e-FX Awards - Best Retail FX Platform

What have been your biggest successes over the past 12 months?

In its quest to democratise the world of trading, Saxo launched SaxoTraderGO, an intuitive multi-asset trading platform aimed at the retail investor. Built from the ground up, the platform focuses on usability and supports a seamless user journey between Web, Android and iOS devices. GO is suitable for traders of all experience levels and since its launch has grown to become the preferred platform for the majority of Saxo’s clients. 

Despite the recent market turmoil, Saxo continues to experience a considerable increase in the number of new clients with March seeing an increase of over 260% on the previous year. This has been matched by an increase in trading volume of almost 100% during the same period. 

What differentiates you from other firms in this space?

SaxoTraderGO has been developed in a modern HTML5/CSS3 language based on an Open API which enables rapid feature development and upgrades across all devices. This approach ensures a unified client experience across devices and platform services such as content, trading and account services, rather than being an abrupt and dis-jointed experience when navigating between app and website as with other trading platforms. SaxoTraderGO enables changes to a user’s layout or settings to be carried through across all devices, including desktops, tablets and mobile phones. It also provides uniform functions and features which means retail traders can seize trading opportunities and achieve the best execution regardless of where they are and what device they are using.

To this end, the upgraded Account section and enhanced analytical tools are being rolled out on the mobile application, as well as on the web. This began with Chinese clients in early April and is now in the process of being rolled out globally. While this would be a massive undertaking for other providers, Saxo doesn’t need to rewrite code and can introduce such features with relative ease with the use of HTML5 and its own open API.

How has your business/product/service changed over the past 12 months?

There have been a number of significant changes and upgrades to SaxoTraderGO over the past year. This includes an upgraded “Research” hub which combines third party news with Saxo’s own daily research, including daily trading themes such as “FX Carry”, “Breakout Monitor” and “Technicals”. Furthermore, technical trade analysis and signals are presented along with market commentary and real time data.

Saxo has also introduced a new Account section in SaxoTraderGO which provides clients with better portfolio analysis and detailed p/l breakdowns. For example, clients have the ability to see their win percentage, profit and loss, and their average return by month per asset class and/or per instrument traded. This makes it easier for the retail trader to dig deeper into the data and help them become a better and more profitable trader. Due to the platform’s flexibility, this key functionality will become available on mobile devices only a few weeks after the launch to Web.

Saxo has also been developing greater support for push messages for iOS and Android users, providing up-do-date and timely information from the trading desk on the ever-changing trading environment. These go beyond simple notifications and link directly to concrete research items or analysis on the trading platform. Initial data shows that these are heavily used by Saxo’s clients.