The following is a guest post by DXtrade, a leading trading platform for FX/CFD brokers and prop firms. Visit dx.trade to learn more about them.
In the early to mid-2000s, the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, were some of the only mainstream media producers to openly embrace content sharing online. Rather than try to stop people from watching or downloading their show by threats or lawsuits, the pair permitted it and even actively encouraged it on some occasions.
Their logic was that there was no way to stop people from file sharing and that by allowing it to happen, they would actually increase their audience size. Along the way they also managed to pick up, for almost nothing, 50% of the rights to any non-TV derived revenues.
With the benefit of hindsight this was an astonishingly good deal. The fact that the pair recently made an agreement worth close to $1bn, largely because of streaming revenues, is one sign of that. But at the time most media companies saw no way to generate revenue from the internet and instead put a huge amount of effort into trying to stop people using it to share their content.
This may seem like a strange way to begin an article on retail brokers but the lesson is simple – sometimes as a company you have to accept consumer behaviour and work accordingly. Trying to push water up a hill isn’t an option if you want to succeed long-term. The South Park guys realised there was no point trying to stop people from sharing their show, so they adapted to what their audience was doing instead.
A similar logic underpins the agreement DevExperts recently formed with TradingView. Traders using TradingView’s charting can now trade directly on the company’s platform via the DXtrade backend. Our respective platforms are already integrated, meaning any broker that wants to connect directly to traders using TradingView and DXtrade can do so quickly and easily, with minimal input from your technical team.
TradingView’s client acquisition benefits for brokers are obvious. The site has over 50m active traders using its platform. These are largely high-intent prospective clients, who are looking to trade the financial markets. TradingView connects them directly to your pricing and your brand.
The DXtrade partnership removes another layer of friction in the client acquisition process by allowing trading directly via TradingView. It also gives clients what they are looking for. If traders want to trade on TradingView, why not let them do it?
Several large players in the FX/CFD industry have realised this already and have listed their services on the TradingView website accordingly. Others have been more reticent to do so. We tend to see a couple of reasons why.
One is that brokers feel as though they are not fully ‘capturing’ a client if they are trading with them via a third party. There is some logic to this but it is hard to square it with the fact so many providers continue to use the same third-party, non-branded trading platforms.
And this also goes back to that point about sharing content online – brokers may not like that clients want to trade via TradingView, but it’s what they are doing and you are going to have a tough time convincing them to behave otherwise.
Another point of contention appears to be the comparison that is drawn between providers on the TradingView platform itself and the idea that clients can easily switch between brokers. Again, it is hard to understand this way of thinking when comparison websites are now such a common means by which brokers market to clients.
There is also an option-like quality to the listing, with low downside risk but high upside potential. Yes, listing on TradingView means clients can see other providers exist, but if you aren’t on there, they won’t know you exist at all.
TradingView does have strict compliance policies, although some providers in non tier-1 jurisdictions have been able to pass these and list on the platform. Nonetheless, there are still ways to integrate TradingView technology with DXtrade, even if your company is unable to list directly on the TradingView website itself.
For example, DXtrade lets firms switch between our proprietary charting widgets and TradingView’s own charting library. Currently props aren’t accepted at all but those that have integrated the company’s charting into their platform have seen extremely positive responses from existing clients and a useful tool for onboarding new ones. We see a similar trend among brokers that do the same.
And that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. TradingView is where a huge number of traders go by default today. You can try to stop them. Or you can just give them what they want and let them trade with you directly via DXtrade. We think you’ll find life much easier with the latter option.