Exclusive: Gold-i’s Tom Higgins on the new MatrixNET
FNG Exclusive Interview… FX broker tech solutions provider Gold-i recently marked its 15th anniversary with the announcement of a major new product enhancement – MatrixNET – and a new website. We speak to Tom Higgins, Founder & CEO of Gold-i, to find out more…
FNG: Hi Tom. MatrixNET was announced in September as Gold-i’s enhanced liquidity management and distribution platform. What has the response been from the industry to this latest Gold-i development?
Tom: It’s been extremely positive. Bringing our FX and crypto liquidity aggregation and distribution together into a single platform has been very well received. Most brokers don’t want to have separate systems – so we’ve simplified our offering by combining our Matrix, MatrixNETwork and Crypto Switch™ products, whilst also adding extra features.
One of the major trends we are currently seeing is the rise in B-Booking. Most brokers B-Book about 80% of their business and there are now very few pure STP A-Book only brokers. Brokers who are B-Booking need extremely good, real-time business intelligence tools in order to quickly identify toxic clients. To minimise losses, they also need the ability in their liquidity management platform to identify unwanted trading activity. The B-Book broker protection features we’ve added into MatrixNET really address this need – and range from speed bumps (so that if someone hits you hard, you slow them down) to variable delay logic to stop latency arbitrage. Adding these features into MatrixNET gives our platform an extra dimension and is an aspect that we have had a lot of positive feedback on.
FNG: How important is MatrixNET as a key product in your growth strategy?
Tom: It’s our number one product. It gives power to the brokers as consumers of multi-asset liquidity that they didn’t necessarily have before – and is ideal for start-ups through to enterprise level businesses, whether they wish to connect to one or multiple LPs. Everyone who we have shown it to so far has been really impressed!
Not only is MatrixNET robust and feature-rich but it’s also commercially attractive and competitively priced. Our clients get access to the full functionality of MatrixNET – they don’t need to buy in to different levels of functionality which can be restricting. One aspect which is really appealing to clients is that we offer flexible contracts – as we do for all our products -which means that brokers aren’t tied in for long periods of time.
We are thrilled that Finalto has already chosen to embed MatrixNET into ClearVision, enabling brokers to connect via an API to MatrixNET as the gateway to Finalto’s infrastructure. We hope this will be a catalyst for other LPs choosing to embed our software as an additional distribution and aggregation platform within their own technology. It’s a compelling offering for LPs and gives more choice to clients.
FNG: Gold-i continues to evolve its marketing as well as its products. Tell us about your latest marketing initiatives.
Tom: We have launched a new website www.gold-i.com which we believe is cleaner and clearer and a strong representation of our current portfolio as it includes all of our FX and digital asset capabilities together. We have also launched our first product video – for MatrixNET – which we are really pleased with. Again, the focus was on providing greater clarity so that potential clients worldwide understand our offering and, most importantly, how they/their clients will benefit from MatrixNET. The video is available on the Liquidity Management section of our website and you can also view it here:
FNG: Celebrating 15 years in business is a major milestone. What have been your highlights?
Tom: Winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation and being invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen was probably one of the most exciting moments over the last 15 years. It was such a strong validation of our business – not only in this industry but across all sectors.
I am also extremely proud to have set up one of the very early technology companies in this space and creating a market for technology which enhances the capabilities of retail FX brokers worldwide. Without our bridge technology, so many brokers would not have been able to enter the industry. They would have had to write their own technology and most wouldn’t have had the resources for this. Also, as an early adopter in the crypto space, another highlight is being one of the first companies to offer institutional digital asset aggregation technology and being considered very much a leader in this field.
Our reputation in the industry and our focus on pushing boundaries has resulted in many opportunities for me as a thought leader in the industry. This is a role which I relish – I love looking at trends, moderating panels and sharing my views on the technology brokers need to adopt in order to succeed in such a competitive market, both now and in the future.
FNG: What lessons have you learned from the last 15 years of running a business in this industry that you will take forward for the next 15 years?
Tom: My top three lessons are:
1) Standing still is going backwards so never stop innovating.
2) Listen to clients – they’re the ones who use the technology so are best placed to give feedback. Open client communication ensures you develop products that meet their current and future needs.
3) Have fun! This is a rapidly evolving market, there’s a lot to get involved with – it’s important that we enjoy what we’re doing!
FNG: If you would like our readers to know one thing about Gold-i, what message would you like that to be?
Tom: Gold-i covers the full spectrum of broker needs from liquidity management and business intelligence through to money managers and hosting. We invest more than half of our resources in R&D to build the products of the future that will power brokers in 2024 and beyond.