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Originally posted on Newsbtc
Since the ICO boom of 2015-2017, a steady trend of opening new crypto exchanges has begun. In times of huge amounts of crypto freely circulating on the market, startups raised money for crypto exchanges through ICO. It significantly minimized the risks of investing their own funds. The trend was understandable. Now, however, the desire to start crypto exchanges looks financially questionable. Forex CRM Provider UpTrader regularly receives requests to buy a White Label Crypto Exchange or even develop our own from scratch. We make sure to refer such clients to partners, but what drives today’s businessmen? Is it really a profitable business or a fad?

Competition in the exchange market

There are many exchanges. In recent years, they have become ubiquitous. There are more than 300 entries alone in CoinMarketCap (CMC), the top crypto exchange listing, and many more are waiting to be listed. As of today, the largest exchange by trading volume is Binance. It is followed by exchanges like Coinbase, HitBTC, and, in the third echelon, Kucoin, Bitfinex, and Huobi. The list goes on to include the exchanges without trading volume at all, which, incidentally, looks like a paradox, since one of the CMC listing requirements is trading volume of some sort. So if your exchange was not listed during simpler times, you have to somehow increase the volume, or look for cunning and rather expensive ways to circumvent the requirement.

Why earn a place in the CMC listing?

A cherished listing on CMC is necessary to get tokens listed on your exchange. The price of the token from your exchange will then go to the CMC token page, which is exactly what new token owners need. In addition, the listing has a significant impact on reputation, increases the value of the exchange, motivates investors, and allows you to attract traders.  Traders obviously have to trade with each other, and this set-up begs the question: if you just open an exchange and do not have traders or anyone to trade with, where would you get volume? The result is a vicious circle: no traders without volume, no volume without traders.

Liquidity

One of the options to increase trading volume is to buy liquidity from another exchange. It works in Forex, so it must work here too. It does, but not quite. In the Forex market, there is a huge difference between liquidity offered to brokerage companies (especially having licenses in major jurisdictions) and what a retail trader can get. Brokerage companies get much better conditions but have to maintain complex technical infrastructure and guarantee certain trading volumes. It allows them to resell it to individual traders with a markup and still offer competitive conditions. In the crypto market, everyone is equal, which makes it difficult to attract clients, because there is nothing to attract clients with. If you buy liquidity from another exchange, your conditions are just worse, who will come to trade with you?

And if they do? Is it profitable?

Even if they do, your profitability will not be as high. Due to the fact that Forex trading is carried out with leverage, that is, a client makes transactions with a volume that is usually 100 times larger than what their finances allow, and the broker receives commissions for the whole amount. At the exchange, there is no leverage, that is, the commission is determined only by the turnover that a client makes on their own funds. It means that given all the costs of buying liquidity, attracting clients, and paying salaries, an exchange can easily become a losing venture. In Forex, in addition to the good commissions, there are other quite legitimate ways of profiting, such as B-book, when trading is done within the company at market prices. With a high margin, it allows for earning good money while remaining a broker with a stellar reputation and excellent conditions.

So what other options are there?

If you are keen on working in the crypto market, you can opt to provide crypto futures trading, which basically combines traditional margin trading familiar from the Forex market with crypto assets. Leverages are usually not as high as on Forex – about 1:20, but still, it allows you to get 20 times more trading volume from a client and have a B-book.

And if you want to launch an exchange anyway, how much money would you need?

If you still want an exchange, then let’s make some calculations.

Buying a White Label will cost you $30,000-50,000, and developing your own will cost at least $100,000-200,000. To run your own office, you will need at least 10 people: technicians, developers, marketing specialists, and managers. We are not listing the costs here, since they vary greatly depending on the country. According to average estimates, promoting the exchange to attract the trading volumes you need will cost at least $1 million. We would like to warn those who think that they can cap their marketing expenses at $50,000-100,000. This misconception will result in wasted money, frustration in the team, and the end of the project. Exchanges whose names are known only to their owners are well into the thousands! The reason is almost always trying to save money on marketing or not pouring enough into it. Yes, the world is such that fame costs money. Unless you are Elon Musk investing gigantic amounts in developing Tesla or the Space Shuttle, you cannot afford to only tweet and think that it is enough to get the traders to choose you. The budget for promotion better be there.

