Game Changers issue 11

ISSUE #11

120 Advertising: Behind the Scenes

Boss of Bitcoin George Agathangelou

That’s not me!

Paul Orford

The Social Media Guide to Launching an ICO Charlotte Day

Why don’t people do everything themselves?

Andrew Saks-McCleod

Morgan’s Momentum Morgan Sampson

A Different Approach – Against the Current Harry Michaelides

CAN A CRM SYSTEM REALLY BE THIS FLEXIBLE Interview with Anthony Nathanael, CEO of Qobo, the company behind Qobrix

GAME CHANGERS

DIRECTORY

In this month’s Spring edition, we have sourced some great new personalities from not only FX, but also from a wide range of related industries.

With Game Changers always looking to broaden the spectrum of personalities in our publication, keep reading for more about the modern greats and future champions!

GAME CHANGERS Issue #11

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Note from the editor

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Anthony Nathanael

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120 Advertising

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George Agathangelou

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Paul Orford

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Contentworks

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Andrew Saks-McCleod

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Morgan Sampson

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Argus FX

View from the top 03

Can a CRM System really be this flexible 04-07

Behind the scenes 08-10

Boss of Bitcoin 11-13

That’s not me! 14-15

The social media guide to launching an ICO 16-19

Why don’t people do everything themselves 20-23

Morgan’s momentum 24-27

A different approach – against the current 28-31

VIEW FROM THE TOP

Just like with the many changes that occur in springtime, our publication is no different.

You may be aware that we have been away for a short while, as we are looking to change the direction in which we are going. Over the next couple of months you will see our plan of action come together.

As something that started out as an experiment, I felt that there has always been a huge gap in the market for interesting and relevant content.

Hopefully this helps to move things on from the standard PR bombs which litter the average news site.

Our original goal of hopefully moving the agenda away from being strong armed into buying an overpriced banner on a site, or being sold on the empty promises of the ROI of an expo booth, we know we now have a more effective way to get your voice heard in an overcrowded market.

I am pleased to say that we are consistently hitting just under 60,000 readers a month. Not only are we incredibly happy with the sheer volume of readers, the feedback from our data has shown me it is hitting the right area for a B2B publication.

Over the next 6 months we will be looking to increase the innovation, on what we see as a project that is not just based upon a magazine. With the input on the future steps of Game Changers being designed by those of us who have a hands-on sales background in FX, we have a solid understanding of how to get your message across.

BECOME A GAMECHANGER. Let the world hear your story.

We are already receiving content for the May edition which will be released just before the Cyprus Fx Expo.

If you want to feature your company’s apex decision maker or personality, get in contact with me.

In this month’s issue we have an eclectic mix of new entrants which have a remarkable story to tell, so sit back, relax and enjoy!

Paul ORFORD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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ABOUT

Qobo Ltd is a Software House that specialises in business process management and bespoke software development that caters exactly to a client’s needs.

Our product portfolio includes Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions and Innovative Intranet & Portal Solutions.

We are the proud developers of the award-winning Qobrix platform for the development of business applications and have offices located in London, Nicosia and Limassol.

QobrixFX is an intuitive CRM built to handle the complexities of the industry.

Using our extensive technical experience within Forex, we have built a CRM that simplifies your work and acts as a focus point for your organisation.

Whether used for monitoring new leads, viewing deposits and withdrawals, automatically logging calls and email communication, or providing daily and historical transactions, Qobrix will effortlessly deliver on your requirements.

Qobrix captures all business processes desired by brokers and IBs, and eliminates complex and ineffective features that have been built into off-the-shelf CRM systems which are never used.

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Can a CRM System really be this flexible ANTHONY NATHANAEL CEO of Qobo, the company behind Qobrix

Q Can you provide a little background on yourself?

I was intrigued by your academic background which seems to be in contrast to your professional career.

How did you decide on studying Aeronautical Engineering?

The sole reason I decided to study aeronautical engineering was that it was considered to be one of the most challenging degrees at the time. I was more inclined towards structure, logic and reasoning so you could definitely say I was more left-brain oriented in school. However, by the end of my Aeronautics degree, I started feeling a strong affiliation towards business and wanted to slightly change focus.

I decided to pursue a Master’s in Industrial Engineering as it was a lot closer to the world of industry and commerce and I thoroughly enjoyed the different subjects. My first job was as an Industrial Engineer in the US and I then decided to join the world of IT a few years later as it was such a gamechanger.

Engineering in general though has served me well as a discipline. It helps you map out problems and provides you with a very logical path to solving business challenges.

Q You spent a large amount of your professional career at NCR. What lessons did you learn in the 12 years you spent there?

Many people who have spent a number of years at NCR consider it to be synonymous with a university for business. With NCR, I had the opportunity to travel to over 50 countries, from Canada to Japan and including countries such as Ghana, Libya, Morocco, and other amazing places. There is no greater education than travelling, and NCR offered a great opportunity to work with people from multiple cultures.

However, the greatest lessons that I took away from NCR was the disciplines required to sell effectively and run a business unit. Preparing accountable forecasts, putting together complex responses to tenders, planning for succession for key roles within teams, and constantly running hands-on training programs were some of the many things that were drilled into leaders at NCR. As NCR was strictly performance-based, great results meant you were promoted into new roles constantly. My baptism of fire was being suddenly thrust into a VP role for EMEA at the age of 32. The first six months in that role were almost as hectic as starting up Qobo (actually, nothing compares to the work you need to put into a start-up), but with the help of an amazing team, we tripled the revenue within 3 years and substantially increased operating income.

Q When you started QOBO over 5 years ago, what was the transition like going from an employee to an employer, and what were the main challenges you faced?

The transition was immense. From having a focused role as an employee, you move into a working mode which involves wearing a hundred hats. You enter many new territories of business from setting up Boards, talking to investors, and dealing with financing, to basic tasks such as ensuring the cleaners show up and that there’s coffee available for your staff. The amount of decisions you take on a daily basis exponentially increases.

Apart from the normal challenges of any startup, we had a herculean challenge come our way almost from day one.

Qobo was founded one month before the Cyprus haircut occurred in Cyprus where a €10 billion international bailout was announced, in return for Cyprus agreeing to close Laiki Bank and imposing a one-time bank deposit levy or haircut.

For us, this meant that 70% of Qobo’s initial funds were lost overnight as they were deposited in Laiki Bank and the Bank of Cyprus. It was a huge blow. This also meant that 2013 and 2014 were extremely challenging years for any business Cyprus and we had to adjust our business model to start taking in bread-and-butter type sales that would keep the company afloat.

We’re now an established and thriving business with a past that involves tough-lessons learnt and that required immense perseverance to get to where we are today.

Q Whenever I speak to entrepreneurs, they always begin their enterprise by seeing a gap in the market.

What was the gap you identified, and what is the USP of your Qobrix platform?

