Equities and Derivatives Platform for a Private Banking Company April 2, 2024 About the Client The history of the client begins at the end of the past century. Since then, they have established themselves as a leading provider of corporate finance, investment advisory, portfolio management, market making, and liquidity services. These offerings transcend conventional trade brokerage services, encompassing a comprehensive suite of financial solutions. Their reach extends to both domestic and international private and institutional investors. In the present day, this client stands as a prominent intermediary boasting a substantial and diverse client base, comprising of corporate and individual clients, all actively participating in the Middle Eastern capital markets. The company operates several trading terminals. Business Challenge The client embarked on a bold endeavor, driven by the ambitious goal of creating a fully self-sustaining trading platform. Their vision was to empower users to effortlessly manage all facets of their financial affairs from the comfort of their own spaces, eliminating the need for physical visits to the client’s office. This groundbreaking project was set to disrupt the financial industry by providing an extensive array of user-centric services, all accessible and transactable in a completely digital environment. Online onboarding. At the heart of this effort was the idea of online onboarding, making it easier to welcome new users to the platform. No more paperwork or in-person meetings were needed; instead, potential users could start their journey from home and open an account effortlessly. Account customization. After successfully onboarding users, they gained unprecedented control and customization options for their accounts. They could effortlessly modify the reference data associated with their accounts and customize their profiles to meet their evolving needs. The ability to change the terms of account services also gave users a level of flexibility and autonomy they had not experienced with conventional financial institutions. Money withdrawals and depositing funds, investment and trading. Importantly, the platform empowered users to manage their financial transactions autonomously. They could easily deposit, explore investment possibilities, execute trades, and request withdrawals — all with a simple click of the mouse. Depositing funds was a smooth process, guaranteeing that users could seize opportunities in ever-changing financial markets. The client’s plan was both innovative and ambitious, aiming to engage and serve hundreds of thousands of users. This goal demonstrated their commitment to democratizing finance within the capital market sector. Their objective was to empower users, remove barriers, and make financial services more accessible and user-friendly. With their self-sufficient platform, they were poised to redefine online trading and investing, setting new standards for convenience and accessibility within the capital market industry. Solution The Devexperts team was well-prepared for the challenge, with the existing MVP of the platform in place. Only a few remaining features required finalization: Additional cybersecurity controls. For a platform built for remote and independent use, ensuring the security of sensitive financial data was a top priority. This involved implementing cutting-edge encryption protocols, multi-factor authentication, and ongoing vulnerability monitoring to guarantee the utmost security for their users. Scalable IT infrastructure. The infrastructure which needed to handle high volumes of concurrent users without sacrificing performance, required substantial investments in servers, bandwidth, and load-balancing solutions to deliver a seamless experience for all users. Comprehensive customer support system. Due to the self-sufficient nature of the platform, it was critical to provide users with access to abundant resources, tutorials, and responsive customer service channels, to address their questions and concerns. Design of an intuitive user interface. The platform needed to be user-friendly and accessible, even for individuals with minimal experience in financial trading. Throughout the platform’s development, striking the right balance between a feature-rich interface and simplicity remained a constant challenge. I see significant value in neobrokers and their user-focused trading platforms. By going live with our platform, the client is setting a new standard for the convenience and accessibility of the Turkish capital markets. The challenging performance requirements have been met, serving as a strong indicator of the platform’s scalability and potential. We’re setting the stage for a revolution centered around convenience, ironclad security, and, most importantly, the empowerment of every user. This is more than a step forward; it’s the new benchmark for innovation. — Evgeny Sorokin, Head of Product Management Office, Devexperts Results Faced with a substantial project scope and a strict timeline, Devexperts successfully completed the delivery of a comprehensive trading platform, adhering to both the schedule and budget constraints. The platform’s development utilized Devexperts’ proprietary technology stack, known for its flexibility, composability, and scalability, ensuring the platform was equipped to adapt and grow according to the client’s evolving needs. Following its introduction, the platform supported the activity generated by the client’s marketing campaign, attracting hundreds of thousands of users. There has been a steady increase in user engagement and trading volume each month since the platform was initiated. Client feedback indicated satisfaction with the platform’s robust performance and adaptability. The project’s completion was not only timely but also pivotal, as it helped the client establish themselves as one of the pioneering neobrokers in Turkiye. This achievement has significantly contributed to the wider development of the region’s digital trading landscape. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Devexperts for their stellar execution in delivering a top-notch trading platform that far surpasses our expectations. Their ability to deliver is reflected in our platform’s user-focused design, a perfect blend of simplicity and innovation, catering to traders of all skill levels. Devexperts have proven to be an invaluable ally in our journey, and we’re proud to associate with a team displaying such profound expertise and professionalism. — Product Director, the Client
