FNG Exclusive Interview… Back in May, Acuity Trading founder Andrew Lane spoke to FNG about the company’s investment in MarketReader and the ability to explain why markets move.

That capability has now shipped inside Market Companion, Acuity’s broker-facing market intelligence product – and it does something the May conversation didn’t cover: it pairs every explanation with the single piece of forward-looking Acuity analysis most relevant to it.

We caught up with Andrew to find out what changed, and why it matters for brokers trying to keep traders on their own platform.

FNG: Hi again Andrew. Last time we spoke it was about the MarketReader investment. What’s happened since?

Andrew: MarketReader gave us the ability to explain a price move — the news and the macro backdrop behind it. The obvious next step was turning that into something a trader lives inside all day. That’s Market Companion. It sits inside the broker’s platform and shows a trader what’s moving and why, in real time.

The bigger shift is new. We’ve added a forward-looking layer on top of the explanation itself. An explanation tells you what already happened. Market Companion now also surfaces the one piece of Acuity analysis — an analyst rating, say, or a live trade idea — that’s most relevant to that specific story. Now the trader also sees what might matter next.

FNG: Most platforms already throw a dozen widgets at traders — news feed, sentiment score, alerts, calendar. What’s actually different here?

Andrew: That’s exactly the problem we built against. Five loosely related datasets under an article just means more homework for the trader, who still has to decide which one matters.

Market Companion does that filtering before the trader ever sees it. It reads the direction and context of the move, checks what’s eligible against everything Acuity produces, and shows exactly one insight — the strongest match, full stop.

FNG: Isn’t showing less information a risk? Traders might want more, not less.

Andrew: We’d argue that’s the bigger risk. Five conflicting signals just leave a trader stuck. We’d rather show one connection we can defend, and defend it well.

It’s also disciplined about when to say nothing. If there’s no strong match, or the broker isn’t subscribed to that dataset, Market Companion shows the explanation on its own. That restraint is the point.

FNG: What’s the commercial case for a broker here?

Andrew: Platforms compete on experience now, as much as on execution and spreads. A headline feed is easy to copy — every platform has one, and it usually just sends the trader somewhere else to make sense of it. That’s the moment you risk losing them. A few minutes away is often enough for a trader to start comparing platforms.

Market Companion keeps that moment inside the broker’s own platform, under the broker’s own brand. We’re careful not to promise it makes people trade more. What we can say is it removes the single biggest reason a trader opens a browser tab and leaves.

FNG: How does this sit next to the rest of Acuity’s product line?

Andrew: Acuity Intelligence has three pillars: Trade Intelligence, Market Intelligence, and Event Intelligence. Market Companion lives inside Market Intelligence, and it’s built to pair an explanation with an upcoming event or a live trade idea. That’s very good for a broker. That’s one intelligence layer their traders never have to leave.

FNG: What would a broker actually see in a demo?

Andrew: We lead with a real market event: a surprise move after a rate decision, a stock reacting to earnings. Then we show what a trader would see live — the price action and the explanation, plus a relevant piece of analysis when there’s a strong match.

It’s a five-minute conversation once you see it against a live chart. That’s the only pitch worth making: see it against a real market and decide if your traders need it.

Market Companion is available now. Brokers and prop firms can book a demo at acuitytrading.com/market-companion.