And what is needed to provide crypto futures trading?

To provide crypto futures trading, you need the same set of software and services as for a Forex brokerage. Unlike crypto exchanges, thousands of small Forex brokers in the farthest corners of the world are launching and mostly surviving. First, the launch itself has become easier and cheaper over the years. 15 years ago, it was rather expensive to launch a broker as well: to buy MetaTrader 4, you needed $100,000, another $200,000 to $1 million or more for Forex CRM, the website, marketing, office work, and license and liquidity purchase. Now, it is possible to launch a broker for $5,000-10,000! In the currently developed market of brokerage software, everything can be bought: from all investment service options (PAMM, MAMM, LAMM, social trading) and Forex CRM to ready-made marketing bonuses and affiliate programs. All of the above is quite cheap, and it is possible to build your own business like a construction set. As we have seen in recent years, the interest in the market is growing, and we can observe a reorientation of clients towards small local companies instead of large ones. Importantly, UpTrader’s data show that 90% of those companies survive.

Who knows, maybe a decade from now, we will see the same trend in the crypto exchange market.

Now, however, it is more reasonable to invest in a business with predictable profitability and better chances for survival, rather than knowingly fail in a lopsided competition with Binance.

The first basic version of the service for MT4 was launched in April 2021. The full version included a large number of functions which were added as the development and testing progressed. As of 2021, UpTrader Copy Trading Platform service was awarded by the prestigious Forex Rating Awards as the fastest-growing service on the market. Currently, the team has implemented all the functionality of the project architecture. 

Now the Copy Trading Platform service from UpTrader includes:

1. CopyTrading for MT4 and MT5.  

2. The possibility to choose a copy trading model: MAM, PAMM, or social trading platform.

3. The possibility to purchase the Copy Trading Platform as a plugin in the UpTrader CRM tool. You can also integrate it into your own CRM tool or terminal and customise the interface as you wish. UpTrader provides customers with API and full documentation so you can create your own interfaces.

4. A wide range of tools for investors and traders to flexibly manage risks and profits, such as rollovers, stop-losses, take-profits, the ability to disable strategies at any time, and many more.

5. The option to be installed as a native MetaTrader plugin which ensures precise trade processing.

6. Both A-book/B-book models and their variations. Any existing arrangement is available, including spreads and fees.

7. A competitive price — free integration, $1,000 per month.

You can find detailed information about this service on the UpTrader Copy Trading Platform page.

In addition to the obvious advantages, the service has several features that will allow your company to get more clients and managers to use the service:

1. Stability. No trades are lost thanks to its unique design. Unlike similar platforms, UpTrader Invest is a plugin that works directly at the MT4 core, ensuring the stability of operations and completely eliminating the possibility of missing trades, which is inevitable when connecting to MetaTrader 4 externally — and that is exactly how most similar solutions work.

2. Controlling your UpTrader Invest in MetaTrader Manager

Brokers can manage their UpTrader Invest plugins through the MetaTrader Manager mobile app. It offers full managing capabilities: opening new accounts, deposits, analytics, and much more.

3. Versatility. Investors can monitor their profits via all available methods for MetaTrader (desktop app, mobile app, web terminal) & via UpTrader Fx CRM

Learn more about the service on our UpTrader Invest page:

How does this service help you attract more clients and build audience loyalty?

Many novice brokers ask: Is there a simple service to easily increase sales? Yes, there is. One simple and popular way to activate a novice or hesitant audience is to offer them a copy trading platform with experienced traders. 

Many traders who are new to the market are understandably concerned about the risk of losing their deposits and struggle to understand how to trade in general. A procrastinating client equals a lost client. Sometimes copy trading can help them take their first step. A clear rating system, transparent copy trading terms, risk limitation, and instant profit crediting to their account make the service attractive enough for a client to start earning with your company. The only problem to be solved is attracting traders to the service. Good trading conditions, user-friendly interface, and good rewards can help.

If you want to know more, click “Contact us” in the right corner.

It is now possible to log in to UpTrader Trader’s Room via Telegram messenger. Now each broker can set up this feature for their clients in a few clicks in the Admin interface.