When companies purchase off-the-shelf software, they typically use 20% to 30% of the feature-set of these systems as they are built to cater for multiple industries and for many enterprise features. The result is therefore that you either expend major efforts customizing these off-the-shelf systems to accommodate your processes, or even worse, end up working for the system rather than the system working for you.

With Qobrix, we wanted to take a completely different approach. We have architected our system so that we can build our product around your processes. But with the ability to do this in rapid time, days instead of weeks, so that you can have a fully-functioning system in no time that fully works for you. The system does what you want without excess code and excess customisation.

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We also make sure your product is integrated with all your other platforms so that you have all pertinent data at your fingertips.

We are actually taking things a step further, and continuously adding to our Qobrix CRM System so that you now have a fully integrated Qobrix Member’s Area/Client Portal that can be seamlessly added on. We also provide features that expand what you can with Qobrix including calendaring, content management, partner management and document handling so that you have a turn-key, customerfacing system that also provides strong back-office capability.

In addition to this, we are getting into some very exciting marketing automation areas where we are working with a pioneering video collaboration company so that you can now generate personalized marketing videos from our Qobrix CRM System at the click of a few buttons.

Q Is there a core industry you focus on for your client base, or can you be diverse in your offering?

We focus on two main industries, Forex Trading and Real Estate. These two industries are at the opposite end of the spectrum in every way, but we have intricate knowledge of the painpoints in both industries. I worked for a number of years in real-estate, and Leonid Mamchenkov, our CTO, has led development teams in some of the biggest Forex companies in the world including FxPro and easyMarkets. He has delivered software solutions that have covered almost every facet of web development in Forex. Our senior developers likewise mostly come from the world of Forex and bring a wealth of experience to the table.

In Real Estate, we offer pioneering solutions and have actually received grants from the European Union for Research and Development to further develop these solutions. In this space, we provide systems that exponentially increase exposure to customers while allowing a real-estate company to manage their sales process, property management and after-sales processes within Qobrix as well.

GAME CHANGERS Issue #11

Having said all this, we have built Qobrix to offer the highest level of flexibility that a CRM application can provide. The platform is therefore suited for all industries and we already have clients in the field of medicine, engineering, IT, retail and more. Our aim is to release Qobrix as a SaaS for the global markets in 2019 and we already have ongoing betatesting of our SaaS product in place.

OUR AIM IS TO RELEASE QOBRIX AS A SAAS PRODUCT IN 2019 Q What tips would you give to budding entrepreneurs from taking that step from a full-time job to owning their own company?

Firstly, read as much as you can beforehand. If you only read one book on the subject, make sure it is the Founder’s Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman. The advice put forward on how to pitch to investors, how to select your partners, how to setup your company structure, and how to attract key people to join your team is second to none.

Secondly, speak to a selection of business owners and ask them directly what lessons they learnt when starting their businesses. You’ll be surprised at the war stories that come out, and how willingly these owners will share them with you. Discuss your idea for

your startup with them and get their feedback about your USP. Their advice will be invaluable.

Thirdly, take your most conservative business case scenario in terms of sales revenue, divide that by 3, and use that number to make sure you have enough cash beforehand to get you by for the first 18 months. You’ll need it.

Finally, make sure you find a mechanism for freeing the clutter and noise in your daily routine for those first few critical years. You need to focus on making your product great and achieving sales. Everything else is a distance third place in terms of taking up your time as a founder.

Your mindset has to be one that combines perseverance and creativity.

Perseverance to handle the multiple challenges that will come your way on a daily basis. Creativity in finding solutions to these challenges. It’s a different sort of creativity, one that can foresee a challenge and create alternative paths to overcome these challenges and move forward.

Q What are the plans for Qobrix going forward?

We have one major goal for Qobrix and that is to make it as easy as possible for any company to be able to adjust our system so that the software works for them exactly as they want it. Our endgame is to allow non-technical people to be able to build a software system that works for them without having to touch one line of code.

Software flexibility and user-friendliness are an antithesis in themselves. We want to seamlessly bring them together.

The difficulty in doing this is immense but we have already bridged some of the main challenges in this space. Imagine a product which you can mould and adjust by pointing, clicking and dragging so that it just works exactly the way you want.

We have an amazing team and our people are passionate, ambitious with an innate ability to learn while delivering solutions to real-world problems daily. We aim to grow Qobo with the culture and beliefs that our current core team has.

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The elite team Loukas Stylianou. Director of operations 120 Laoura Salveta. Director of marketing 120.

Carolin Tabet. Product marketing manager. 120

120

BEHIND THE SCENES

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n a world of bland corporate messaging, creative marketing is more important than ever.

Implementing on and offline creative strategies effectively is the key to success, but what are marketing professionals doing to help businesses stand out from the crowd? We went behind the scenes at 120 ADVERTISING to find out.

Delving into the minds of three creative individuals, here’s what Loukas (Director of Operations), Laoura (Director of Marketing) and Caroline (Product Marketing Manager) had to say: Q What does 120 stand for?

Loukas: “When thinking up a company name, we wanted something unique and relevant. As 120 ADVERTISING was born in the heart of Limassol’s business district at No.120 Gladstonos Street, we thought it would be appropriate to use this number.”

Laoura: “Along with the fact that in numerology 120 means creative expression and social energy associated with imagination, effective communication, tolerance, optimism and dynamism.

So for us the name made perfect sense.

Our name tells a story which perfectly represents us.”

Q What’s so unique about 120?

Loukas: “Teamwork.”

Laoura: “Absolutely. At 120, it’s not ‘us’ and ‘them’. We enjoy working with our clients as one big team. When marketing departments infuse and professionals work together creatively, the results

GAME CHANGERS Issue #11

ADVERTISING

can be really great. A communication breakdown can be detrimental to a project, so we do everything we can to ensure we’re all on the same page.”

Caroline: “Essentially we need to live and feel the brand in order to do the very best job possible. By integrating our marketing teams, we can learn from each other and ensure we understand exactly what the client needs.

Also, things change rapidly within the marketing industry and we need to be responsive to this, by uniting with our clients and industry professionals we can discuss things instantly without having to wait around, therefore responding faster to changes.”

Q Where are you guys now and where do you want to be?

Loukas: “Hmmm, world domination?”

Caroline: “Ha ha, reach for the stars Loukas.”

Loukas: “We set up the business in 2014, so that’s like three years ago already.”

Caroline: “Time flies when you’re having fun!”

Loukas: “For sure. We have positioned ourselves as marketing experts and have collaborated with many well-

known clients globally – particularly within the trading industry. Our team has already expanded and we look forward to growing even more over the coming months and years. The most important thing for us is to be relevant.

Things move fast and therefore we need to be at the forefront of MarTech.

If a new social network becomes popular, for instance, we need to know how it will affect online marketing and if it’s worth pursuing.”

Caroline: “I agree. When it comes to marketing, there’s literally no time to put your feet up and relax – but that’s what makes the industry so exciting. So long as we stay on the ball, we’ll be able to deliver the very best for our clients.”

