31 July, AtoZForex.com, Vilnius – A UK regulated trading social network FxStat is spreading into a brokerage business by launching its own brokerage. As FxStat launches OneTrade brokers have questions in their mind. How will OneTrade affect their business relationship with FxStat?
Earlier this year, FxStat requested the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for additional permissions to its financial license to include advisory services and funds management. At first the organisation’s plans with the additional permissions were not clear, however, it was recently revealed that FxStat had launched its own brokerage OneTrade.
OneTrade is based on a very sociable setup and is copy trading focused. Furthermore, brokerage’s business model is said to be 100% agency-based, having all client trades executed as straight-through processing (STP) with no dealing desk. The new brokerage is believed to be just an extra to what FxStat has to offer, since it has not changed its business model of social platform and remains to work with many other MT4 brokers.
Innovation examples...
Alternative organisations that set out as social or copy trading platforms, like Tradeo, were ultimately re-established as a fully developed brokers based on their prior social platforms. There has been a few innovators in the industry which set themselves apart from dependency on third party social platforms. One of such is eToro with its own unique social trading platform. There is another recent innovator called Trade360 as well who focuses on CrowdTrading, similar to social trading but giving the trader more options.
Zulutrade and Tradeo strategies...
It is not something new that Social platforms suddenly decide to get themselves into brokerage business. As an example, Zulutrade, the old social trading superstar went from being the most popular system to go down and being dumped by many brokers as they opened their Greece based AAAfx brokerage firm.
Another example hen Tradeo was re-established late last year as YouTradeFX brokerage, the firm quoted customer confusion as the justification for the switch. “Without doubt, the number one issue we heard again and again was the complexity of our registration funnels, as we weren’t a broker. Users needed to open and fund an account with a recommended broker, then return to Tradeo to sync their account.”
It could be assumed that FxStat will aid OneTrade helping to embark new traders who are not linked to a broker when they join the social trading network but also this news could be welcomed as a warning sign for those of brokers whose clients depend on FxStat's social trading platform. Only time will show if OneTrade will have a good result on company's long-term success.