70 Acquisition International - Issue 9 2018 Founded in 2016, Capital.com is a fintech company on a mission to make the world of finance more accessible, engaging, and usable. With offices located in three cities – London (UK), Gibraltar (UK) and Limassol (Cyprus) – and a development centre in Minsk, Capital.com is making huge advances in modernising the world of trading by combining artificial intelligence, machine learning, and personalised education with thousands of the world’s markets. The nuts and bolts of the platform Available in 53 countries, with a multicultural support team who speak over 13 languages, the company’s key offering is a web and mobile-based platform for trading contracts for difference (CFDs). Traders are able to choose from thousands of financial instruments including cryptocurrencies, Forex, shares, commodities and indices. CFDs work by creating an agreement between the provider (in this case Capital.com) and the trader who speculates whether the price of a certain instrument will rise or fall. By trading CFDs instead of using traditional trading methods, clients are able to access the world’s most popular at a fraction of the cost through the use of leverage. It also provides much more variety for those looking to get involved in a number of markets. Who trades with Capital.com? “People come to trading from different degrees of understanding,” tells Capital.com’s CEO Ivan Gowan, with various needs, trading abilities, risk appetites, skills, and levels of experience. It is the platform’s job to meet all those needs. From newbies to experienced traders, the platform aims to provide a service suitable to everyone with an interest in trading. Education first, trading later With its wide range of clients, one of Capital.com’s goals for 2018 is to provide education to one million traders. As the trading world evolves, traditional financial education struggles to keep up with the Web Address: www.capital.com Telephone: +44 20 3870 3087 Contact Email:
[email protected] Capital.com - Trading Designed for Clients W 1808AI51 trends. The market is more open to those from non- financial backgrounds, who may find themselves at risk of losing their funds over lack of market knowledge. Capital.com works to help its clients gain the necessary knowledge and skills needed to get into trading. The overall goal is not just to keep acquiring new clients, but instead to educate them to become smart and successful traders who continue to succeed and use the platform. The company provides free financial articles, the latest market news, analysis and webinars, and live sessions with industry insiders via its web and mobile platform. Additionally, it has also designed another app called ‘Investmate’ to help traders advance their skills, and gain knowledge such as trading fundamentals, biases, and more. Investmate is a free educational app, packed with tons of content, including easy-to-digest lessons, interactive quizzes, and videos. It allows its users to set goals and increase their financial knowledge gradually and effectively. A formidable piece in Capital.com’s arsenal is its trade analysis AI platform, that works automatically behind the scenes on Capital.com’s app and web platform to help traders detect negative trading behaviours such as biases. Research suggests that reminding a trader of how biases can impact them reduces the risk falling under this bias. This functionality works by analysing a trader’s behaviour and providing tailored content to help the user avoid biases in future. Regulations and retail traders This year, ESMA – European Securities and Markets Authority – announced new regulations for the trading industry including certain restrictions on CFD traders. Primarily affecting retail clients, these changes included the introduction of negative balance protection, restrictions on leverage, and a ban on offering incentives. Dedicated to providing the greatest protection possible for its clients, Capital.com introduced the leverage reductions required by ESMA ahead of the 1st August 2018 deadline. New users who registered “The company constantly seeks to ensure it meets the needs of its clients, and that the service it offers is fair, transparent and easy-to-use.”