The FX world has now fully adapted and attuned itself to the world of algorithmic trading and these tools are now being widely employed across the industry as opposed to being restricted to the elite word of high frequency trading populated by technology-driven hedge funds and prop shops. But now that mainstream adoption has begun, it is clear that the demands from traders are becoming more specific when it comes to their algorithms and the services needed to support them.

The retail forex trader segment is now a client base as highly sought after as the institutional market. Banks and brokers are bending over backwards to make these smaller players feel like part of the forex family, providing them with the tools of the trade more commonly associated with institutional traders and investors. Heather McLean takes a look at how retail providers are bridging the gap between institutional and retail.

The recent credit crisis has resulted in a dynamic shift to the banking industry by opening new opportunities for regional banks. While traditionally focused on serving the domestic needs of local customers, regional banks today are targeting and supplying a broader array of services.

FinaTek (http://www.finatek.com) is the provider of the myForex Trading Platform. Since 1996 the founders of the company, Alexander Ryvin, Anatoly Tkach and Andrew Sinitsyn have been engaged in the design, development and supervision of proprietary trading platforms for leading Retail FX industry players like MGFG, FXCM, FX Solutions, and others. In 2002 they got together to create the next generation enterprise grade Retail FX trading platform. In February 2003 the first release of the myForex platform was successfully launched for CMS in US. Currently myForex is being used by Retail FX market participants all over the world, thus demonstrating that FinaTeks flexible and scalable technology solution is ready to be adopted by the leading FX market players.

As financial markets move into a phase of heightened regulatory attention in the securities industry, high frequency traders are eager to explore new areas of opportunity. For many, foreign exchange is the New World. Offering the deepest liquidity of any market, along with tremendous volatility and fascinating currency-by-currency characteristics that make each trading pair unique, FX is a fantastic world to explore at any frequency. However, be forewarned that unlike the New World of old, this one is already well-populated with savvy, well-funded and well-established participants, undisturbed stretches of golden opportunity are rare, and success is far from assured. Some of the challenges are common to HFT, but others are unique to FX. So lets explore some of these, to better prepare you for your exciting journey into HFT in FX.

Retail Foreign Exchange Trading has been on the rise for the past five years and remained fully operational during the financial crisis, outperforming most other asset classes. As a result of this, the Forex Educational market has developed and is now set to take centre stage in the next growth phase. One of the fundamental reasons for the increase in popularity of FX training is that it is available to a wider scope of trader, from the beginner to the seasoned professional, and can be undertaken in a variety of methods and flexible times, something that has enhanced its popularity among both retail and professional institutional FX traders.

It seems as if every few months there is an article or panel discussion that appropriates a new catchphrase to sum up our industrys current fixation with the latest technology. These colloquialisms form the vernacular to communicate complex issues. Vendors adopt the insider talk to market and promote services to clients based on their technological acumen. For many of these clients, however, the essential details underlying their technical jargon may not be obvious or even available.

Excellence in quotes aggregation, latency detection with advanced risk control on the back and front ends, as well as near perfect real time reconciliation/synchronicity between the MT4 platform and back office systems are all becoming critical to broker performance, and profitability in an increasingly competitive FX marketplace. e-Forex talks to some of the leading MT4 Bridge providers to discover more about how different bridging technologies are characterised and what are the key trends in this relatively new, and specialized field.

e-Forex talks with Rory Kennedy, Director of Forex Financial Services (Forex FS), a leading Australian based financial services company which was established in 2008 by a group of former investment bankers, IT specialists and currency dealers.

The financial crisis brought with it unprecedented volatility and credit concerns that are still having their effects on all global markets, including FX namely in the form of the widespread financial reforms that are now underway. Aside from the recent flight to quality that exchanges experienced throughout the crisis as credit lines and liquidity suddenly dried up, the clear message from the G10 is that, by 2012, a very different landscape will emerge, where as much vanilla business as possible will be transacted on regulated exchanges, or at least cleared through a central counterparty. Furthermore, increased collateralisation requirements will be laid out by the regulators for those instruments that continue to be traded over-the-counter (OTC).