“Telegram is known for its strong  position regarding free speech protection. That is why it has become the most popular messenger in the crypto community. UpTrader’s clients live in different countries and for many of them free speech means a lot, so they prefer to use Telegram. In the latest months Telegram popularity has been growing among lager groups. In respect to that we have made convenient authorization in the UpTrader Forex CRM.” - commented CEO UpTrader Vasily Alexeev.

More questions left? Contact us [email protected]

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine revealed a global crisis of confidence and strained relations between countries. The US is talking to any opposition only to imply sanctions: "If you do not do as we say, we will impose sanctions against you, if you do as we say, we will lift the sanctions imposed on you earlier".

This rhetoric cannot help but anger world powers like China or Turkey, who see themselves as entitled to pursue their own policies. Markets react sensitively to each statement; country and sector indices, stocks, and currency are turbulent. While some are rising, others are falling. How does it affect the brokerage business?

Market turbulence and crises always attract investors. Some venture in to preserve their capital, others want to earn more money. In the last month, UpTrader saw an increase in the number of requests from companies in Asia which focus on trading gold and currency pairs. Gold is rising as a safe haven for investors during the storm. Others are looking at the energy sector, as Brent rose to $129.47 a barrel as a reaction to sanctions against Russia. Stock markets are falling. The currency market is far from being calm.

In addition, cryptocurrency and digital currencies are booming. Russia decided to make cryptocurrency legal in January 2022. Taiwan, on the other hand, introduced a ban on cryptocurrency payments, as China did a year earlier. But China's digital yuan is being successfully tested. Experts believe that it can successfully compete with the dollar in international payments in commercial exchange. After all, the dollar is losing the vote of confidence from many countries due to overusing sanctions. 

All these developments are encouraging investors to open accounts with brokerage companies. An important trend that we noticed over the last couple of years is that small local companies are earning more trust and interest from customers while the giants are losing ground. As we can see, this is due to the fact that local companies are much more client oriented and aiming to meet the needs of their small target audience. They are also very flexible and quick to adjust to changes in trends, which big brokers do with a big delay.

It is common in Asia for former big Forex broker IBs to start their own brokerage companies. They have a reputation and loyal clients. To open a company, all they need is a MetaTrader server (recently, it seems, everyone only buys MT5) and Forex CRM. Separating from their former bosses allows them much more flexibility to serve clients and not depend on the policies of another company. All Asian clients who came to UpTrader in the past few weeks are asking for MT5 and Forex CRM.

Finally, working with Asian clients has always been simple and straightforward for us. This is another feature that makes working with Asia quite promising. And the time to enter the market is perfect, because it looks like the beginning of a new era.

Does it make sense to buy external forex or crypto liquidity when an internal liquidity model, or so-called B-book, already has a great track record? Some companies decided a long time ago to work strictly by the B-book, others stick to the A-book, while some monosystem partisans are gradually switching to a hybrid scheme. Which option is the best?

Forex or crypto Liquidity 

Liquidity is the ability of a currency pair to be sold quickly at close to market prices. That is, liquidity translates into the saturation of supply and demand and the ability to execute trades quickly at the best prices. Liquidity can be internal and external. B-book means internal liquidity, and this liquidity is provided by the company itself or its clients. If a broker has many clients, their trades are mutually covered, and the broker just has to monitor the total sum. As a rule, each individual client does not affect it too much. If the broker acts as a counterparty, they have to pay on profitable trades themselves. This model is rather vulnerable for many reasons. A-book means external forex liquidity. It has high demand/supply characteristics and better prices, since orders are routed to external providers who have a large pool of traders and therefore a greater order execution capacity. 

