Platform overview

Intro

B2TRADER Brokerage Platform is a software solution providing the possibility to trade Spot and CFD instruments available on multiple liquidity providers through a single interface.

The platform operates on a pre-execution model, which involves accepting orders from traders and forwarding them to a liquidity provider for execution. The order execution result is sent to the platform and subsequently to the trader only after it has occurred on the liquidity provider's side.

BP components

The BP comprise of two distinct Web interfaces: the Admin panel and the Trading terminal.

The Admin panel grants access to essential platform configurations, such as:

• creating and managing assets and markets

• configuring BP settings

• managing execution models (A-Book and B-Book)

The Admin panel also enables you to:

• manage users and traders

• monitor orders, trades, positions, and user parameters

• collect various data for specific time periods and generate reports based on this data

• monitor balance operations on traders' accounts

• receive alerts on the events that may require attention

On the other hand, the Trading terminal is designed for traders, allowing them to sign up to the platform, create trading accounts, perform balance operations such as fund top-ups and withdrawals, and engage in trading activities. The Trading terminal features configurable workspaces and various widgets for placing orders and analyzing market data, enhancing the trading experience for users. You can learn more about the Trading terminal and available widgets here.

Key features

Market data

The BP consumes liquidity from liquidity providers and constantly exchanges market data through the FIX gateway, to ensure real-time and accurate information.

This integration allows the platform to connect with major spot liquidity pools. The market data is streamed from the liquidity providers (LPs) with whom the Broker has open hedging accounts.

Execution models

The BP offers three order execution models: A-Book, B-Book, and C-Book.

In the A-Book model, orders placed by traders are sent to a liquidity provider for execution. In this case, Broker's funds are used to place orders on the LP side, therefore the Broker must have a hedging wallet at the LP, with enough balance.

The B-Book model assumes that the platform takes the opposite side of the trade and the orders are executed "in-house". Therefore, the Broker can save on commissions and gain more profit from order execution. However, this entails the Broker opening a corresponding position and fulfilling obligations to the trader in the case of withdrawal of purchased assets.

The C-Book model combines elements of both A-Book and B-Book models. It allows Brokers to split an order, executing part of it on an LP (A-Book) and the remainder within the BP (B-Book). This strategy helps mitigate risks compared to the B-Book flow and increases potential income in contrast to A-Book execution.

The platform offers a flexible approach to distributing orders between A- and B-Books by implementing Routing rules based on various factors such as the market, trader, or specific account from which the orders were placed. These rules enable prompt actions to be taken in response to market situations, trader behavior, technical issues, or any other circumstances that require quick redirection of orders to either the A- or B-Book.

To imitate order sending to liquidity providers and mask the existence of the B-Book from traders, as well as to prevent arbitrage strategies, the platform implements a configurable latency time. In the Admin panel, you can specify minimum and maximum delay time. Each B-Book order is processed after a random value from the specified time range, to avoid identical time intervals and simulate the natural order processing behavior.

Internal and external orders

To ensure the accurate implementation of the pre-execution A-Book model, the platform distinguishes between two "sorts" of orders: internal orders placed by traders and external orders created by the platform to fulfill these initial orders on the side of an LP.

The type and time-in-force setting of the external order are determined by the parameters of the internal order. The external orders aren’t visible to traders. They also have their own separate set of statuses, allowing the Admin to track the life cycle of the order. The number of external orders depends on the number of "attempts" made to fulfill the original order. Each time an external order is executed, the filled and remaining amounts of the original order are recalculated.

Markups and internal order book

The platform provides flexible configuration of markups on ask and bid prices. These markups act as additional multipliers that the platform applies to the current market prices acquired from a liquidity provider. This process happens seamlessly, resulting in a wider spread for traders. The difference between the widened spread and the original market price is the profit earned by the Broker.

However, in situations where liquidity is low, particularly when a trader places a large order, they may notice that their order is positioned less favorably in the order book. This might lead them to suspect that the platform is applying markups, which can be seen as a drawback. To prevent this, the BP keeps the GTC, GTD, Day Limit orders in the Internal order book until the order price aligns with the top-of-the-book price. This approach ensures that applied markups kept hidden from traders.

When setting markups, you can choose to configure them directly on the brokerage platform or on the side of your liquidity provider, provided they offer this feature. Remember, if you configure markups both on the BP and with the liquidity provider, they will accumulate and both markups will be applied.

Commissions

The BP provides a highly adaptable system for setting up commission rates.

Similar to routing rules, you can configure Commission rules based on different order parameters, such as the market, trader, and account associated with the order. When an order is placed, the platform selects the most suitable commission rule based on its specific criteria and priority. Each commission rule corresponds to a particular Profile, where you can store a range of commission rates. These rates are also chosen based on relevant parameters and priority.

This flexibility enables you to cover various business scenarios and marketing strategies, all while considering prevailing market conditions and costs associated with commissions for liquidity providers and other external platforms.

To ensure the fastest launching of trading, the platform includes the default commission rule and profile that are applied when no other rules are configured or applicable. Set the default commission rate, so that it's applied to all orders placed by new traders.

Slippage rate

As the platform operates on the pre-execution model, it has to preliminary estimate the necessary amount of funds to be reserved on a trader's account for order execution. Market prices may undergo rapid changes. Moreover, market orders, especially larger ones, may not be fulfilled at the best available price, but may go deeper into the order book. To minimize risks related to order execution at a worse price than expected, the platform provides the Slippage rate parameter. This parameter is used as a multiplier to calculate the amount of funds to be frozen for order execution, based on the VWAP (volume-weighted average price) and the current state of the order book at the time of order placement.

Role-based access control

The BP offers a versatile access control system based on user roles. Each role represents a set of permissions enabling users to perform specific operations in the Admin panel or Trading terminal.

The platform provides a range of predefined roles, as well as the ability to create custom roles with a personalized set of permissions, guaranteeing a fine-grained level of access.

Retry policy

The BP features the Retry policy solution to prevent the loss of external A-Book orders due to potential technical glitches that may occur during interaction with a liquidity provider. This is a smart system of re-sending limit orders for which no response has been received from the liquidity provider within a specified period of time.

The duration of the time-out period, after which the order is attempted to be resent, is adjustable. It takes into account both the time required to reach the liquidity provider and the time required for order processing on the liquidity provider's side. Upon reaching the time-out, the platform re-checks market conditions. This is crucial as the current price may have fluctuated. If the price trigger remains active, the order is resent. However, if the trigger is no longer active, the order is returned to the Internal order book until the next price trigger occurs.