Abstract:If financial technology hadn’t emerged, forex trading would still be confined to a small group of people: tycoons, yuppies, investment bankers, and a few prominent figures on Wall Street. Thanks to technology, today’s traders can trade a wide variety of currencies quickly and easily from the comfort of their homes and benefit from faster order executions, secure payment methods, better market analytics, as well as a forum for safer trading.
The introduction of algorithmic trading is another significant transformation technology brings to the world of Forex trading. Algorithmic trading involves executing orders using pre-programmed and automated instructions that account for variables such as price, volume, and timing. It combines complex formulas with mathematical models and human oversight to determine when to buy or sell currency pairs on the exchange.
The Forex trading industry has seen a massive impact of algorithmic automation on various levels. Automation has transformed what was a transaction-intensive, back-office operation into something that is now a fully automated back-office operation.
“Automated trading allows you to walk away and watch the strategies work, eliminating some of the emotional lead we have seen in the past.”
Automated algorithmic trading has completely transformed the trading landscape. Most traders use automated trading to some extent without realizing it. The reason for this is that most trading platforms now offer a variety of order types that can be pre-set and triggered automatically when conditions are met. Stop-loss and Take-profit orders can now be placed almost entirely automatically without any trade intervention.
The following are some common forex algorithmic trading strategies and some additional ways of using algorithms to achieve automated trading.
Statistical — Statistical refers to an algorithmic strategy that analyzes historical data for trading opportunities based on statistical analysis. By comparing historical trends with current market data and trends, profitable trading opportunities can then be identified.
Auto-Hedging — As the name implies, it is a strategy which performs hedging automatically. Essentially, once a trade is placed, a second trade is executed to hedge the first trade. The main aim is to reduce a trader‘s exposure to risk. As a result, it could help balance a portfolio’s exposure across different currency pairs.
Forex scalping — The Forex scalping strategy involves traders trying to capitalize on small price changes which may occur within a few seconds. The use of algorithms might be particularly appropriate for this type of trading as it involves opening a large number of trades per day, whereas manual trading may result in a slower execution time.
Direct market access — This refers to the optimal speeds and lower prices at which algorithmic traders can access and connect to multiple trading platforms. It is typically used by buy-side firms. DMA allows buy-side firms to trade without relying on market makers and broker-dealers.
Trend strategy — Forex trend trading strategy involves trading based on the current price trend — i.e. buying when the asset is in an uptrend or selling when the asset is in a downward trend.
Momentum trading — Momentum trading is another popular short-term Forex trading strategy. The general rule for trend traders is to buy low and sell high, whereas momentum traders “buy high and sell higher”. For example, EUR/USD is approaching a significant level of resistance at 1.20, If the pair breaks through that level, momentum will build as traders anticipate the trend will continue.
News trading — You may have noticed that during central bank meetings and major news releases, volatility jumps significantly and prices move abruptly. During this time, very little manual trading occurs as most institutional traders use algorithms for such events.
Algorithmic trading includes high-frequency trading, characterized by the extremely fast rate of trade order execution. Traders can benefit from high-frequency trading by making trades within milliseconds of incremental price changes. As a result, traders can act with greater precision and speed than with manual trading methods.
The emergence of new platforms for cross-border payments and commodities trading has made Forex trading an increasingly democratic market today. This boosted trading on forex markets to $6.6trn a day by 2019, according to research by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Three years earlier, this was just $5.1trn per day. All of this occurs in a period of record-breaking fintech activity.
According to KPMG's Pulse of Fintech report, 2021 was a “remarkable year” for the Forex trading sector, which saw strong investment and a record number of deals across all regions. Visa's $929 million deal for foreign exchange payments platform CurrencyCloud announced last summer is an example of this.
Some of the most significant technological advances in the Forex trading industry were as follows:
Technology provides two other means of making Forex trading more inclusive as well. The first one, the accessibility, and the second one is the ease of gaining access to information and data.
Vito Henjoto, an avid chartist, claimed that technology is empowering traders by providing them with greater freedom. The internet makes it possible for traders to monitor their trades from anywhere. These features provide traders with greater freedom, mobility, and flexibility. And of course, there is no denying the wealth of information available to traders today thanks to technology.
Digital transformation and Fintech has already had a huge, positive impact on the forex market, with more progress still to come. New technologies create greater efficiencies within the Forex process, reduce costs, speed settlement and improve transparency. Consequently, the market has become more competitive and is driving further innovation.