B-book, or internal forex liquidity: pros and cons 

Many brokers mistakenly believe that B-book is the most profitable business model, as it provides maximum profit. The orders are never placed on the market, which means that all the money clients lose stays with the company. It sounds very attractive: someone will get that money anyway, why not keep it for yourself? On the one hand, all of it is true, but this model has one significant drawback. If a client earns money, the broker will have to pay it “out of their pocket”. And as we already know, brokers working with B-book offer very high leverage so that the payouts are significantly higher compared to the initial deposit amount. To avoid paying, the broker can dispute the trade and not pay the profit. They can also manipulate the prices to help the trader lose. It is a dirty job that quickly becomes obvious. In these cases, the broker loses its reputation and clients and may as well leave the market for good. That is why in-house crypto or forex liquidity is only suitable for big brokers who have a large order flow, their own wide internal market and enough funds to pay fairly on profitable trades. A small start-up can end up with big financial losses thanks to this model. If they decide to cheat, they can also lose their reputation and clients. Finally, this model has a significant disadvantage in that principal revenue earnings vary from month to month, depending on the market. That is, it may be 30 or 70%... of losses per month.

A-book, or external forex liquidity: pros and cons

A-book is an external liquidity model, i.e., the broker brings all the trades to the market and earns on spread and swaps. They get money from every trade made by the trader. Another advantage is that the broker does not care whether the transaction is profitable or not. They receive the same commission on each transaction. Consequently, the broker is not interested in playing against the trader. The most important thing for a broker in this situation is to increase the trading volume: the more trades are made, the more money they make. It is a classic win-win model with predictable profit and minimal reputational and financial risks. It is the safest choice for a first-time broker: you only pay for the volume, which makes the business manageable and cost-effective. At UpTrader, we also offer a volume-based CRM fee which allows you to start a company with literally a few thousand dollars in your pocket.

Hybrid model: A-book and B-book

Brokers are increasingly opting for a hybrid operations model. After all, from the point of view of financial markets, it is reasonable to keep traders with small deposits on B-book because their profitable deals will not cause the company much financial trouble while unprofitable ones will turn into income. If a client has a lot of funds, however, any of their profitable trades can exceed the broker’s financial capacity. In this case, it is better to transfer that trader to A-book. Alternatively, such clients can be partially transferred to A-book in order to reduce risk exposure. 

The advantages of the hybrid model are obvious: first, competent account management allows the company to receive profit both from commissions and from losing trades without risking its own funds. The broker fulfills its obligations to clients, thereby earning loyalty and building reputation. It is important to understand, however, that clients generally do not care whether the trades are brought to the market or not. They pay much more attention to trading conditions and profit payments. If a broker does everything correctly, all parties win. The only downside is that you will need competent risk managers. There are some on the market, but they are usually either employed by other companies or quite expensive. Therefore, you have to choose the hybrid model responsibly.

If have any questions related to forex or crypto liquidity, or if you need liquidity, contact UpTrader team please using our registration form and we will give you the best offer. 

 

Originally posted on Fazzaco
 

Hi Elena! Thanks for joining us at Fazzaco today! How did you get into the finance industry?

In 2011, a classmate of mine invited me to work at a Forex broker with which her training company was working as a partner, and which needed a Public Relations Officer. I was on the lookout for a job and a new field that would inspire me. After graduating from the university, I worked in public relations in environment protection for a few years but became disillusioned. I encountered many NGOs whose purpose was to make money out of environmental problems, not to solve them. It was not in line with my idealistic view of the fight against climate change. That is why I decided to look for a more honest industry, where the goals of all stakeholders are transparent and the desire to make money is not disguised as something else. So a job offer at a brokerage company was exactly what I needed.

 Could you please share with us some highlights from your career with UpTrader?  

I was the one to design the corporate identity and marketing materials and to organise the first international exhibition. I met Vasily Alexeev, CEO of UpTrader, when I was working at Grand Capital, their major client at that time. UpTrader was their main contractor, implementing the whole cycle of software development. At that time, UpTrader's management, having gained significant experience in custom development, began to think about cloud services. The company needed a brand, PR, a statement about itself in the professional environment. It began to grow, there was more and more work, and I was offered to head their marketing department. In 2017, UpTrader worked on the ICO Serenity-Financial project, the first blockchain escrow for Forex brokers. We took care of the technical and marketing support for the project. Now UpTrader is one of the major players in brokerage software.    

 In your opinion, what gives women an advantage over men in the Forex industry?