DXcharts for Mobile Platform: Implementing Native Charting for iOS and Android Apps March 18, 2024 Business Challenge According to a recent study, mobile traffic is growing yearly. This includes increased usage from professional and amateur traders who access the market 24/7, thanks to the new flexibility that mobile versions of desktop trading platforms provide. DXcharts received a large volume of requests that indicated, despite these trends in end-user behavior, there was yet to be a native charting library offering for iOS and Android mobile applications. The only solutions available on the market were, in fact, web-based solutions that just mimic native apps and aren’t ready to facilitate the full capabilities of modern mobile devices. Given the significant number of users transitioning to mobile applications, there is a clear need for charting capabilities. The DXcharts team saw this as an opportunity and decided to use their accumulated industry experience to build a solution that would align with the quality expectations and standards of the capital markets industry. Solution The Devexperts team was already experienced in building native mobile solutions with charts and various technical analysis tools. There were multiple ways to provide a solution: Take our legacy libraries and update them to align with modern quality standards. However, this approach presented many technical challenges, which could lead to an outdated solution that does not meet modern users’ needs. Start from scratch. This path didn’t fit our lean approach and objective to quickly deliver a quality solution to the market. Use the core of our advanced web charts and logic to build a mobile solution. The third option seemed the most promising. We evaluated the effectiveness of this strategy and concluded the approach offered numerous advantages: Accelerated time to market. By building on the core of web charting with mobile-optimized code (for better UX), there was no need to start from scratch. Reduced cost. The chosen option did not require a large team and could be implemented quickly. Met all objectives. A native application tailored to mobile traders’ needs filled the identified gap in the market. Results Mobile and desktop traders’ user scenarios are different, so our product team revised the existing features of DXcharts. Instead of providing all features available for the web and desktop, we focused on the interactive chart canvas. Meanwhile, we built and designed the entire UX from scratch in native mobile code. DXcharts Mobile We opted for the most efficient approach to charting, utilizing the latest technologies available. One of the key advantages lies in the fact that the charts are not rendered natively, ensuring consistent behavior across different devices. This significantly enhances the application’s adaptability, making it more flexible and expediting the release process. The most exhilarating aspect of this task was establishing a close interaction between our unique native features and the chart, creating a seamless integration of the mobile world with data visualization. Furthermore, we emphasized crafting a flexible structure, facilitating seamless integration and adaptation of our product to diverse needs. — Nikita, Software Developer Android platform, Devexperts Indicator configuration in DXcharts Mobile DXcharts mobile application is essentially an embedded browser rendering the core chart. A significant advantage of this approach was that if new features are added to the core web chart in the future, they will automatically be accessible in the mobile application with minimal effort from the mobile developers. One of the challenging developmental tasks is acquiring, processing, and displaying a substantial volume of data in a chart. We pay special attention to ensuring data flows in and is displayed without delay. We’ve chosen the most optimal approach for chart creation, employing modern technologies. One of the key advantages is that chart rendering doesn’t occur at the native function level. By using a ready-made solution for chart rendering, we expedite the development process and achieve uniformity across all platforms. An intriguing development aspect for me is creating interactive user engagement with the chart, allowing users to draw on it and visualize it in their preferred manner or style. The close integration of native functions with web components brings numerous advantages and flexibility. — Anastasia, Software Developer iOS platform, Devexperts Our team for this project consisted of only three developers, who accomplished the task in a short time, developing two native mobile libraries for applications around the charting core. This efficient delivery demonstrated the resources needed for future mobile app integrations. DXcharts mobile libraries We chose to use the existing dxcharts-light web library by embedding it in the web view instead of drawing the charts within our application. Essentially, we created a wrapper for the existing chart display functionality, saving significant resources. The web team focused on optimizing the data visualization while we focused on the user interface. The most fascinating part was designing the architecture for the future product. Since our project was an embedded library for other applications, we couldn’t fully use the standard methods for developing architectures for mobile applications. We had to consider how the end developer would integrate our library, how they could configure it, and how they would provide us with their data: instruments, candles, etc. — Dmitrii, Software Developer Android platform, Devexperts In the shortest possible time frame, the DXcharts product line obtained full-fledged charts for native mobile applications that provide users with complete freedom of action and a full range of functionality comparable to the web version of the product. Devexperts is currently integrating the new mobile charts with our existing DXtrade applications. As a result, DXcharts customers will soon have advanced, multifunctional, and powerful mobile charts with a wealth of features available in the latest versions of web charts, outperforming the competition in the market. The team did a great job—we studied the perspectives, chose the optimal one, and quickly delivered one of the most advanced mobile charts. Now we can maintain it at a reasonable cost, and the compatibility between Devexperts’ products is higher than ever. — Andrey Shuvlenov, Devexperts DXcharts for Mobile is designed to help brokers provide a unique service to their end-users. Your firm can be among the first to explore DXcharts for mobile. Organize your complimentary one-month trial here.