Thanks to technology, the forex market has become much more accessible, as data and information that were once too expensive to obtain can now be obtained almost instantly. Now you can analyze the market while youre having coffee in the morning and be ready to trade once you get to work. Being able to access information at any time without any constraints will surely provide you with a greater advantage.
2. Connecting Traders with Technology
With the rise of social networks over the last decade, more online communities have developed where like-minded traders and investors can share up-to-the-second market insights. The access to shared knowledge and experience provides additional confidence to investors because they can get real-time insights from some of the worlds most successful traders at their fingertips.
“In the world of trading there are a lot of signals but networking gives us the market sentiment and it is ideal for chatting to people across the world for trade ideas.”
Beginners may find this section extremely useful as a starting point, and they can use the ideas of experienced traders to guide their trading decisions. To stay informed about other traders‘ and analysts’ published ideas, they can also follow them. Furthermore, these platforms allow you to share your analysis with other Forex traders and let you gain greater insight into the current market situation by browsing ideas submitted by its huge user base.
Furthermore, traders can copy each other, increasing their chances of building a successful trading portfolio regardless of the economic level. Copy Trading is one of the most advanced technologies that beginner traders can employ to copy top professional traders and benefit from forex experts and successful traders. This technique is also ideal for those who dont have time to keep up with the market on their own.
Cloud-based ERP, automation, blockchain, and cognitive innovation are likely to continue their rapid adoption in finance, creating more new opportunities to simplify processes radically. Take a look at how nanosecond speed technology will revolutionize finance.
As the adoption of algorithmic execution tools in the Forex market continues to gain momentum, traders are now looking for more sophisticated, objective analyses of their trades. Taking advantage of this switch in the FX market, more Forex brokerages have built Algo Central, giving clients the ability to evaluate pre-, current and post-trade algorithm performance, with the ability to change the execution-style and speed when orders are live.
The growing fragmentation of markets and the requirements of transparent execution excellence allow algorithms to take advantage of a diverse range of liquidity pools and customize their approach based on the characteristics of each pool. In response to market variables such as time, price, and volume, these algorithms create dynamic, programmable instructions that allow users to specify benchmark performance criteria that enhance performance.
While the technology is being upgraded with greater regularity, it is fair to say that 4G has only made incremental improvements over its predecessor. However, the same can‘t be said for 5G, which is primarily designed for transferring data and promises speeds that are 20 times faster than what’s currently available.
Faster data transfer in the financial sector means smoother transactions and processing, whether that is performing a credit check, making a payment, placing a trade, or transferring funds. This can fuel the growth and adoption of open banking, which relies on APIs to transfer data between financial institutions and third-party service providers. 5G will promote greater adoption of applications in this area, such as using phones as wallets or paying for things wirelessly with devices such as smartwatches as mobile financial services become more seamless.
With the shift to electronic trading, data centers have become more important in the financial sector. Financial market data can now be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection, allowing them to participate in trading activities. Trading takes place all over the world, and data centers must be able to handle the demand and perform consistently.
The transition of data centers from a centralized, locally-based infrastructure to a cloud-based one, and the enhanced connectivity of 5G, will definitely fix unnecessary delays in the trading sector as data-driven technologies advance and financial institutions explore them.
The trading industry relies on servers for reducing tick-to-trade delays; this is why the product demand is increasing. By 2028, the global market for high-frequency trading servers will reach USD 501.0 million, registering a CAGR of 3.5%
Additionally, as server technology has improved over the years, high-frequency trading (HFT) servers, in particular, have witnessed advancements in terms of processor technology, which is causing the finance industry to grow. In the coming years, these advancements are expected to become an indispensable part of the finance sector as a result of the necessity to track forex markets where every nanosecond counts.
The financial sector is likely to adopt an AI-first mindset to make it easier to resist the penetration of new technology firms. Their ability to connect complex financial networks, drawing on a wide range of disparate data sources, will have far-reaching implications in the future.
The use of financial analytics incorporating enhanced privacy protections will ensure that only relevant, necessary, and properly sanitized information is used in the training of financial models. Security technologies like encryption, multi-party computing, zero-knowledge proofs, and other privacy-aware tools will create a new frontier for consumer protection.
Artificial intelligence will be integrated into all aspects of financial industry operations across the front, middle, and back offices. Applications are aimed at creating better customer experiences, such as personalized user experiences, analytics, chatbots and automated transactions, as well as alternative credit scores based on non-financial data and facial recognition. These applications include smart processes, knowledge representation (epitomized by knowledge graphs), and natural language processing for fraud detection.