I would say that the more highly qualified the employee is, the less attention you pay to their gender or any differences at all. An employee in a managerial position at any company requires professional skills, the ability to delegate and lead a team, build relationships with other departments, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence. However, the advantage of female leadership can be noted in greater caution: men are more prone to risk, which can lead to both ups and downs, while women are often more cautious in decision-making, which allows the company to develop more steadily and avoid unjustified crises. Women are also more receptive to the idea of creating good working conditions, taking care of the team, and motivating employees.

As a female leader, do you think it’s a challenge to get into the finance industry where men are still a majority?

No, I don't think so. On the contrary, there is a clear demand for workforce. According to my observations, there is always a shortage of qualified professionals in the finance industry. There are few of them on the market, so we often hire promising juniors or middles and train them. We do not engage in hiring from competing companies. We work in a small industry, we all know each other, so we do not welcome such behaviour. We have quite a big team in UpTrader, where people of different backgrounds, races, genders, etc. are represented. I think this is one of the strengths of the company. Recently, a 25 years old woman joined UpTrader's team as a main project manager, and she is the best candidate we have ever seen. She has excellent managerial skills and already has good management experience. She knows how to set goals and organise the work process perfectly. She pays attention to individual motivations of her team members, and, what is especially valuable, is able to delegate tasks, which means that she has enough time for management.

Reportedly, the first year of the pandemic knocked 54 million women around the world out of work. Out of the women who lost their jobs in 2020, almost 90 per cent exited the labour force completely, compared to around 70 per cent of men in the same situation. As an experienced female leader, what is your advice to those women who are striving for excellence in their workplace? 

The pandemic is a difficult time for everyone. It has been a test for different industries, for employees and managers, and for families too. Judging by my close circle, some of those who have left the job market do not want to go back to a full-time job in an office. Many have discovered a part-time job and are happy in a remote mode. Some people moved to the suburbs during the pandemic, settled there, and do not want to go back to the old rhythm of life. All in all, to each their own. For those who are looking for career development, my advice is to better yourself, read professional literature, and to not be afraid of additional work or work that others do not want to do. And the main secret perhaps is to take responsibility. Being a manager means taking responsibility for both the team and the result. Few people are prepared for this, but this is a real challenge. Even if you are not competent enough, you'll have to get better to get results. Show your management that you are ready for responsibility, and you'll be noticed.  

Do you have any role models that have inspired you? 

My grandmother was always an example to me. She started working at the age of 15 as an assistant accountant. At the age of 20, she already defended her first report at a district party meeting. In the early years after the war, she was left alone to raise four children, two of her own, her younger sister and her husband's younger brother. She worked as a librarian and also as party secretary. She held all the district meetings where she highlighted the economic and social problems of the area, defended the interests of the townspeople, and demanded the budgets to be increased. This required a strong character and the ability to communicate well with different people. She was not afraid of working and never passed the responsibility onto others. That is why she worked her whole life as a manager. 

In finance, my first boss was the model of an ideal manager for me. She had a rare combination of charisma, intelligence, and professionalism, and was willing to share her knowledge without begrudging it. She constantly learned, which made her different from the others. During interviews, she always took an interest in what the candidate was reading. She successfully managed a male team and I never heard her raise her voice or clash with anyone.  

What are your thoughts on the fintech industry? Where should it be heading? And what role would UpTrader play in it?

Service development. Now, unlike 10 years ago, a small brokerage company has no problem finding cloud services, like Forex CRM or a copy trading platform. However, all Forex CRMs today have the same drawbacks: they are cumbersome to maintain and install, relatively highly priced for startups, and have insufficient functionality for large companies. At the same time, UpTrader is developing a bespoke cloud service, a kind of a multi-modular construction set consisting of different independent parts that may work together or separately: bonuses, affiliate programs, sales module, investment service, etc. We want large companies, for example, to find everything they need for their business and startups to be able to take advantage of the most basic features with a turnover fee only. We know that subscription fees are a big burden for emerging businesses, so we are working to ensure that such clients pay only based on turnover. It is more profitable for us to support the client at the start so that they succeed and stay with us as long as possible. We are also working on automating the integration of Forex CRM into our MetaTrader 4/5 server, so every client could download a distribution package and connect our free Forex CRM in just 5 steps. We have big ambitions in this niche, since we want to create a truly high-quality, user-friendly, and accessible product for everyone.