The story behind Fair Trading Technology

What exactly is Fair Trading Technology? CEO and co-founder Tim Haman, describes the people dynamics and philosophies behind the foundation of the company and its products, and how they can benefit you as a trader.

I come from an IT/tech background and have been a serial entrepreneur since 1996. I learned early on that a one man show does not empower a company. What really empowers a company is the team behind it. The better the team, the better the company and product offerings.

How did Fair Trading Technology start?

It all started with me meeting Fair Trading Technology's co-founder Knut Emlen who come from a financial background, back in 1998 at a local IT company and we saw the benefit of combining our skills. Then we realized we needed more technical excellence and we met co-founder number three, Mr. Ray who sits on the super IT/tech side of things. Mr. Ray provided us with security and innovations needed to push forward.

We were at the time working on another project, and, in 2007, we met co-founders number four and five, Robert Bloom, who has a marketing background, and Sven Erick Carlsson, who comes from sales. The five of us were working with a project we really needed to get currency neutral.

We began to investigate the forex market and came across the MetaTrader 4 trading platform. We deposited some funds and started live trading in order to learn more about the platform. We also got some funds under management and by doing so, we met co-founder number six, Mclean Van Cleve, who is a trader and knows about the MetaTrader 4 server and its function.

The MT4 platform already existed, where and how did you see a business oppportunity in the platform?

Investigating Forex markets, brokers and platforms, we saw the greatness of the MetaTrader platform, but we also discovered that it was misused by some brokers in not connecting the clients trades to the actual market. In these situations, it is the broker who takes the other side of the trade and is responsible for covering any gains out of their own pocket. In the case of large sums of money, there may not be a guarantee they are fiscally capable of doing that. We did not like the possibility of not getting paid, so we started to look for ECN brokers that offered more transparency.

There was one available: Dukascopy Bank, who at the time, were a broker. Dukascopy did not have a connection to MetaTrader, and it was from this gap in the market that Fair Trading Technology was born in January, 2010.

What exactly does Fair Trading Technology offer its customers that the MetaTrader 4 platform doesn't already?

Fair Trading Technology built a bridge between MetaTrader and Dukascopy's Jforex platform and in August, 2010 we launched our first version. In late 2010, our bridge had become a TWO way bridge, so traders no longer needed to choose platform and all platforms will be in sync, all the time.

Fair Trading Technology provides a transparent environment between MT4 and the Dukascopy ECN platform making it more real for the trader, without conflicts of interest. Both platforms offer the same price and same spread (between 250 and 600 milliseconds round trip). Fair Trading Technology will very soon launch more platforms connected to the bridge, an ongoing development to offer the best options out there.

How are you different from a broker?

Fair Trading Technology charges a volume fee for the usage of the platform, so regardless if you are trading small or big positions, pricing is very fair. When you do compare pricing with any other broker, you really need to understand how to fairly compare. If there is a market maker broker who never puts trades on the market (or seldom does so or even internally hedges), they can offer prices or spreads, such as zero spreads, that simply do not exist in the real, open market. Comparing to them is simply not a fair comparison. Dukascopy is regulated by FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) and I am sure of that they are the toughest out there for audits. In most comparisons we have done, Fair Trading Technology offers a service at very competitive prices if we compare apples with apples.

How does your company look like now after being in business for about one year?

The team behind Fair Trading Technology is, today, a group in excess of 40 people and growing fast, and is fantastic in all aspects. We have a very complex IT-driven environment, which is very business critical and, together with the NOC (Network Operations Control) teams, monitor it very hard, around the clock. Support teams and customer service work to help customers, and sales and marketing are developing strategies for us to get our products out there. IT development teams are involved in every system we have to make sure we are operating smoothly.

Without the excellence of all involved, I am sure Fair Trading Technology would never have happened. Our partnerships out there in the world are growing by the day, both on the supplier side as well as on the execution side. We have just launched our White Label program, to offer this fantastic platform to more brokers, banks, funds and larger trader groups.

Do you have anything that you would like to add?

I would just like to say what an honor it is to belong to such a great team. It is also my hope that this interview has given you a better insight into Fair Trading Technology's background what Fair Trading Technology is and the reasoning behind our products. Please try the demo platform to verify our solution. Please also remember, Demo is Demo. To get the real taste of trading, a Live account is they way forward if you find it interesting to trade in a secure, reliable environment with full transparency, on the market.