Q Tell us about your team Laoura: “Well, we’re all very different and our diversity is the key to our creativity, hence why we use the tag line ‘INFUSED MARKETING MINDS.’ We believe our team and their experiences are what really identify 120 as a company. We have carefully selected people that naturally live by our brand values: expressive; energetic; experimental and devoted. ”

Caroline: “Yep! Everyone is definitely different with special marketing superpowers!”

Laoura: “Loukas is especially special!”

Loukas: “Hahaha thanks guys! We are a team of marketing professionals with extensive experience. We love what we do and approach all projects with charisma and energy. Our lovely Laoura is a latte lover who explores the expo halls like a rare red squirrel whilst Caroline is our chief communicator who believes smiley faces are the way forward. We are friends as well as colleagues and I think that’s also what makes our business so productive.”

Q Who are your brand idols and why?

Loukas: “I am an Apple guy all the way and so I’m inspired by the work of Steve Jobs and the innovations created by the Apple brand. I also admire Richard Branson of Virgin, mainly because he failed over and over again but never gave up and his determination brought him to where he is now.

Of course, I also have to mention Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Larry Page and Sergey Prin of Google. Or Tim Berners Lee for changing the world forever by inventing the world wide web :) “ Caroline: “From a marketing perspective, Zuckerberg is a real inspiration.

The way that Facebook has cornered the market by keeping the network free for end users but creating advertising revenue is very smart.”

Loukas: “Totally agree on that.”

Q What’s the difference between in-house marketing and agency side marketing?

Laoura: “Marketing professionals are often faced with a decision – to work for an agency or to be part of an in-house marketing team. When you work in-house, your main focus is to promote and maximise one brand’s performance with regards to monetary aspects and awareness. On the other hand, agency-side marketing gives you the opportunity to work on many exciting projects and different brands, which fuels further creativity. You can collaborate with individual professionals as well as in-house marketing teams to deliver the best results.”

Caroline: “Indeed, agency side marketing is interesting and varied allowing you to focus on projects for many different businesses. As discussed previously, we believe working together leads to bigger and better things, which is why we always integrate our marketing team with our client’s marketing team.”

Q Where do your ideas come from?

Caroline: “Who doesn’t love a good brainstorming session? We’re always putting our heads together as we find this is one of the best ways to generate new ideas. It’s really funny how random words and thought processes can spark an entire new campaign.”

Loukas: “Oh yes, brainstorming is our thing. Sometimes, clients have very

specific guidelines which we have to follow. Other times, however, we are allowed to be as creative as we like.

Throughout the entire marketing process, we always feedback our thoughts and choose the best ideas.”

Q Why do you come to work every day?

Laoura: “I have to otherwise Loukas gets mad. No seriously, I LOVE MARKETING! It’s as simple as that. I have an eye for design, creative content and I am a very particular person, so I love putting all elements of a marketing campaign or strategy together.

I believe looking at the bigger picture when considering your marketing approach is the key to success.”

Caroline: “I love marketing too, but I would also miss your happy faces if I didn’t come to work.”

Loukas: “Caroline, I am so glad you said that because the team is what makes work so much fun. The office is filled with laughter, so no matter what is going on we can always laugh it off.

Also, marketing is my passion. I love developing brands and coming up with original ways to spread brand awareness and measurable results.

120 ADVERTISING is a Cyprus-based company with a passion for innovative marketing and over ten years of industry experience. The team is truly made up of ‘infused marketing mind’ and forward-thinking professionals offering integrated marketing service with boutique devotion.”

OUR TEAM

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GAME CHANGERS Issue #11

Boss of Bitcoin GEORGE AGATHANGELOU Chairman of Bitcoin Club of Limassol

Q Is it good that this is a 24/7 market? Should brokerages reflect this also?

I think it’s a double-edge sword because on one hand, being a 24/7/365 market provides additional trading opportunities in times where traditional asset classes are not available, while on the other hand greedy traders might not know when to stop since trading never ceases. On the other hand I think that the pros outweigh the cons. Many times have we witnessed markets opening with huge gaps due to external events and at these times investors see their investments dropping in value while being unable to do anything about it. Brokerages should definitely reflect and provide access to their clients to trade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even on holidays, as this provides additional liquidity in the market and as a consequence more trading opportunities.

Q Are events like this no more than an echo chamber? Will I be run out of here by people with burning spears claiming I am fake news if I put an opposing view?

Cryptocurrencies have been in existence since the genesis of bitcoin back in January 2009. After a few years passed and in general, hiding under the radar, the cryptocurrency space

skyrocketed in 2017 based on the blockchain hype and fear of missing out in the next era of Internet 3.0 through Initial Coin Offerings. You will be definitely be criticized by the majority of people, as it always happens when changes take place. As humans, we are always reluctant when it comes to change, or stretching out of our comfort zone or thinking out of the box.

We have been trained to discharge anything that declines from our traditional way of thinking. The problem lies on one hand on the lack of understanding and education around blockchain technologies, and on the other hand in the destructive nature of the major media outlets that are funded by major banking corporations. If you stop and think about it for a second, the more they have to lose from the introduction of decentralized cryptocurrencies, the more they are accusing bitcoin to be a scam, a ponzi scheme and a complete fraud and claiming that it is dead. Imagine there is even a website with all the bitcoin obituaries up to date. The same banking corporations might be secretly loading up bags of crypto after they crash the market. The real challenge is to educate the average Joe about this new technology and encourage them

to take baby steps and slowly start using it safely, on a daily basis. It was the same with the introduction of plastic money like credit cards in the beginning. People will always fear what they do not know anything about. So as people become more educated on the subject, they will realize the potential it holds, how it works and will no longer see cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies as a threat or a scam, but rather as an opportunity for a better future.

Q The crypto sphere almost seems cult-like. Is this healthy for this market?

The cult-like aspect is what held the blockchains system to survive in the early years, and it is this that brought it to this tremendous scale. In the cryptosphere most information used to lie on the internet, in opensource codes and developer forums. From now on, as the market is rapidly growing and more individuals are becoming a part of it, we will see more balance, with universities, colleges and even schools teaching the material that we believe will reshape the near future.

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People will always fear what they do not know anything about. So as people become more educated on the subject, they will realize the potential it holds, how it works and will no longer see cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies as a threat or a scam, but rather as an opportunity for a better future.

Q What is the objective of your organisation?

The objective of Bitcoin Club Limassol is to, first of all, bring the blockchain community of Cyprus together. We offer great networking opportunities for all attendees, on a monthly basis, to share their thoughts and ideas, with the chance to speak to the speakers and create business opportunities for all involved. Additionally, we educate our audience on new developments and opportunities in this ecosystem, while assisting blockchain startups to enter the space in a range of different industries. Lastly and most importantly, we are trying to nurture the right conditions for Cyprus to become a global blockchain hub and help

GAME CHANGERS Issue #11

with this transition to a new era of the money of internet. We truly believe that things can improve tremendously in many aspects of our society with the use of these technologies.

