FX Market Overview from a Developer's Standpoint

The FX market has long been very attractive for developers, mostly because there’s a lot of free stuff associated with this market, such as market data, trading software, and various third-party solutions. However, the quality of freely available solutions is frequently so low that it’s in fact not possible to use them for any serious trading.

The main problem with trading in the FX markets is their strong fragmentation. Historically, FX was an interbank market with no dedicated center. So, trading venues offer not only different trading platforms but also different market data, different types of orders, and different access to liquidity. This fragmentation may be quite confusing, so it’s essential to obtain a sufficient level of understanding in order to avoid making mistakes, which at times can be quite painful.

In this chapter, we will look at this market from a developer’s standpoint to discover...