teaching

After you hire affiliates and agree on working conditions, you need to conduct training for them. No matter if you are hiring experienced IBs or newcomers, you still need to provide them with all the necessary instructions and information about the program and your company as a whole. Tell them about your main corporate values and goals.These people will speak on behalf of your company and should not damage your reputation in any way. Continue to keep in touch with your affiliates after the onboarding period. Good communication is a crucial point in building a successful business strategy, make sure to invest in it.

 

6. Define the commission structure

Сhoosing the commission structures to pay your IBs is a highly important issue. There are several of them:

1. A percentage of the sale (You pay a percentage of referral purchase amount as commission to the affiliates)

2. A flat fee (IB gets a flat fee for each purchase, regardless of its amount)

3. Recurring commissions (You pay  your affiliates as long as their referral stays a customer)

4. Product credits (You pay your affiliates with product credits. Usually this model works only if your IBs are your own clients)

Take the choice of an introducing broker fees system seriously, to maximize your profit.

This choice should be based on the types of activities and results you want to get from your affiliates.  

You can pay your affiliates automatically through the CRM system. For example, UpTrader CRM support all popular methods of payments, so it would not be a problem.

 

7. Create affiliate policies

And the last but not the least step is discussing the policies that will  regulate the whole business process and help to protect your company if necessary. Your policies must be transparent and easy to understand to both you and your partners. Of course you all know about Privacy policy or Cookie policy, but there are a lot of other forex ib agreements, that should be covered:

1. Approved and forbidden traffic sources

2. Usage of the company’s materials and trademark 

3. Usage of discount codes

4. Providing clients with accurate information on prices, affiliate tracking etc.

Consistently and carefully following all the steps, you can attract decent partners to your business, thereby expanding it and significantly increasing profits. You have already done a great job of starting your own brokerage firm. Now it's time for your partners to work for you.

Find out more about forex affiliate program

Probably all of you are familiar with the abbreviation CRM in the context of the brokerage business or business in whole. What it is and how to choose the best and use CRM for Forex brokerage management, let's find out right now.

 

What is CRM and how Forex CRM can improve your brokerage business

CRM (Customer relationship management) system is an application software  for managing strategies of interaction with clients. In particular to improve business relationships and service, increase sales, optimize marketing by storing information about customers, establishing and improving business processes and then analyzing the results. Since a Forex CRM system allows you to manage the whole cycle of customer relations, from one single point simply and effectively, it is obviously an important part of every business.

FX brokerage is an extremely competitive and demanding industry. It is essential to be special among numbers of other brokers to catch the clients. Forex CRM is one of the main things that helps brokers to differ themselves from each other. Most of them offer the same trading platforms and almost the same range of services, while speaking about a broker management system, there is a room for creativity. Forex broker CRM can significantly increase the financial success of your brokerage business.

Forex CRM system is an integral part of the FX brokerage management, since it develops strong relationships with your traders. Forex CRM software helps you to get more leads for your business, including the rules of lead management, MT4/MT5 CRM integration, scheduled reports etc.

A Forex CRM provider is a very responsible position because he must perfectly understand the mechanics of the market, functionality of trading platforms, the different partners involved, and the overall situation. Only such a Forex CRM developer can create a Forex CRM solution that would be useful as well as comfortable to use.

 

Important Forex CRM Features

Here are a few points to pay attention to when choosing the best FOREX CRM solution. This information will be useful for FX brokerage as well as for Forex CRM providers.

 

1. Multifunctionality and platform independence

CRM for Forex brokers should be, firstly, multifunctional and platform agnostic. The best forex CRM combines data managing, customer interactions and marketing activities. Providing an API will also be a big advantage, since it helps to connect your services and tools with CRM easier. If your Forex CRM system is platform agnostic, you have an opportunity to explore new markets and integrate some additional services without changing a CRM software.

 

2. Lead and sales management 

Good sales are the core part of the good FX brokerage management. Forex broker CRM must simplify the work of the sales managers and marketing team of your company. All the customer’s buying history, habits, geographic location as well as the whole contact information should be available in one click. Tracking the channels where the leads came from is also an important Forex CRM feature. All this information makes it possible to create an individual customized approach to every customer, that, in turn, has a positive impact on sales.

 

3. Multi-level partnership management

Dealing with partners and IBs is a complicated and rather tricky process, when it comes to paying managing revenue share or partner commissions. It is difficult to calculate the correct amount if the affiliates are associated with the same set of clients. This process can also be simplified with the help of a Forex CRM system. Ideally, all calculations are automated while all data is shown transparently for each client and fully available in the partner's section. CRM system is a tool to split rebates or payments to your partners correctly. In this case your multi-level partner network brings only benefits to you and your partners. 