Increased mainstream forex accessibility brings attention to the importance of risk management. While forex trading has become widespread, every trader has to be aware of core risks and know how to manage them. Unfortunately, risk management is often overlooked and new traders forget how important they have to educate themselves about the best way to understand, assess and manage trading risks.
Fintech led revolution has been able to help redirect the path of the completely ignored risk management into a more positive trajectory as it commonly focuses on risk management and making substantial changes to the technologies used in forex trading.
Hence, allowing traders to mitigate trading risks through advanced analysis, risk predictions and machine learning. Such tools are able to analyze how significantly risks can impact a trade over time. So, when predicting the potential of a market crash, it informs the trader to make decisions in line with that level of risk.
As forex trading continues to keep up with the pace of advanced technology, some trends have been developing throughout the past couple of years and look to continue into the future, such as AI and machine learning, it is still expected to continue developing with even a faster pace during the coming years.
Around 80% of traders expect AI and machine learning to be fully integrated into forex trading within the next three to five years.
The main focus will always be on analyzing trade performance, cybersecurity and real-time risk management. Collectively, these tools help create longer-term defensive solutions in forex trading along with the continued growth in end-to-end trading solutions.
Usually, forex traders rely on a trading platform and its associated mobile trading app, as well as extra tools that allow them to keep an eye on market news that may affect their trades. With the aid of the fintech revolution, trading software has evolved recently, allowing traders to trade on the go and manage their accounts more effectively. This feature has attracted a lot more people to financial markets.
The following aspects of financial technology made it possible for the new generation of traders to enjoy an information-rich and streamlined trading environment with the aid of real-time transactions, advanced analytics tools and reliable account management to trade more confidently.
Real-Time Trading
Forex trading is based on pricing quotations, which are constantly changing. Trades are made when prices meet certain criteria. Real-time trading helped in providing more accurate and real-time data for traders so they can execute their trades faster at the price they want.
Market Analytics
Another huge ability that fintech enhanced in forex trading is accessing in-depth market analysis which is built into the trading software. This gave traders the ability to analyze markets more seamlessly. Fintech analytics is of utmost importance to traders at all levels, especially for non-professionals.
Trading apps were created to simplify the trading and investment process where users can place a trade or make an investment with just one click. An advanced trading app provides all the necessary tools and features to ensure seamless and effective trading. It basically has the same functionality as desktop trading software, only that it is accessible anywhere and everywhere.
A trading app has become the traders gateway to the market. Maybe performing a full-fledged market analysis can be more effective on a desktop platform, however, the app is more convenient for keeping an eye on the market and monitoring trades.
Forex trading apps helped in making trading available to almost everyone. When choosing the best forex trading app, its important to consider the crucial trading tools that can level up the mobile trading experience.
Based on personal financial targets and level of experience, every trader should opt for proper features. For example, simpler apps can be chosen among novice traders while the experienced with a more profound understanding of the market may need a more complex trading application with a fully enhanced functionality to meet their trading needs.
Basically, all trading apps can be the same in terms of functionality. But that is not always the case. Apps can be different when it comes to efficiency and price accuracy. Weighing the pros and cons when choosing a trading app to match your trading goals and needs is crucially important.
When looking for the best trading app, here are some key properties to pay attention to:
Apps Usability — Introducing a simple and user-friendly interface is important to consider. When it comes to convenience, even a great trading app with excellent functionality can be hard to use if the interface is complicated. Consider choosing an app that has a user-friendly and simple interface that will allow you to enjoy the trading process and direct your focus on developing your trading strategies instead.
Tradable Assets — Advanced trading apps will allow for trading different instruments. Before choosing your app, make sure to check the list of available trading instruments to see if this app will allow you to trade your assets of interest. This is not only for different classes of an asset but also about the variety of instruments within the same market. For instance, if youre more interested in forex trading, then you have to check if the app allows for trading all minor and exotic pairs as well as the majors.
Security and Ease of Transactions — A major element to consider when choosing a trading app is the availability, safety and security of your funds. This feature allows traders to perform fund transactions directly using the app. With secured and safe payment methods, you wont have to worry about your funds or investments.
AximTrade is introducing an advanced trading app with top-notch features that will allow every trader to experience a unique trading experience in the financial markets. AximTrade trading app enables highly developed trading features for a seamless trading process. These features include, but are not limited to:
Easy Account Management: all your trading accounts are at your fingertips. You can easily open new accounts, manage your multiple accounts smoothly, track trading performance and redeem the trading bonus.