Q I believe in the future of blockchain technology. Does it annoy you when people confuse this with let’s say bitcoin? Should there be more education on the differences?

Indeed most people confuse it with bitcoin and no, it does not annoy us.

These questions come naturally for the unaware. Hence the inception of Bitcoin Club Limassol, was to bring clarity on the topic of blockchain. In context, Bitcoin is the first applica-

tion of Blockchain technology, just as email was the first application to the internet. Bitcoin is indeed the king of the crypto world as the first cryptocurrency and it is quite normal for most people to get confused with all this new terminology. Education, training and staying up-to-date with the news in the sphere always helps and this applies I believe for all of us.

Q Crypto currencies. Do you view them as a use for capital transfer, or a way to make a quick buck?

It is not a quick buck anymore. As the hype subsides, while the market corrects itself and more controls are put in place for AML and KYC procedures, it seems that the market has a long

way to go until it reaches all time highs again. Betting on a quick buck aside, cryptocurrencies are a medium to transfer value without any intermediaries, but not only in the sense of normal transaction. Cryptocurrencies enable micro-transactions, and this innovation may transform markets in the means of not only making capital transfer borderless, fast and secure, micro-transactions will also enable us to create new kinds of digital products and services.

Q Is it possible to trade it as a derivative successfully? In my opinion it is being moved just on mania. Can technicals play any part in this?

Cryptocurrencies is not an entirely different animal to tackle when trading, compared to traditional asset classes. It seems that because of the small size of the market, movements are exaggerated and parabolic at times. It is by far the most volatile market in the world, while still pump and dump schemes, insider trading, market manipulation

and high fees exist.

To trade cryptocurrencies profitably as a derivative one should ideally combine technical analysis, fundamental analysis, sentiment analysis and all these together with proper risk management, especially if trading with leverage. If you want to go short, derivatives can play an important role, while for investing and holding would not make sense since you will be incurring rollover fees for carrying the position. Another important factor to look at, are the trading hours of the broker. Most derivative brokers do not offer trading during the weekend and the trading strategies should be adjusted accordingly.

while new partnership announcements with existing and quite successful businesses are made almost every day.

Furthermore, there are going to be decentralized autonomous organizations that are going to regulate themselves, while on the other hand, entire nations are embracing the technology and preparing the legal framework around it.

Things are looking quite positive in the near term. As far as rationality is concerned, I think that 2017 was only the beginning. Something so revolutionary in its pure form, such as cryptocurrencies, will take some time to mature, as we mature together with it and hurdle the obstacles ahead.

Q I feel that once the next generation coins come online there will be some form of rationality to this market. What’s your thoughts on the near term?

It depends if these next generation tokens are going to be sufficient to their claims and deliver the products and services that they are promising. There is a plethora of interesting projects with long roadmaps under development,

Q How can people contact you to join your organization?

In order to get in touch you can find us on Bitcoin Club Limassol Facebook group, to get the latest news & announcements of our monthly blockchain meet-ups. The best way to contact us is to actually attend our monthly meet-ups and be a part of this vibrant community.

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I think that the real thing that crushed me was not that my reputation was being trashed by being associated with this, it was that the picture they used!

PAUL ORFORD

That’s not me!

PAUL ORFORD Editor of Game Changers

Article originally published in FinanceFeeds on the 20th of March 2018

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have always been one of those people who thought identity theft happens to someone else. Usually it’s the rich, beautiful and famous who have their face usurped and added to a fugazi outfit promoting real estate opportunities in Florida’s finest swamp land.

I remember a while back I saw a brokerage site, and unbeknownst to the designer, what they believed to be the generic image of smiling white middle-aged man, was actually the image of the former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. With his name changed and giving a glowing reference for the brand as a happy and satisfied customer, along with why you should take advantage of their services with this life changing opportunity. I did not know what made me chuckle more, the designers lack of oversight or my random knowledge

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of Antipodean politics!

A couple of weeks back, when checking my Skype over breakfast and I had a message from a friend saying he did not know I was involved in an ICO. I am not the greatest morning person, so when processing the information, I was a touch confused.

He then went on to show me the site, my image, name and former role being used as an advisor to this scheme. Just to get it out there, I am not involved in this project of which I have no idea if it is straight or not.

However, trawling the website and the lack of response to my lawyer, I guess that it might not be the smartest thing to place your hard earned money into.

I think that the real thing that crushed me was not that my reputation was being trashed by being associated with this (I can do a great job of doing that myself!) it was that the picture they used. I can only describe the image as someone who had claimed diplomatic immunity at the all-day buffet!

This intrepid band of photo shoppers had morphed my body into the size of a large detached house, to which I could only laugh at when I saw it (inside I was crying). Moreover, after spending the past 6 months working off a large amount of stomach fudge, my ego was crushed. I am not sure if I can sue on the grounds of having my ego destroyed by unscrupulous Photoshop methods, but I will certainly take a legal opinion on it!

It got me thinking about how can we stay on top of all this.

If an early middle-aged pink faced English man can become the poster boy for an ICO, how can those of us who are more blessed professionally, reputationally and physically be sure that we are not the (un)official figure head of the next online scam.

In matters like this, I thought it was best to discuss with Charlotte Day, Creative Director at leading ICO content marketing agency Contentworks. I was intrigued about how can we protect our reputation and image from being used without permission.

“Online identity theft is a big issue and a real threat right now.

A high profile example would be that of Hollywood actor Ryan Gosling, whose face and name were used in the fake Miroskii ICO https://www.ccn.com/ico-exit-scams-listing-ryan-goslinggraphic-designer/. Whilst seemingly amusing, many investors fell for the scam. If you’re a name in the industry then you need to protect your credibility and reputation. You should run regular Google searches on your name and company.

Sign up for Google alerts or meltwater if you’re subscribed.

Run hashtag searches for your name and pay attention to any unusual account activity. Should you encounter a scam using your identity, you should contact the company immediately to remove it. If they refuse to do so, then it is a matter which can be escalated through legal channels, something a scam ICO will not want.”

So based upon this tale of wrongful photoshopped gluttony and identity fraud, always get someone to do an audit on your online presence. It does not take that long to do, as unbeknownst to yourself you may be the unofficial spokesperson from everything from baked beans to a scam ICO.

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CONTENT WORKS Q Social media channels – the latest financial services regulator?

While there are no unanimous crypto guidelines monitoring global crypto activity, advertising giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are clamping down on financial services promoting unfair or misleading products that may be harmful to the consumer.

Charlotte is a British content marketing thought leader specialising in social media marketing and content engagement within the finance sector.

Responsible for a number of high profile brands and with 1000+ articles published, her success lies within her humour and hands on experience of the digital marketing world.

