As the financial landscape continues to evolve, firms are increasingly looking for ways to expand their offerings while maintaining ease of use for clients. In an interview with Traders Magazine, Vlad Khandros, CEO of OneChronos Markets, has shared insights about their upcoming expansion into the spot foreign exchange (FX) market.
After successfully deploying cutting-edge technology in US equities, the company is now preparing to leverage its experience in a new asset class, aiming to bring the same level of sophistication and simplicity to FX trading, he said.
“We’re quite excited to take some of the lessons learned and technology that we’ve deployed in US equities and bring it into the spot FX space,” he said.
“We’re months away from launching, and we want the experience to feel very similar to what our customers already know about US equities,” he said.
The company’s approach to launching its spot FX venue closely mirrors its strategy in equities, with a strong emphasis on simplicity, usability, and performance.
By focusing on standard, existing order types and providing a seamless integration experience, they aim to ensure a smooth transition for clients.
Despite the allure of new features and cutting-edge tools, the company recognized the necessity of maintaining a user-friendly experience.
“As we launched US equities, we rolled out a whole bunch of exciting features,” Khandros reflected. “But we quickly realized that, for the sake of adoption, we needed to focus on making it as simple and accessible as possible for our customers. For the FX launch, we’re sticking with existing and standard order types so that it’s really easy for our customers to connect and the experience feels consistent with what they already know.”
This approach is a deliberate effort to minimize complexity from day one. Khandros explained that, while the company is eager to innovate, they want to ensure that clients are not overwhelmed by new technologies. “We will start with spot FX and, over time, add more currency pairs and products,” he said. “The key is to ensure that we meet the immediate needs of our clients without overwhelming them.”
The company has received strong support from its institutional clients, many of whom have been long-time customers in the US equities market.
Khandros noted that the firm’s extensive network of global, cross-asset clients has positioned them uniquely to engage with the same firms—and sometimes even the same individuals—across both equities and FX.
“We’re really excited about the prospects of this expansion,” Khandros shared. “The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. The engagement with top institutional brokers and money managers within the FX space has further validated the company’s decision to enter this market. “It’s a great feeling knowing that we’re bringing something new to our clients, and that it’s well-received,” he added.
The launch will initially support trading hours for the Americas and EMEA, with plans to extend to APAC in the future.
“We’re bullish on this,” Khandros said: ”The combination of simplicity, performance, and cross-asset integration is something we’re really proud of, and we’re excited to see how our customers will benefit when they’re able to bridge equities, FX, and other asset classes together.”
Richard Suth, co-founder at OneChronos, highlighted the importance of ease of integration for institutional clients. As firms in the FX space often deal with complex infrastructures, Suth emphasized that simplifying the integration process is critical to ensuring adoption.
“I can’t stress enough how important the ease of use and implementation is for this type of venue,” he explained. “People often think it’s going to be way too complex. But what we’ve actually done is shift all the complexity directly to our venue, making it super easy for brokers to plug in, just like they would with any dark pool or exchange.”
This approach has allowed the company to eliminate the barriers typically associated with complex trading venues. Suth continued, “It’s incredibly easy to integrate, and brokers get much better performance because of the design we’ve put together. If adoption isn’t easy, it just won’t happen.”
By focusing on a seamless, plug-and-play integration model, the company aims to eliminate the resistance that often accompanies new technologies. “Anything that deviates from typical workflows often faces resistance,” Suth acknowledged.
“That’s why we’ve spent so much time ensuring our platform integrates effortlessly with existing systems,” he concluded.