Portfolio Diversification: our trading app gets you real-time access to financial markets allowing you to diversify your portfolio with just one tap. Get access to major, minor and exotic forex pairs, gold, CFDs, oil, stock and cryptocurrencies.
User-friendly Interface: the app comes with an easy and simple interface that enables all traders from different levels to smoothly execute and manage their trades.
Analytical and Charting Tools: enjoy seamless trading using a collective list of indicators and charting tools in your pocket and never miss an opportunity.
Secured Transactions: manage and track your deposit and withdrawal transactions supported by a variety of secured payment solutions.
With the continuous advancement of technologies like AI and machine learning, the forex trading industry is sure to be positioned for more growth. With more technologically advanced trading platforms and apps coming to the Forex markets, coupled with more tech-savvy traders, we could expect even more changes to come in this ever-evolving landscape.
“It is possible that blockchain will become the new frontier for forex trading, enabling the platforms and technologies that facilitate greater digitization”.
With blockchain, each transaction is recorded on a public ledger, unlike traditional forex trading, in which brokers facilitate deals and trades are not generally transparent. However, blockchains very nature could also be problematic. Since blockchains store information on a network of computers, any changes must be agreed upon — this is what made cryptocurrencies, and more recently NFTs, possible. The downside is that this could undermine the forex industry as it limits the amount of oversight a regulator would need.
As an expert in FX and Asian indices, Kara Ordway has witnessed the industrys transition from manual dealing desks to automated dealing, asking: Where are we going now or where will all this lead to?
Although trading speeds have been reduced to the microsecond, evidence suggests that high-frequency trading creates market volatility that would otherwise not exist. In the absence of risk control factors, fat finger trades can cause chaos and trigger automated trading orders. This leads to distortions in the market. The flash crash is a prime example of how this type of automated trading can cause damage.
As we all know, the financial industry strives to make its services as convenient and attractive as possible to potential customers. Forex is a fast-paced industry, and the introduction of computers and the advancement of technology have shaped the present, while Metaverse-created virtual worlds may continue to shape the future.
While investing early in educational resources is one of the best ways to reach potential customers, creating an engaging learning environment can be a challenge. This is where the Metaverse has immense potential for businesses and education, as VR-based learning has been proven to boost engagement. Using Metaverse, brokers can create interactive, fun, and engaging virtual spaces to host seminars, webinars, and courses for their customers.
An immersive trading experience in the virtual world will bring traders right into action. A trader could see what other investors are doing in real-time and interact with them. Trades can be made while traders are in other parts of the world and remain connected. VR technology has the potential to draw more traders and increase engagement and retention rates by introducing social aspects to the market.
It‘s always the goal of investors and wealth managers to maximize the return on their investments, and the latest innovations are providing them with the tools to do just that. Thanks to the growth of Fintech innovations, more and more people are adopting digital technology, with 64% of wealth managers saying that digitization is essential in today’s volatile markets.
Based on a survey of 1,000 investors conducted by TD Ameritrade, a whopping 90% consider getting tailored investment advice to be the most important feature of any tech tool. On the other hand, 52% prefer to have easy access to their data.
The following features of investment technology are also notable for investors:
45% are looking for the best return on their investment
44% desire a quick, easy, and customized analysis
39% seek personalized portfolios
39% want budgets tailored to their needs
38% want suggestions for improving their financial well-being
The bottom line is that todays investors demand better, more tailored advice, and that advice must produce better returns. Automating and digitizing manual processes have been welcome changes for many industry professionals. While technology in the investment sector is still in its infancy, wealth managers can enhance their client experience by embracing technology, and by doing so increase their chance of achieving future success.
As the near future unfolds, the relationship between FinTech and the Forex market is expected to grow stronger over time. Forex traders will continue to use the devices, tools, applications, and algorithms at their disposal to make better and more informed decisions.
Investors: If technology makes my life easier, I want it Overall!
The excitement of investors for technology does not seem to be waning anytime soon. As technology advances, so will investors expectations for how technology can help them improve their investing performance. To be able to trade Forex effectively, you need to keep up with emerging trends in finance. This is where AximTrade comes in to make your journey to Forex safe and sound.
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Original Article: How Fintech Revolutionized the Forex Trading Landscape
Disclaimer: This post is from Aximdaily and it is considered a marketing publication and does not constitute investment advice or research. Its content represents the general views of our editors and does not consider individual readers personal circumstances, investment experience, or current financial situation.