The Social Media Guide to Launching an ICO CHARLOTTE DAY Creative Director at www.contentworks.agency

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he finance sector is governed by a host of rules and regulations such as MiFIDII which are ultimately designed to eliminate scams and make the industry a safer and more transparent environment. That said; ICOs and cryptocurrencies have been somewhat overlooked by regulatory bodies across the world who are now grappling to prevent fake accounts, scam crypto exchanges and other malpractices from threatening legitimate tokens and business ideas.

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There has been a lot of news circulating about this and rightly so as it seems social media channels are becoming the latest financial services regulator. The recent policy updates have made crypto marketing a minefield and while the reasons behind the ad bans are clear, knowing what you can and can’t do to launch an ICO can be particularly tricky – but it’s not all doom and gloom. Indeed, the regulation changes are designed to keep you, your clients and your business safe – it’s just a case of navigating your way through all that red tape (in a lawful and professional way, of course).

With this in mind, here’s how to successfully launch your ICO online with the help of a networkby-network breakdown and some handy content marketing advice.

Facebook: An ‘Intentionally Broad’ Policy Social media giant Facebook were the first to announce their new policy prohibiting ads that ‘promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.’

This means that even if your ICO is legal and legitimate you will not be able to promote it on this platform. The rules apply not only to Facebook’s core ads platform, but also in other places where Facebook sells ads such as Instagram and its ad network.

Facebook Product Management Director, Rob Leathern, said: “This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO: When it comes to navigating Facebook blogs there are still things you can do, such as:

WHAT YOU CAN’T DO Say what you want Throwing a load of rules our way is one thing but thankfully Facebook has also provided some true to life examples of things you shouldn’t be saying: • •

• •

“Start binary trading now and receive a 10-risk free trades bonus!”

“Click here to learn more about our no-risk cryptocurrency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world.”

“New ICO! Buy tokens at a 15% discount NOW!” “Use your retirement funds to buy Bitcoin!”

Ignore the rules If you ignore the rules, there’s a high chance your Facebook account/s will get blocked – and getting them unblocked is a timely and frustrating process, so don’t take the risk.

Producing great content Over half a billion people watch video content on Facebook every single day, so it’s well worth investing in shareable video content with a well-written script. Facebook Live is also a good idea and as great content can include graphs, pictures and infographics it’s important to rise above the restrictions and put your creative marketing hat on.

Whatever you decide – be compliant. The idea is to draw attention to your business without being too specific about your ICO launch or using buzzwords that could get you in trouble.

Also, remember that Facebook is a social site – so generate content that’s easy to pass around friends and family.

Embracing the art of storytelling Marketing financial services doesn’t have to be dull or boring. By embracing the art of storytelling you can humanise your brand and create an emotional experience that resonates with your consumers. So, instead of shouting about your new crypto token, how about creating a video of how your company was formed or live streaming a video from the office – anything that will promote your business without focussing attention on ICO terms?

Keeping an eye on developments Facebook has specifically said they “will revisit” their revised policy as they work out exactly how to handle crypto/ICO ads on their platform and eliminate fraud.

LESSONS

EXCELLENT Takeaway: Content is king.

There’s plenty you can do to stand out from the crowd without specifically talking about ‘banned’ products or using crypto-related keywords that will be picked up.

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• Focus on press releases With a well written press release you can generate buzz around your ICO launch and increase engagement – just be sure to address your target audience.

Top tip: Think about your outreach and focus on distribution channels that will get more eyes on your PR material.

So how else can content rescue your ICO launch efforts? Let’s delve deeper into the policies of other social platforms and look at content marketing solutions.

Google Shortly after Google announced that it had removed 3.2 billion ‘bad ads’ in 2017, the search engine giant issued an update to its advertising policy page banning crypto and ICO ads. In a similar move to Facebook, Google also made it clear that come June, all related content such as crypto exchanges, crypto wallets and crypto trading advice will be prohibited from its ad platforms alongside binary options and synonymous products.

Google Ad Executive Scott Spencer said in an interview with CNBC: “We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies … but we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution.”

YouTube YouTube is owned by Alphabet Inc (AKA Google).

It therefore makes sense that recently policy updates will affect YouTube ads as well as those placed on third-party sites via the company’s ad platforms. That said; ICO-related video content has not been banned on YouTube – yet. So, this popular social media channel can still be used as a marketing forum.

Twitter Since Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey replied: “We are on it” to a tweet complaining about crypto/ICOrelated scams it’s been assumed that Twitter will follow suit and make similar policy changes to Facebook and Google. The site is now reportedly preparing to revamp its regulations placing a ban on crypto and ICO ads as well as references to token sales, crypto wallets and crypto exchanges.

At the time of writing there had been no official confirmation of the policy change but there’s likely to be in due course.

CONTENT MARKETING – MORE TOP TIPS

When launching an ICO, obeying the rules is an absolute must and while not being compliant is a big no-no; high-quality content can save the day once again.

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•

Produce blogs with well-placed keywords

Blogging is a tried and tested marketing technique. It’s a great way to talk about the USPs of your ICO, increase brand awareness and drive traffic back to your webpage. Be sure to make use of well-sourced keywords as this will improve your search rankings for specific topics.

Top tip: Always write for your audience and don’t cram in keywords for the sake of it. Your content should be SEO friendly without sounding clunky or awkward.

• Embrace LinkedIn thought leadership If you’re looking to spread the word about your ICO project, LinkedIn is ideal for placing professionally-written content that people will want to read. While the content you produce doesn’t necessarily have to be directly about your ICO it should contain a link back to your ICO page.

Top tip: Be an industry thought leader; someone people go to for useful information and advice. The more followers who look out for your work on LinkedIn, the more eyes you’ll get on your ICO launch.

•

Create a pitch deck and white paper

Both are essential for an ICO launch and both require high-quality content – after all, a pitch deck and white paper are marketing tools that introduce your business concept in a bid to attract investors. They’re extremely important and should be completely on brand.

Top tip: Slow down and ensure you’ve included all essential information. Use relevant facts and statistics where necessary.

•

Think about clever Google ad placement

As discussed, Google will ban crypto ads, so it’s important to get a little clever and come up with different marketing angles. Instead of talking about your ICO directly, perhaps create content around the evolution of the blockchain or other topics that haven’t been blacklisted.

Top tip: Keep up-to-date with all the latest crypto/ICO news.

The last thing you want to do is violate rules and regulations without knowing.

Launching an ICO online with the help of social media is not as straightforward as it used to be but with exceptional content and innovative marketing ideas, you can get around many of the ICO ad bans and generate a buzz around your business concept.

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ANDREW SAKS-McCLEOD Editor of FinanceFeeds

Why don’t people do everything themselves?

FINANCEFEEDS

the account – ie collateral) and a minimum daily balance of $15,000 or more.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery! Or is it?

Research that FinanceFeeds conducted with regard to opening a client deposit account for FX brokerages demonstrated not only the variation between large, Tier 1 banks and their criteria, but also the commercial attitude toward retail FX brokerages.

