To automate or not to automate? TFB’s thoughts on automation for brokers in 2024

Author: Albina Zhdanova

We might sound like a broken record, but we believe automation is essential for the success of retail brokers, hedge funds, and prop trading firms.

Why? We’re glad you asked!

Here are the key reasons why everyone should embrace automation in 2024:

• It saves you time.It is the ultimate finite resource that none of us can buy once it’s spent. Every brokerage deals with multiple critical tasks and/or issues daily, so the more work we can streamline, the more time we get for other things.
• It reduces risks. Humans make mistakes. Or they overlook things or don’t have enough time to react to something. With automation, you can set up thresholds and alerts to notify you about anything abnormal. Automated report generation will keep you compliant at all times. Things like automated volume consolidation will save you from many headaches at the end of each working day, plus you won’t make a mistake that can cost you your reputation and cause financial loss.
• It gives you the freedom to work on strategic and creative tasks. If you’re constantly overwhelmed with work, you can hardly find the time to think long-term and plan for success. And most importantly, you need time to act on all those goals and targets. About 76%of those who act on their goals achieve them, and automation helps you fall into that 76%.

And once you automate processes across the company, you will see notable results that include:

• Cost efficiency of operations – you’ll achieve more with the same resources.
• A well-balanced workload for the team translates into less burnout and better work results.
• Getting ahead of the competition because you have everything under control and operate smoothly.
• Higher customer satisfaction rates. Again, you’re on top of everything that’s going on in your business, so you’re more likely to provide excellent service.

Where to start with automation?

Depending on where you are on your automation journey, you’ll need different tools and changes. If you’re unsure of what you need, you can always contact the TFB team, and we’ll be happy to consult with you. Simply send us an email at sales@t4b.com.

Here are some ideas for automating specific processes today:

If you’re worried about server overload and tired of dealing with swap updates, install the Swap Changer application, which will do it automatically for you. It updates long and short positions, and you avoid crashes from bulk swap updates.

Sometimes, traders lose a lot of equity quickly, especially during high volatility periods. We need to look out for them and prevent them from going into a negative balance, but there’s no reason why this should be a manual process — especially given how critical and time-sensitive the matter is. Instead, use the StopOut plugin to close all orders and move the account to read-only once the equity reaches a specified level.

If you distribute dividends among traders, trust the Dividend plugin to calculate the amounts and distribute them automatically at a specified time.

Tip: We have many more handy tools listed in our product catalogue.

New automation capabilities with TFB solutions

As you may have guessed, we are big on automation at Tools for Brokers. It is constantly on our minds as we develop new solutions and enhance our existing ones.

Over the past few months, we’ve introduced several automation-enhancing tools that would be of great help to retail brokers, prop traders, and hedge funds:

• It is now possible to automatically update trading conditions(spreads, markups, etc.) over 1000 times daily without affecting overall performance.
• Convenient UI for report regeneration straight from the Trade Processor liquidity bridge. Generating compliance or internal reports is easier and faster, even if you’re not very technical.
• Statements sent to FIX API clients can now be automatically issued by email.
• Market-depth snapshots and execution timestampswere added to the bridge to simplify order investigation and dispute resolution. Six types of stamps are available, and they are allocated in the correct execution sequence, helping to avoid wasted time and getting to the root cause quicker.
• The TFB Toolbox introduced live logs and notificationsthat facilitate real-time monitoring and help brokers stay on top of their environments without having to manually check them. Instead, the system will keep track of what’s going on and notify you about any abnormality.

TFB service at your fingertips

Before we sign off, it’s worth mentioning the new TFB service we’ve launched for all TFB clients. It is designed for clients needing advice or assistance with their tech environments. We can do initial setup, migration, configuration, and other custom services. So whenever you’d like to start an optimisation project, enhance your automation, or anything else, feel free to reach out to us, and we’ll be happy to help.