Global FX markets are comprised of independent yet electronically-connected entities.

Cloud technology is being employed to connect to multiple sources of liquidity in the global foreign exchange market.

For banks, brokers and buy-side traders, cloud-based services are an alternative to costly and time-consuming do-it-yourself projects or license-and-install software solutions that require heavy integration work and large capital investments.

“What used to be a piece of software, now is a service that does much more than merely aggregate incoming flows,” Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral Development Corp., told Markets Media. “A leading edge execution management system like the one that Integral is providing is key to the overall success.”

“Global FX markets are comprised of independent but electronically connected entities,” Sandhu said.

In order to successfully compete in today’s environment, a market participant needs to aggregate as many liquidity sources as possible.

“Managing these connections one-by-one  is too complex of a task for the vast majority of market participants,” said Sandhu. “That’s where the need for aggregation solutions originally came from.”

Integral develops and operates FX Grid, a global multi-sided trading technology connecting active market participants with all major sources of FX liquidity.

Integral has expanded its FX liquidity aggregation services to include all major ECNs in foreign exchange.  Customers on FX Grid can connect with EBS, Hotspot, CME, Bloomberg Tradebook, and soon Reuters Matching.

Integral’s FX aggregator, delivered as a service hosted by Integral, offers tremendous cost savings over other technology solutions, said Sadhu.

“The ECN aggregator sorts and ranks prices giving the best price for any trade size with real-time execution of large trades over multiple liquidity providers and their pricing tiers,” he said. “Our customers advise as to from whom they want to get liquidity, and we aggregate it on one computer screen for them. Customers can use API connections or their desktop-based UIs to access it.”

FX Grid offers depth and breadth of liquidity sources, in combination with high-powered algorithmic execution, smart order routing, and free tick-by-tick data.

“Best liquidity and best execution are of critical importance for today’s FX market participants,” Sandhu said. “Integral host cusomer algorithms in its data centers, ensuring virtually no latency and best execution. Integral also offers free data and a back-testing environment for our customers to test their research.”