A foreign exchange aggregator or FX Aggregator is a class of systems used in Forex trading to aggregate the liquidity from several liquidity providers.
Mechanism
Aggregators usually provide two main functions; they allow FX traders to compare price from different liquidity venues such as banks-global market makers or ECNs like Currenex, FXall or Hotspot FX and to have a consolidated view of the market. They allow traders to trade with many participants using a single API or a single trading terminal.
Some of the systems support order sweeping (an order is split into the chunks which are sent to the respective counterparties based on the price, time and other attributes of the quotes from these counterparties), other systems route the whole order to a single liquidity provider who is chosen by an order routing algorithm embedded into an aggregator.
Technology
FX Aggregator implementation is complex as the technology needs to be fast (Latencies in microseconds) and flexible. Some banks developed their own FX Aggregators and others bought existing products from technology vendors.
Aggregators
There are many aggregators offered in the market: smartTrade LiquidityFX, Thomson Reuters Dealing Aggregator, Liquid-X, Liquidity Pool, FlexTrade, BidFX,MaxxTrader, Quotix, Integral, Currenex, LMAX Exchange, MarketFactory, EBS Direct, DealHub, Seamless FX, Gold-i Matrix and others.
References
- "An online foreign exchange aggregator enabling you to search RBI authorised money changers in India". Travelmudra. March 17, 2015. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014.
- "5 Reasons FX Liquidity Aggregation Is So Challenging". Seeking Alpha. November 26, 2012.
- "smartTrade LiqudityAggregator". Smart Trade. January 30, 2013. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014.
- "What is a FX Aggregator? -Improve ROI and Delivery to Market". Olfa Trade.
- "Gold-i Bolsters Offering With Matrix 2.0 Liquidity Management System | Finance Magnates". Finance Magnates | Financial and business news. May 23, 2016.
- "Top 5 Reasons Why Legacy FX Aggregation Providers are Failing". Finance Magnets. Retrieved January 28, 2016.