NatWest, part of the RBS group, as well as RBS’ corporate division itself, stipulate no minimum deposit and no required minimum daily balance for client money holding accounts, however when I enquired as to whether this service was available for small retail FX brokerages, the answer was a resounding no.

Law firms and insurance agents, yes, but FX companies serving retail clients, no.

Chase Private Client, the client money holding account offered by Chase, will accept certain FX brokerages according to very stringent conditions but expects a $250,000 average ledger balance to be maintained at all times (made up of either cash or qualifying deposits and investments linked with

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Bearing in mind that this is a separate matter from operating capital requirements and operating costs, and a separate matter from regulatory capital requirements, it is clear that banks have a strict risk management profile.

How brokers are looking to mitigate risk, yet offer modern and attractive services Smaller brokerages which transfer their entire order flow to their liquidity providers, and white label partners of retail brokerages should bear in mind that if they are operating a pure A-book (which is very very rare) the chances of being outside these parameters is high, and therefore at the end of the liquidity chain, the banks will intervene, ultimately limiting the activities of smaller, less capitalized firms.

It is possible for all brokerages to assess this carefully by using online services such as the S&P Global Market Intelligence Platform, which is designed to help firms measure and manage their credit risk exposure by screening benchmark relative financial and credit metrics.

Companies such as Traiana, which is the post-trade clearing, risk management and settlement division of British interdealer brokerage ICAP, provide services including automated post-trade processing for giveups, allocations and clearing of CFDs, which have become very popular since the Swiss National Bank event in January 2015 as a form of OTC futures contract which many brokerages are viewing as a means of lowering the risk of negative balance exposure which may ensue from high volatility.

Britain’s electronic trading sector has, for many years, been centered on CFD trading and spread betting, necessitating the development and maintenance of proprietary platforms by London’s long-established retail FX giants.

During the last two years, there has been a distinct drive toward taking the CFD product to an international audience, and some very significant mergers and acquisitions have come about as a result, a notable example being the purchase of City Index by GAIN Capital for a sum that was at the time reported to be $118 million in October 2014.

Subsequently, it emerged that the net purchase price was actually $82 million, which included $36 million in cash.

The drive toward adding CFDs to global product ranges was relatively shortlived, and has now become a very quiet and somewhat distant dynamic. It may well be that the reason for this is the

In these days of very low profit margins within retail FX brokerages, countered by demand from traders for extremely fast and price accurate execution, attention is being paid to how the execution cycle works at a higher level than any other time since the rise to prominence of retail FX.

inability to clear currency-based CFDs, despite certain services being available to clear equity CFDs as per the Traiana Harmony network, and also the very wide spreads which can ensue due to the OTC nature of a futures contract being intrinsically difficult to assess from a buy-side perspective.

Today’s new dynamic is hailing from North America, where the institutional exchange technology providers and exchange-traded futures and equities platform developers are looking closely toward a retail audience, which sets a centralized exchange in position.

It will be interesting to monitor the approach to risk management and how much counterparty credit ratios differ should this be adopted on a widespread basis in the United States.

FinanceFeeds has committed considerable resources to working with major exchange providers in Chicago in order to monitor this as it develops, and indeed retail progress has been made In these days of very low profit margins within retail FX brokerages, countered by demand from traders for extremely fast and price accurate execution, attention is being paid to how the execution cycle works at a higher level than any other time since the rise to prominence of retail FX. Brokers in the retail sector are now able to emulate an institutional trading experience, however there are factors that have arisen at an equally rapid pace as the proliferation of direct market access brokerages, such as the reluctance by Tier 1 bank to extend

FINANCEFEEDS credit to prime brokerages, which has hampered the ability for brokerages which attract retail clients to access top quality liquidity.

That in itself has led to some of the more astute and avant-garde brokerage technology providers to generate innovative solutions to foster better prime of prime relationships and continue to provide best market liquidity to a retail audience despite Citigroup’s research in 2016 having indicated that extending credit to OTC derivatives firms has a potential 56% default rate.

It is remarkable that the major hosting and integration companies in this industry have come up with solutions that provide comprehensive connectivity in what has become an expensive and rarified business.

In order to demonstrate this, it is important to consider what would occur if a small to medium sized retail brokerage attempted to establish connectivity on an individual basis.

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Indeed, back in 1991 the connectivity that was provided for the interbank sector, serving Tier 1 banks – the highest level of the liquidity hierarchy, all of which was connected by 10-bit 2 bayonet connectors and had software which killed errant packets that served to block the transfer of data that, even unhindered, is very slow.

It was expensive, too. Consultancy rates for outsourced professional services providers in Britain back in 1991 (such as British Telecom or MITEL – back then it was the telecoms providers that dominated rather than the big four professional services firms that have now extended their services to technology) were approximately £1600 per day, which, accounting for appreciation and inflation, is akin to £4,000 per day today.

Technology has evolved in leaps and bounds – however let’s remember those who were there from the beginning.

What if you tried to do it all yourself today?

It is very likely that at least half of those are white label license holders, which had paid $5,000 to MetaQuotes for the license and then a monthly volumebased fee to capitalize the platform

The end cost of all of this would be quite prohibitive and that is without considering licensing, regulatory capital adequacy requirements, office rental and salaries for staff.

Essentially, the efficiency of the pricing of connectivity to live markets and the continual innovation with regard to how to package liquidity and distribute it is down to three companies, those being PrimeXM, oneZero and Gold-i, all of which serve the majority of direct market access brokerages in today’s

Shortly after that period, retail FX trading began to emerge, Matchbook FX being one of the pioneers.

By the late 1990’s, EBS [now the electronic brokerage division of British interdealer brokerage ICAP] was just beginning to emerge as the mainstay of liquidity but only for certain pairs.

The Reuters Dealing system had a dominion over certain other pairs, and certain voice brokers controlled others.

The sea-change transition from voice to electronic systems accelerated with the late 1990’s / early 2000’s internet and e-commerce explosion.

In the late 1990’s the Asian currencies melted down – specifically the Thai Baht, Malaysian Ringett and Indonesian Rupiah, which helped propel USDJPY from the mid 80’s up to the mid 140s and then back down again amidst volatility that the FX markets have not seen since. Shortly thereafter, the Nasdaq and related equity markets exploded reaching their infamous apex in the spring of 2000.

“The whole game changed” said Mr. Levy. And amidst it all, firms such as Matchbook FX, as well as a few other pioneers such as CMC, GFT, MoneyGarden (also known as MG Forex) Shalish Capital (now known as FXCM) and Midas (now known as Saxo Bank) where there at the very beginning.

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and its hosting.

If this was bypassed, and a brokerage approached Equinix for a co-location service on an individual basis, this would cost around 20 times more.