 

4. Customer segmentation tools

After converting leads to sales you surely need to keep your clients loyal to your brand. This is where CRM customer segmentation comes into play. This tool allows you to observe the whole picture of the clients activities as well as manage that data. It is possible to separate and segment customers according to their trading volume, habits, portfolios, profitability or other factors, that in turn helps with compliance management. Your marketing and sales team will thank you for such a reduction of their client retention efforts. 

 

5. Unified communications tracking

With a suitable Forex CRM system there is no need for managers to switch between 

different applications. All necessary data is available in one place to save time and guarantee timely execution of all tasks, so as to raise productivity. Make sure that the data be it phone calls, chats, PPC or social media campaigns are effectively integrated into your CRM. Moreover, back end admins should also be aware of activities that require their immediate help.

 

6. Regulation

Verification process is sometimes an uneasy one for clients due to Anti Money Laundering rules and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. Forex CRM software should use the regulation technologies to complete this process without extra troubles. Good CRM allows you to see all your clients and their trading activity, control deposits and withdrawals, monitor KYC procedures, and execute your marketing activities. 

 

7. Reporting capabilities

Forex broker CRM should have the functionality to generate the reports on trading statistics, leads and revenue simply. These insightful reports are a powerful tool for increasing operational efficiency and creating better business strategies.

 

8. Customization

If you want to look more professional to customers you need to stick to your brand style throughout, including CRM. CRM should be customized according to your identity, for example your logo and color scheme. Company's branding that is familiar to clients makes them more loyal to you. Good customization functionality is also important for integrating into your Forex CRM some specific tools like payment solutions, chat tools, email marketing providers, webinar tools etc.

 

UpTrader Forex CRM solution

There are 8 features that you must pay attention to when choosing a CRM system for Forex brokers. Having worked in the financial services market for a long time, in UpTrader we do understand all the issues above. That's why we work fast and effectively to help your FX brokerage management develop strong relationships with your clients and employees. We will boost your business just in one day. That is how long it takes to integrate UpTrader CRM with your trading platform. Control your sales, improve your team's communication with traders and partners, keep track of withdrawal requests, and help clients with technical issues with UpTrader CRM. 

To order a trading platform, website, or CRM, submit a request to [email protected].

Starting a brokerage firm is widely believed to be expensive and time-consuming. Because of this common misconception, people often choose to become an IB (Introducing Broker) instead of taking a chance and trying their luck at achieving genuine success. We want to dispel your prejudices and give you a step-by-step guide on how to start a forex brokerage firm easily with UpTrader.  

 

Being an IB and getting about half of a broker’s revenue seems like a great deal: after all, you are only looking for new clients, and the broker is doing all the heavy lifting, like trade execution and payment processing, right? Wrong. 

Have you ever thought about becoming a White Label forex broker? This article is for those who said yes as well as for those who started searching for White Label forex broker meaning. You can keep all the profits to yourself just for a small monthly fee. We offer you a White Label of a MT trading platform bundled with our award-winning Forex CRM and Forex Backoffice system and will help you sort out your other worries like establishing a company and signing up with payment system providers. White Label forex broker cost? Starts from €1,000 per month with UpTrader!

However, do not forget that a bigger income comes with a bigger responsibility. With White Label all the actual customer service is your job: you will need to think through your branding, marketing campaigns and sales strategy. 

Previously, brokerage business required deep technical knowledge – you had to go deep into both trading and IT. However, things have become much simpler in recent years: to start a broker that will be ready to receive customers a couple of weeks later is no longer a dream. IT-services and products can be outsourced, infrastructure can be built in cloud, and what is left to you is only sales process. Too good to be true? But not with UpTrader.  

In 2020 you do not need to have considerable knowledge in brokerage business. Many entrepreneurs coming to UpTrader are far from being experts. And that is absolutely fine for a broker now. There are a lot of white label crypto currencies brokers as well as white label ecn brokers, you can even get a white label trading app. All you need is just follow these 5 important steps. 

 

Work out your corporate framework

First you need to register your company. The registration process is quite clear and simple, although it has its pitfalls. 

When it comes to launching new ventures, one of the key points is the choice of jurisdiction of your company. Before settling upon a particular region, you need to consider which jurisdictions offer you the best conditions for doing business.  

The most common choice is offshore. You can have a legal entity registered in, say, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The main advantages of having offshore companies are no taxation, flexible legislation, and support of foreign businesspeople at all levels. Rather good opportunities for doing business, right? 