Stock Trading Platform for Leading Asia-Pacific Financial Services Provider June 1, 2023 About the Client The client is a Southeast Asia bank and one of the leading integrated financial services providers in Asia. The bank has a global presence in 20+ countries, including the EU, the US, and Australia, with 2.5+ million users. The client focuses on retail broking, institutional equities, derivatives, prime services, equity research, asset management, and online broking. Business Challenge All brokers in the region usually settle for a white-label solution from a particular platform provider. But this choice comes with certain limitations. For example, the product is standard, it doesn’t change looks. This diminishes the differences among competing financial firms. This lack of UI customization prevented the client from upgrading their offering and making it stand out from the competitors. It also meant the client couldn’t achieve their goal of becoming the first broker to offer fractional trading in Asia and on the Singapore Stock Exchange. As a result, this created an issue for the client’s strategy to grow and thrive in their own way. The white-label is also quite expensive because the client has to pay a commission for every trade executed on their mobile app. So they wanted to reduce this marginal cost. Additionally, the client had accumulated a number of legacy systems with little to no support. So they were looking for a partner that could deliver a flexible trading platform, where they could easily implement sophisticated features such as fractional trading or seamless and reliable back-office integration. This would give them the ability to adapt and optimize their solutions to stay ahead of the competition and keep up with changing user demands. The client needed a partner with expertise in the stock brokerage field and strong engineering skills. The partner should also be able to offer licensable trading software that can replace the existing vendor. This journey led the client to Devexperts. Solution After estimating the project’s multi-stage scope, the Devexperts team proposed a two-step process: Creating a white-label DXtrade XT trading platform adapted to exchange trading. This step involved integration with a third party back-office solution known as Nova, which is the go-to back-office for many Asian brokers. Creating a custom market data gate that can work with the Singapore Exchange. This step onboarded dxFeed, (Devexperts’ market data subsidiary) to create a custom gate using Morningstar API. This gate was essential to the delivery. The project completion dates were tight: only a few months separated the beginning of the project and the first trade on the Singapore Exchange. But the Devexperts team made it on time. Then, six weeks after the first trade on the Singapore Exchange, the Devexperts teams gave the client their first fractional trade. “The hardest part was the fractional trading part. On one hand, it required a multi-level risk management approach, and on the other, it needed significant technical skills to integrate the solution with the third-party back-office. Another challenge was adjusting our deployment practices and implementing a bespoke software delivery process. We needed to do that to comply with the client’s security and compliance prescriptions and pass their internal audits.” — Mikhail, Head of Delivery Unit, Devexperts Results Within six months, the Devexperts team implemented and customized the DXtrade XT trading terminal. In close cooperation with dxFeed and the client, Devexperts adapted this terminal to fractional trading and integrated it into the third-party provider’s back-office. The client received the trading terminal with a branded UI and an integrated flow of the Singapore Exchange market data from dxFeed. “We greatly appreciate Devexperts’ effort to make the target production go live — which was a very important milestone to achieve. Our ultimate goal was to have the right technology partner to support our platform strategy of Scalability as a Service. Congratulations on hitting this very first and important milestone, with more to come! Kudos to Devexperts and dxFeed’s teams for making it happen!” — Program Manager, the client
How We Adapted DXcharts into Earnings Analyzer for a Major Canadian Bank May 9, 2023 About the Client The client is the sixth largest bank in North America by branches serving approximately 24 million customers in a number of locations in key financial centers around the globe. Business Challenge The client’s goal was to provide their customers with a new widget called “Earnings Analyzer”. The widget had to offer graphical and table representations of the relationship between earnings announcements and pricing of securities and derivatives. According to this concept, earnings events, along with corresponding pricing and volatility data, would be shown across various companies in different views in the widget. Based on our prior collaboration with the client and our proven record of delivering high-quality and scalable software products, the client asked Devexperts to implement the solution. Solution Based on our prior collaboration with the client and our proven record of delivering high-quality and scalable software products, the client asked Devexperts to implement the solution. As we are constantly improving our charting library in the DXcharts project, we recognized that it was highly flexible and already included all the necessary components to make the new widget. Hence, our team only needed to make some modifications to the chart core APIs in order to prepare the library for building Earnings Analyzer. The Earnings Analyzer default view Based on the DXcharts’ library, Earnings Analyzer provides a company’s revenue, net income, earnings per share; can compare different companies’ results, track their earnings over time, and more. The Earnings Analyzer table view After all the work, the library is now ready to be used to create the widget without accessing the closed source code of DXcharts. “DXcharts team is always striving to improve our products, design them flexible to fit any business case to offer innovative solutions to our customers. We’re excited to announce the launch of a new widget, based on DXcharts library, the Earnings Analyzer.” – Andrey Shuvlenov, Product Owner of DXcharts Results We have adapted our DXcharts for a new widget called “Earnings Analyzer”. There are numerous scenarios where our library can be utilized, and this new tool showcases just how versatile our platform can be.