Similarly, once having established a co-location provider, a separate relationship with a bank would be required, and the Tier 1 banks will either will no longer extend credit, or they will request much bigger balance sheets. $250,000 would easily get a Prime 5 years ago, we are now talking about minimum amounts in the $15 million if not between $25 million or $100 million within some of the main prime brokerages.

industry and have a solution which ensures cost-effective operation.

Much attention is focused on bridge provision, and how the MetaTrader 4 platform was adapted to be able to operate with real market liquidity, following its original design in which it was intended to operate via an internal dealing desk with fixed spreads.

There is far more to the provision offered by these companies, however, because the method by which liquidity is distributed, by which hosting is covered, co-location and data center presence becomes not the concern of brokerages, and the end cost a fraction of what it would be if a broker attempt-

ed to establish connectivity relationships with data center providers directly for processing retail order flow.

In figurative terms, it is worth considering what the monthly cost would be if attempting to take on board the individual cost of co-location.

Research by FinanceFeeds has concluded that the cost of hosting at any of the major Equinix sites would average approximately $1700 per month for 20A or $2,200 per month with 40A, before bandwidth costs, if using a co-location expert such as Atlantic Metro or Radianz. $1200 per month for a rack and $400 per month for 20A/120V is about right for Equinix NY4. It is worth remembering to include setup fees. Also, firms will need to consider the monthly recurring for the cross connects as well.

A senior executive within one particular firm in North America that I spoke to recently explained “We have a rack in NY4 and pay $1500/mo for a cabinet, $325 for fiber cross connect (each), $225 for copper (each), $450 for 20A 120v primary, $225 for 20A 120v secondary, + bandwidth which I might add I’ve found some places will charge you more per mbps in NY4 than they will NY2.”

It would require significant trading volume to make this viable, and even then, a dedicated team of technical support engineers to be able to liaise with the provider.

Speaking in June this year to Grant Foley, CFO of CMC Markets in London, FinanceFeeds was informed that the cost of the development of the company’s proprietary platform was over $100 million, and the operating costs per month are around $150,000. This includes the relationship that the company has with its hosting center, as the firm has in-house servers that need top quality connection to the live market.

Very few brokerages in the retail market can conceive such a cost. On this basis, the new ecosystem model that is being looked at by integration companies, with Andrew Ralich, CEO of oneZero having explained how $1 per million is achievable, dedicated to the retail sector is a welcome solution to access to prime of prime liquidity and fostering deeper relationships, as well as keeping the hosting costs down significantly.

The industry is quite clearly on the road to a very interesting connectivity direction in the coming months which will improve the trading experience despite the reluctance of Tier 1 banks to extend credit, whilst at the same time ensuring low costs to small to medium sized brokers.

This is a very brief synopsis of the original and very initial stage of planning a completely in-house brokerage - however it provides a clear insight as to why so many do not go the hard yards and think individually, and why now the pre-packaged easy path has created such a value proposition issue in which almost 1000 brokerages are almost identical right the way up from their trading platform to their uniform execution channels.

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Morgan’s Momentum MORGAN SAMPSON Director MS Equities

Q Can you give the readers an insight into your background, and how you first started trading?

Growing up in a business orientated family, I had the incredible privilege to learn about the world of business from a young age. This drove me to learn how to trade and invest from the age of 15.

Through absorbing all the knowledge that I could, I began trading in the capital markets at 18 years old focusing on crude oil and G-10 FX currencies.

After gaining momentum, I had the opportunity to work for a leading currencies and commodities training institute in South Africa. My promotion to regional trading manager drew me into

GAME CHANGERS Issue #11

a new side of the trading world. A world that made me question the values that I held dear.

My days were spent putting out fires with students. The cause of this unrest was due to their inability to absorb the training products the company had tasked me to deliver. I was given the “keep your head down and do not change our ways” talk from my employer. It didn’t matter how I tried to help their students, I was now part of an industry that took advantage of people by providing sub-par education dressed up in premium prices.

I made the decision to leave. I realised that it was time to forge my own path. I had gained knowledge of the capital markets, education skills, and the understanding between right and wrong. Thus, I formed MS Equities Trading.

Now, only 1 year and 6 months on, my company thrives, providing online education to students based in 25 countries around the world. My investment group has built strong partnerships with groups from the United states through to Europe. With the help of my team, I have recently launched a quantitative research group, focusing on algorithmic and high-speed trading research.

Q Why did you start teaching. Why don’t you just focus on your fund?

Once I started working as a full-time trader, I took an “outside in” look on the capital markets trading educational industry. Thousands, if not, tens of thousands of people were being caught out by the industry I had just left.

In the words of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. I decided to become a part of change, a good ambassador of change.

Educational groups around the world were taking advantage of the naivety of the global community by using seductive marketing and charging exorbitant rates whilst selling educational products that were usually wrapped up in some form of a “get rich quick scheme”.

In the words of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. I decided to become a part of change, a good ambassador of change.

My decision to prioritise teaching above trading was a pivotal change in my life.

I was no longer helping Myself achieve success, I was helping others. I built an online educational program and began distributing my knowledge to students around the world.

My journey as a teacher has shown me that with education, I am able to leave behind a legacy that can live on long after I am gone. My goal is to continue to help create change and spread my knowledge to people around the world that need it whilst maintaining the highest level of pragmatism and transparency as I possibly can.

Q South Africa in the past has been hard for outsiders to get into with regulatory and banking restrictions. What tips would you give brokers for getting into the market?

The key is transparency and education. The South African industry has a rough past in this regard. From the so-called “forex educators” through to the brokers supporting many of these educators, the industry narrative is to drive clients to trade more and more whilst providing little to no support systems. This can often lead to many clients losing money which often loops back to force regulators to build more stringent policy structures.

In providing complete transparency

to new clients, and providing a supportive educational system, the broker can build a sustainable client base that will not only benefit their own company, it will ensure the broker can show regulators they are providing ethical and honest financial services to the South African industry.

Q Is the SA government becoming friendlier to the industry?

Given the volatile political landscape in South Africa, it is always tough to say.

Based on what I have seen, the South African Government has struggled to take pro-active measures to provide supportive infrastructure to innovation. This can often lead to great challenges for new companies that want to join the industry.

From the red tape of stringent regulation through to the somewhat misunderstanding behind the capital markets trading industry among retail traders, all brokers, educators and service providers must appreciate the accountability of delivering cost-based products to a developing country.

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TURNING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES TO AN ASSET Our team has now gone forth to build a syllabus that creates a bridgeeducational program that supplements theoretical knowledge gained from their university studies and combines it with extensive practical training.

Q You have designed professional courses for universities to give the younger generation an idea about derivatives trading. Can you elaborate on the syllabus?

In universities around the globe, young students completing degrees and programs relating to the financial industry face a very daunting task in the big world. Upon graduating, these students are sent into the industry with little to no practical experience and are usually left with little support systems to help them transition from student to workforce professional.