However, running an offshore company has its own drawbacks, such as certain difficulties with signing up for bank accounts and payment system providers. To avoid such problems, you can open a company in a regulated jurisdiction (for example Labuan region of Malaysia), it will be much more expensive, but will show clients and business partners that you are a serious company that can be trusted.  

UpTrader provides a full range of legal serices both as a standalone package, and as part of White Label MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 offerings.

 

Get a trading platform

That is an easy one! For sure you are already familiar with MetaTrader, the world's most popular trading platform, used by the vast majority of brokers. MetaTrader's popularity is due to its reliability, comprehensive trading conditions settings, tools for technical analysis and familiarity to traders from all over the world. 

There are two versions of MetaTrader: MT4 and MT5. Both platforms are designed for Forex trading, financial market analysis and use of expert advisors.  

With the help of UpTrader you can buy White Label of any of them. MT4 white label is the most popular option, because this is the only way for a new company to get this platform, since the new copies are not being sold for quite some time now. 

UpTrader White Label forex broker trading platform:   

— Provides access to financial markets both from desktop and mobile.  

— Gives a wide range of trading instruments in real time: popular and exotic currency pairs, CFD shares, futures, indices, metals.  

— Provides statistics: analytics, charts, indicators.  

Mt4/Mt5 white label cost.

 

Connect to a forex liquidity provider

Next you need to think about your liquidity provider. What is liquidity and why is it important? A broker’s income is the difference between the spread of their liquidity provider and the end spread for traders. That is why it is important to find a stable liquidity provider with the tightest spreads. It allows you as a broker to hedge your risks.  

There are also brokers who themselves act as the counterparties in trades of their clients without the participation of large market makers. In this case, a broker profits from traders who “blow” their deposits, which sometimes disturbs clients as the broker seems to be interested in their failure. And there is a risk of professional traders bankrupting the broker with large earnings.  

The best of both worlds is a balanced risk management strategy. For example, passing high-volume clients to a bigger liquidity provider, while acting as a market maker for those who trade small volumes. 

Brokers usually combine sources of profit from the trading activity of their clients and rarely work exclusively with one model. On the average, a small broker deals with a monthly volume of about $100 million. 

You can choose your own liquidity aggregation model with UpTrader.  

 

Setup an online Forex Backoffice and CRM

It can be said that the key component of a successful modern brokerage business is an online Back Office system that allows clients to manage their accounts and funds, and brokers to work with their clients. It helps brokers manage the entire client relationship life cycle in one place. 

While choosing a trading platform might be easy – after all, there are not so many options to choose from – picking a Back Office and CRM system might be tricky: there are a lot of options on the market. But they are not created equal. 

A common mistake is to try to use a general-purpose Forex CRM system. These Forex CRMs are not really fit for brokerage companies – after all, managing goods in warehouses and their logistics is quite different from managing trading accounts. 

Then there is a variety of Forex brokerage CRM systems on the market, but most of them were built by brokerage companies for themselves and the decision to sell them to other companies was an afterthought. This makes these Forex CRMs really suited to only one way of doing business, customization options are lacking, and every slight change requires expensive development projects. Setup time for such CRMs may take several months. 

Thankfully, there is a new wave of modern brokerage SaaS CRMs such as UpTrader Forex CRM. These white label broker trading software ​​​​​​ were built with startups in mind, they include all the necessary options out of the box and can be launched in a matter of days. For example, some of our clients went from signing of an agreement to live operation in just 24 hours.

UpTrader Forex CRM is our flagship product that we are truly proud of. It includes a Trader's Room where a client can register and manage their own accounts and funds, an IB section for your Introducing Brokers, a Forex Back Office panel for the staff of the company, a special section for your Sales team, and an Administrator’s panel with flexible customization of access levels and available features for staff and customers. 

UpTrader Forex CRM helps to manage your Introducing Brokers, marketing promotions, bonuses and see all your clients and their trading results right in one place, while IB programs can be easily integrated into your brokerage website. 

 

Create a forex website

Of course, for the good brokerage business, it is necessary to create a functional website. Nowadays you can easily do it yourself or seek professional help. UpTrader has a professional team that can create a fully functional website for your company. Our services include branding, copywriting, design, and web development. Websites we build are fully integrated with our products.  

That is all! Only these five steps separate you from becoming white label forex broker. 10 years of successful experience in Forex industry make UpTrader a trustworthy partner to help you build a new business of your own. 

 

Contact us at https://uptrader.io/  

Create you own IB net:

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