A Scottish firm that has developed computerised systems it says can help foreign exchange traders cut vital milliseconds off the time it takes them to execute orders has bought a US rival for around $1m (£590,000).
Glasgow-based BeeksFX VPS said the acquisition of New York's Gallant VPS will consolidate its position as one of the leading players in a fast-growing niche market.
The takeover will give BeeksFX a base close to the heart of the US financial system and allow it to add thousands of names to its customer list of traders and brokers.
The company expects the acquisition of Gallant will allow it to maintain the rapid rate of growth which has seen it achieve turnover of £2m in just three years.
Founder Gordon McArthur said BeeksFX has developed a tool that can help private foreign exchange investors overcome one of the biggest challenges they face operating in a market dominated by giant trading houses.
Thousands of people around the world have started trading on global markets using algorithms that trigger orders automatically.
However, Mr McArthur said his own experience as a trader had taught him that people who place orders on the web can find the price of an asset changes in the split second between them placing an order and it being executed.
"From London to New York it takes 80 milliseconds but the price can change in that time," said Mr McArthur, who worked at IBM for 11 years.
BeeksFX allows clients to hire access to Virtual Private Servers which are housed in London and New York, which it says can cut the time to complete trades to half a millisecond.
The company said the servers it provides, which can be accessed from £25 a month, are housed in secure sites and can be used to trade 24 hours a day.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article