Exclusive: Currensee's CEO, Dave Lemont Is Leaving OANDA

Dave Lemont is leaving his position at Currensee after serving as CEO since 2009. The executive revamp at OANDA goes on now that Currensee’s social Trading Platform Trading Platform In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real-time updates on quotes, charts and is the main frontend which customers are facing.Brokers either use existing trading platforms and sometimes customize them, or develop their own platform from scratch. Since the beginning of the retail FX trading business MetaQuotes and its platforms MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) have been the industry standard, especially when it comes to automated trading.MT4 Shows Resiliency While MT4 has long been seen as ubiquitous amongst brokers’ offerings, a targeted push by MetaQuotes themselves has led to broader adoption of MT5 in recent years. Advanced trading platforms such as MT4 or MT5 also allow access to a wide range of asset classes available for trading.The development of trading platforms over the past decade has failed to successfully dethrone MT4 or MT5, notably in the retail market. However, in institutional markets, brokerage companies and banking entities also construct and utilize proprietary currency trading platforms to help satisfy internal needs with trades executed through institutional trading channels.By far the most important parameter for many retail clients is the optionality and pairs available on trading platforms. Additionally, demand by traders has led to a greater emphasis on newer features such as advanced charting and other tools. In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real-time updates on quotes, charts and is the main frontend which customers are facing.Brokers either use existing trading platforms and sometimes customize them, or develop their own platform from scratch. Since the beginning of the retail FX trading business MetaQuotes and its platforms MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) have been the industry standard, especially when it comes to automated trading.MT4 Shows Resiliency While MT4 has long been seen as ubiquitous amongst brokers’ offerings, a targeted push by MetaQuotes themselves has led to broader adoption of MT5 in recent years. Advanced trading platforms such as MT4 or MT5 also allow access to a wide range of asset classes available for trading.The development of trading platforms over the past decade has failed to successfully dethrone MT4 or MT5, notably in the retail market. However, in institutional markets, brokerage companies and banking entities also construct and utilize proprietary currency trading platforms to help satisfy internal needs with trades executed through institutional trading channels.By far the most important parameter for many retail clients is the optionality and pairs available on trading platforms. Additionally, demand by traders has led to a greater emphasis on newer features such as advanced charting and other tools. Read this Term is fully integrated into the full spectrum of the Canadian brokerage’s platform offerings. Mr. Lemont has been running a number of successful startups since the beginning of the dot-com era and his expertise was a major factor behind Currensee's success.

During the course of the day sources close to Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term Magnates' correspondents reported that Currensee’s CEO, Dave Lemont might be leaving the company for good. After reaching out to OANDA we received a statement from the firm that confirmed the executive departure and provided some details for the announcement.

The company stated, “With the successful integration of OANDA's world-class fxTrade platform and Currensee’s proprietary copy-trading platform, Dave Lemont has decided to leave OANDA. He will continue with the company as a consultant reporting directly to Vatsa Narasimha, the broker's Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer.”

Vatsa Narasimha has commented in the company's statement, "OANDA acquired Currensee in September 2013 and harnessing the strength of the two engineering powerhouses, the OANDA Trade Leaders Program was released for MT4 clients just eight weeks later. The full integration with our fxTrade platform in March positions OANDA as a leader in the copy-trading space. Dave was instrumental through the integration process and will continue on as a valued contributor, as OANDA evolves our expertise in this space. Copy trading is a key part of our service offering, and alongside it we will continue to innovate and provide our clients with best-in-class products and tools for the retail forex industry."

Ongoing Management Reshuffling

It is apparent that OANDA’s management reshuffling is still ongoing, or maybe this move is the conclusion of this transitional period in the firm’s history. A possible takeaway from this latest move is that OANDA’s management is seeking to shift to a more centralised organisational structure. We can only speculate whether such a bet would pay off, however with a mature business model such as OANDA’s, one could argue that any further centralisation might lead to excessive bulkiness of operations - something that costs dearly in the forex industry if history is any guide.

The business characteristics of the forex industry require substantial flexibility and a certain amount of wide spectrum vision to maintain competitiveness. There are three key variables that can always affect the profitability in forex - technology, regulation and the markets themselves (after all clients need to be attracted to a market that provides opportunities).

While OANDA used to excel in the first field and has indeed created a business from scratch starting back in the 90’s, a constant evolution of the forex business landscape and the ever-increasing number of competitors have been gradually catching up on the firm’s performance. The regulatory strike has hit pretty much all FX related North American businesses heavily in the past couple of years, catching the company unprepared. With the third factor being the markets, which are definitely beyond the firm’s capabilities to control, current management does not have much room for mistakes.

An Undoubtedly Successful Executive

A successful executive has left the management structure at OANDA, and despite the claim that Dave Lemont will stay close as a consultant, it might just not be the same without him being at the helm of his own Currensee division.

Throughout the past 15 years Mr. Lemont has served as CEO at several startups, including Revit technology that was acquired for $140 million in 2002 and AppIQ which was an even bigger success. In the three years with Mr. Lemont at the helm of the company it grew from a $30 million venture to an acquisition target for none other but Hewlett Packard - a deal that was concluded in 2005 for a total of $280 million.