Based on feedback received, many university students have voiced their need for more practical training outside of university syllabus. Our team has now gone forth to build a syllabus that creates a bridge-educational program that supplements theoretical knowledge gained from their university studies and combines it with extensive practical training.

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In doing so, our team can provide each and every university student with practical knowledge of trading the capital markets, the opportunity to build their OWN track record, and gain work experience prior to entering the professional workforce.

Q By covering 25 diverse countries, can you elaborate on how you cover all the languages and cultural differences?

Based on our goal to create the world’s largest online educational program, we knew that language and cultural differences would be our greatest challenge. To simplify the language barriers, we only offer our training in English which our students have been happy to accept.

The cultural differences, first seen as a challenge, have become an incredible asset to our company. In dealing with such a diverse group of students and clients, we have now been able to gain incredible perspective of what our target market wants to receive, on a global scale.

Q What have you got lined up for the rest of the year?

Outside of our “top secret� projects, our team will soon be launching a new training program relating specifically to training beginner students in trading the Forex market in specific. The program will be called FX Principles 3x.

Given that our current educational program is 12-months long and only trains 300 students per year, we have decided to launch the FX Principles 3x program to the global industry and accept 2,500 students per year.

Furthermore, for the duration of 2018, we will be offering the first 2,500 seats available on the FX Principles program completely free of charge. This offer to the global community will exceed $ 1 million in free training for the specific purpose of spreading the wealth of our knowledge to people around the world that would like to learn about how to trade in the capital markets.

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A DIFFERENT APPROACH – AGAINST THE CURRENT Q You have been at Argus since its inception. Can you give us an outline of your career and education prior to Argus Stockbrokers.

Prior to Argus Stockbrokers is quite a while back! I had originally completed my BSc degree at the Hellenic Military Academy of Athens, Greece. I had at first served in the National Guard of the Republic of Cyprus, holding various key positions but I then went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Investment Management from Cass Business School of The City University in London and then became licensed by the Ministry of Finance as a Qualified Portfolio Manager.

After having served the National Guard I joined the Subsidiary Investment Firm of a Greek Bank as the Head of the Dealing Room and the Derivatives Desk. That is when I obtained my experience in the trading of complex derivative products.

I went on to apply this expertise in the creation and set up of Argus Stockbrokers where I had from the onset become responsible for building and developing algorithmic strategies for financial instruments listed on worldwide exchanges.

Though I took on managerial and strategic responsibilities as Executive Director of Argus Stockbrokers, my previous specializations and developed skills enabled me to remain

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actively involved in the execution side of investment strategies; I continued being actively and directly involved in Asset Management, personally managing over 100 million euros worth of assets while at Argus Stockbrokers.

Q Based on my research your company was a safe pair of hands during the Greek and Cyprus financial crisis. What would you attribute this to?

This was due to one of the decisions made by our Investment Management Committee in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. I was part of the committee as a Director of Asset Management and a Member of the Board of Directors and Shareholder of Argus Stockbrokers Ltd.

It was a tough decision to make since bank deposits in Cyprus were offering a 5% interest rate on cash. Having a clientele of mainly provident funds, investment and insurance companies and high net worth individuals it was really very difficult to support our decision to withdraw cash deposits from Cypriot Banks that were offering 5% interest to instead deposit this cash in EU regulated and higher rated Banks; which in most cases were offering negative interest rates on Euro deposits.

HARRY MICHAELIDES ArgusFX Director Director of Asset Management & Member of the Board of Directors & Shareholder of Argus Stockbrokers Ltd.

We had at the time also decided to avoid Greek banks and financial institutions as well due to the turmoil created with Greek government bonds and the exposure that Greek and Cypriot banks had on Greek bonds back then.

After the Cypriot bank Laiki collapsed and the haircut was imposed in 2013 to cash deposits held at Laiki bank and at Bank of Cyprus as well, the story was totally different. Our very educated decision back in 2008 proved itself to have been the right one; we didn’t lose a single penny of our clients’ funds and we managed to protect not only all our clients that were under asset management agreements but also any client holding cash or financial products with Argus Stockbrokers Ltd. Q With retail FX being an industry where reputations can be sullied easily, why risk the name of Argus by going into retail FX? This is a good question. Our stance on this fundamentally lies in our outlook of the investment market as a whole. We are and have always been a professional investment institution created by financial experts who drive it forward out of a pool of experience in asset management. For us, FX was simply another instrument to be added to our already established array of products. The online trading division of Argus Stockbrokers was created as part of a comprehensive global

market development plan centred around our desire to provide clients with an ever increasing and comprehensive suite of investment products that would fulfil their investment objectives.

FX was on the rise and we actually saw this as an opportunity rather than a risk because we had the in-house expertise to manage our risk properly and help our clients mitigate theirs.

The industry needed and still needs solid companies directed and managed by people with proper financial experience and qualifications - the industry needs technocrats. We have seen all sorts of companies acquiring financial licenses and, in most cases, taking enormous risks. We decided to offer a solution to retail clients that want to use and experience online trading using a company that had a proven record in professionalism and diligence. This is our main value proposition and the only messaging we used to penetrate the market. No aggressive marketing campaigns, no bonuses and not even high leverages.

Q I read an interview you conducted in 2016 in which you saw further regulation on the horizon. Being proved correct on this, does this benefit your institution?

Many people come back to me, two years later, and quote me on that interview. The stricter regulation was something I had already predicted from the start of ArgusFX and had originally imposed as the company’s internal rules and procedures. We have been following most of the new regulation restrictions and rules from day one of the company’s operations. The huge advantage is that the company’s cost base and revenue were built under those assumptions. We are in the advantageous position to continue our offered services with only minor changes to our early adopted strategy.

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Q With CySec encouraging hedge funds and funds to open in Cyprus, will you be going down this path in the future?

Coming from a fund management professional background my view and strategy was to introduce and find a way to promote registered funds or licensed companies providing quality investment services to our clients. To be able to achieve this we have been building, and will very soon launch, our investor’s platform where people can log in to view, analyse, calculate performance and risk and invest in strategies of verified funds or professional managers, which we have already reviewed and decided that are worth exposing our clients to.

We constantly meet with various funds or hedge fund managers, with funds registered in Cyprus or abroad and conduct a diligent assessment on their strategies and performance. Our main scope is to be able to help clients invest wisely in strategies and funds that can provide a solid performance with respect to the associated trading risks they are taking.

Q What’s on the agenda for your personal growth over the next 12 months?

I have always connected my personal growth with the companies I directed and managed.

This means that my personal achievements and growth will always go hand and hand with the growth of the companies I manage and the board of directors that I serve.

So, without a doubt my personal growth is interlocked and intertwined with the development plans we have in place for ArgusFX which promise a lot of client-focused developments in the pipeline, which will be rolled-out progressively over the course of 2018!

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ISSUE #11

THE JOURNAL FOR INDUSTRY LEADERS

http://gchangersmag.com info@gchangersmag.com