Back-Office Software for Leading Asia-Pacific Financial Services Provider May 2, 2023 About the Client The client is a Southeast Asia bank and one of the leading integrated financial services providers in Asia. The bank has a global presence in 20+ countries, including the EU, the US, and Australia, with 2.5+ million users. The client focuses on retail broking, institutional equities, derivatives, prime services, equity research, asset management, and online broking. Business Challenge To scale operations and meet the needs of a growing user base, brokers employ back-office software to keep up with the fast-paced financial industry and market changes. Without such software, banks and financial services providers must rely on manual processes that cause delays and inaccuracies. The absence of this technology put the client at a disadvantage when compared to their competitors who have invested in back-office software. This posed a challenge for the client to achieve their goals and keep up with user demand.The client was seeking a reputable vendor to develop their back-office software solution using a Python/Django stack. The scope of the system was to manage commissions and margin settings, produce various reports, and send them to a specific group of customers or employees. The vendor that had initially developed and supported the client’s system disengaged, leaving the client without the support they needed to manage their operations effectively. Accordingly, the client needed to partner with a reliable and experienced vendor that can give them stable, efficient, and integrated software to help them regain their competitive edge. Their search led to Devexperts, a well-known software development company that specializes in creating advanced solutions for brokerage firms. Solution Once familiarized with the scope of work, Devexperts set out to address three key issues: Rectify the instability of the back-office software Correct any bugs Add additional features, making the system design flexible to suit the client’s needs One of the largest challenges faced by the Devexperts’ team was the accreditation required by the regional regulator. Without this, third parties cannot directly access financial systems’ source code. This accreditation could take years to obtain, so Devexperts and the client came up with a workaround and used Amazon Workspaces (an AWS remote desktop service) to proceed with the project work as scheduled. “Working using a remote desktop is certainly less than ideal, but we had to sacrifice some of our comfort for the sake of the project’s success and time to market. Even though our engineers’ hands were tied by the client’s weighty information security policies, we managed to meet the deadlines. Kudos to our team’s experience and high qualifications!” – Mikhail, Devexperts Technical Lead. Results Devexperts was able to quickly get the client back on track by stabilizing their back-office solution, ensuring the system’s sustainability. The knowledgeable Devexperts team also resolved several issues and added new features needed to meet the client’s needs and preferences. “The Devexperts team’s attention to detail and testing were unparalleled during the entire development process. I commend their technical expertise and knowledge of the specifics of the broker’s business, and fully recommend Devexperts for such engagements.” – VP, the client.
