FNG Exclusive Interview… We’re pleased to speak today with Aleks Kozlov, General Manager at cTrader Store.

How exactly does cTrader Store fuel broker growth?

How does the cTrader Store Affiliate Programme create two revenue streams for affiliate partners?

How easy is it, realistically, to get started as a seller on cTrader Store?

Here is what Aleks had to say about these issues, and a whole lot more.

FNG: Hi Aleks, and thanks for joining us today. How exactly does cTrader Store fuel broker growth?

Aleks: cTrader Store adds an extra layer of value to the trading platform, broadening what brokers can provide to their traders. Instead of just opening an account, traders get instant access to high in-demand tools such as bots, indicators, copy strategies and plugins. That makes the whole trading proposition more appealing and accelerates the trader journey.

Store also helps us build a stronger offering for IBs and partners. They can go beyond account onboarding by delivering ready-made setups, strategies and trading tools as part of the package. That drives trader engagement and generates more qualified referrals.

Worth mentioning is our cTrader Leads programme, helping brokers attract prospective clients for free and increase live trading conversion. Instead of putting more budget into cold campaigns, brokers can effectively attract pre-qualified, prospective traders who are already interested in the cTrader Store products. Naturally, that kind of audience tends to convert better than generic traffic.

Store also gives brokers full control over how they deliver value to their clients. They can offer the products for free or at a discount, share curated strategies with their clients or include trading tools as part of the onboarding process.

In this way, Store becomes more than a marketplace – it turns into a distribution channel for trading products. Brokers can do more than promote only their brand – they can say: “Here is a copy strategy or a trading bot you can start with.”

FNG: You’ve recently introduced a significant update: the cTrader Store Affiliate Programme. Can you walk me through how it works and what the key value of the programme is?

Aleks: The programme is built around one core idea: extend IB monetisation, not replace it.

In practice it works in the following way. Partners join https://affiliate.ctrader.com/, powered by Impact.com, where they receive tracking links for the Store products and any Store page in overall. From there, they can earn from product sales and get seller revenue if they bring in creators. Once a partner has an affiliate link, they can add their IB broker links inside Store and decide which brokers are shown to their traffic. This ensures that their traffic sees their brokers and they retain full IB commissions.

Our programme creates two revenue streams from the same audience. On one side, partners continue earning from the broker in line with their IB model. On the other, they can also generate income through Store, both from products and from seller revenue.

The cTrader community is growing rapidly and now reaches more than 11 million traders who actively explore products in Store. For partners, this means access to a large, highly relevant audience and stronger conversion potential for the tools they promote. As a result, the same audience can be monetised at different stages of the journey: from broker onboarding to Store engagement, or the other way around when a product attracts the trader first. In other words, one traffic source can now generate two revenue streams for the same partner, and that makes our model stand out.

Store also creates “a new traffic access” to new sources brokers would struggle to reach through traditional marketing alone. I mean creators such as bot developers, educators and signal providers, as well as affiliate websites, niche communities and audiences focused on algo and copy trading.

FNG: Many algo traders are familiar with the classic EA + VPS setup. How does cTrader’s free cloud execution differ, and what advantages does it offer to traders?

Aleks: Yes, for many traders this has long been the standard model: an EA running on a VPS, and then you deal with all the setup and maintenance yourself.

cTrader completely changes the logic. With cTrader Cloud, trading bots (cBots) can run in the cloud for free, so there is no need for a separate VPS, and traders can access this 24/7 from any device.

That makes a big difference. Traders do not need to worry about infrastructure, recurring VPS costs or the setup overhead. They can get started faster, and they get the same experience across devices. The result is that algo trading becomes simpler to use and mainstream-ready, not just for advanced users.

FNG: For someone looking to become a seller on cTrader Store today, how easy is it, realistically, to get started? For example, can a person without a traditional programming background now build a bot with the help of AI tools such as Claude?

Aleks: Getting started in cTrader Store today is much easier than many people expect. The main requirement is not a traditional development background, but a trading experience.

cTrader offers native Python and C# support for building trading algorithms. AI-assisted development tools like Claude make that process even easier by helping generate logic, draft or refine code and speed up prototyping. Another major unlock is multi-platform plugins. Sellers can build plugins using HTML, JavaScript or React, and those plugins work across desktop, web and mobile. As a result, you don’t need to be a C# specialist to build interfaces, dashboards and trading tools.

So yes, a person without a traditional programming background can absolutely get started today easily with the help of AI tools. It helps with execution. But strategy, logic, and risk management remain the key success factors.

FNG: Looking ahead, what’s next for cTrader Store? Which directions matter most to you right now?

Aleks: We’re focused on turning Store into a one-stop destination for traders, brokers, and partners.

One of the main priorities is subscriptions, which produce recurring revenue for sellers, as well as more flexible monetisation. Another is affiliate expansion by growing the partner network, providing deeper IB + Store integration and adding more widgets and marketing content that partners can use directly in their traffic flows.

At the same time, we are developing the broker integration layer. The goal here is to give brokers more tools to distribute products, launch special offers and bundle strategies for their clients. We also want to improve visibility of performance, use cases and overall product quality.

As a closing thought, I would say cTrader Store is no longer just a marketplace. Now it’s a place where brokers can attract prospective traders and demonstrate their reliability, partners can monetise their traffic better and traders can easily get started with a wide choice of ready-made solutions.