A Mobile Banking and Trading App for TEB Investment January 9, 2023 About the Client Company typeInvestment firm and securities brokerageYear of foundation1996Asset classesStocks, options, futuresLocationIstanbul, Türkiye TEB Investment (TEB Yatırım) is a brokerage that offers exchange-traded securities and derivatives. The company is an investment branch of one of Türkiye’s leading banks, Türk Ekonomi Bankası A.Ş. It has been operating in the investment world since 1997 in partnership with the French BNP Paribas Group. Business Challenge TEB Investment needed mobile trading apps for iOS and Android, so their customers could monitor and manage portfolios on the go. The client wanted the apps to be developed specifically for the Turkish market and equipped with numerous custom features. The software vendor had to develop the apps in line with the bank’s regulations and successfully adhere to compliance procedures. Solution TEB Investment chose Devexperts to develop the mobile apps because we had previously worked with them, and that collaboration went well. We also have extensive experience working in the Turkish market. The client’s deadlines were tight because they had numerous projects in development and needed to release them in rapid succession. However, we met the schedule because we already had a custom multi-asset trading platform developed specifically for the Turkish market. We just needed to tailor this platform to the client’s requirements and equip it with the required widgets. We customized the platform into a banking app with full-fledged trading and analytical capabilities. The traded asset classes include stocks, options, futures, and warrants available on Borsa Istanbul. Per the client’s request, we implemented a custom recommendations feature for investors. Now, client research experts can provide investors with market analytics and reports, inspiring them to make better-informed decisions when managing portfolios. Heatmap widget in TEB YATIRIM TRADER During the project execution, we implemented various client-facing widgets, such as a heatmap. For stock market monitoring, we integrated market news and data sources into the app and equipped it with configurable alarms. To speed up the users’ decision-making process, we put a quick order entry panel at the bottom of the UI. TEB Investment also wanted to simplify signing paperwork with investors, so we implemented a document interchange architecture. The process is now automated, and investors can sign documents inside the apps. We also introduced two-factor authentication to meet the client’s security requirements. Once development and testing were completed, the apps went through the bank’s compliance procedure. The client then confirmed the apps meet regulatory requirements, and we released them on the App Store and Google Play. Results TEB Investment launched TEB YATIRIM TRADER, an iOS and Android mobile banking app for trading stocks, options, futures, and warrants. TEB YATIRIM TRADER is equipped with tools and sources for technical analysis. The app can now help TEB Investment experts to issue market analytics and reports. Additionally, investors can leverage the info within the app to expertly manage portfolios and make better-informed decisions. TEB YATIRIM TRADER also provides investors with market data sourced by dxFeed and custom news. Investors will also enjoy a simplified document flow: they’ll finally be able to review and sign paperwork inside the TEB YATIRIM TRADER apps.
Low Latency FIX Gateway as a Competitive Advantage for a Capital Markets Firm March 3, 2020 About the Client The Client is a well-established and reputable financial institution working in the Turkish banking and capital markets industry since the 1920s. It provides brokerage services along with investment, leasing, factoring, insurance, and portfolio management. The Client is also one of the most innovative Turkish financial institutions for its customers and personnel. Challenge The Turkish capital market is very competitive, so the Client needs a solution in order to stand out. To beat the competition, the Client wants to provide the best trading service possible that offers the lowest latency on the market for order execution. Order execution speed depends on a FIX gateway that connects the trading platform with the exchange. Another issue the Client faced was finding the right software vendor to develop a low-latency and high-throughput custom solution for connection to the Borsa Istanbul exchange. Previously the Client used an in-house developed FIX gateway and also tried several similar solutions from local vendors. However, they did not satisfy the Client’s technical requirements for speed and scalability, so the Client decided to find a reliable software vendor. Solution Devexperts already had two completed projects in Türkiye (trading platforms for Gedik Investment and Global Securities). Consequently, the Client chose Devexperts as a well-established software developer in the region. Devexperts are also specialists in creating high-load gateway trading systems designed to process millions of orders with low latency. Ultimately, the key factor that affected the Client’s decision was a benchmark analysis of Devexperts gateway solutions, which demonstrated adherence to the Client’s technical requirements. With a hardware environment in place, Devexperts can roll out FIX bridges in one business day. Thus, Devexperts delivered a proprietary gateway system for a direct connection to the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange. It sends FIX messages and processes the exchange’s responses. The latency of the solution provided was low enough to completely satisfy the Client’s demands. With 1000 orders per second, a single order was processed in the following times: Minimum time: 42 microseconds Average time: 99 microseconds Maximum time: 157 microseconds The Client provides the gateway solution to their institutional and retail customers and plans on using it for further projects with Devexperts, which include an order management system and mobile financial applications. Results According to the Client’s demand, Devexperts developed the proprietary FIX gateway system with high throughput and low latency of up to 42 microseconds. It is directly connected to the Borsa Istanbul Exchange. Thus, the Client’s institutional and retail customers benefit from the best trading experience with immediate order execution. Devexperts FIX gateway system also laid the foundation for the Client’s plans for developing an order management system and mobile trading applications. By providing low latency access to Borsa Istanbul the Client succeeded in onboarding more institutional clients along with individual algo traders.
