Interview with Rafael Neustadt, FXFlat CEO

1) Who is Rafael Neustadt?
I was born in Düsseldorf Germany and still live here since now 37 years. After school I started to learn and work at Deutsche Bank. All in all, I was nearly 10 years at Deutsche Bank as an Investment Manager in the main office of the second biggest branch in Germany. After my career at Deutsche Bank I founded FXFlat.

2) How would you describe FXFlat?
FXFlat is an Online Introducing Broker for our end provider GFT Markets, who offer trading in Forex, CFDs, Binary Options and FX Options. FXFlat is regulated by the BaFin (the German Financial Service Authority) and part of a 15 years old asset management company based in Germany.

3) What distinguishes FXFlat from other introducing brokers?
The quality of our service and the big offer of our educational programs are two major activities of the FXFlat team.

4) FXFlat has just been named “Best CFD Introducing Broker Central Europe 2012”. Why is this award important to you?
It is our first award from outside Germany. This award represents the first acknowledgement of FXFlat as an international introducing broker.

5) You were also named “Best CFD Introducing Broker” in the year 2012 and 2011 by the German financial magazine “€uro am Sonntag”. What are the key elements of this success?

In 2011 and 2012 we won several prizes and we believe that this is the result of our hard work to propose our customers with an end provider that offers the highest standards of technological solutions and professional regulated service.

6) What are your plans for the future of FXFlat?
Our plan is to expand our offer and services. At the moment we are working with our end provider to introduce an application for Android handys. Moreover, CFDs should be available next year on the MT4 platform as well. Of course, we try also to constantly improve our service. We want to extend our educational offer with further webinars and seminars held both by our internal and external experts. By this way, we can explain better to our customers the potential of our end provider’s platforms and help them to get a deeper insight in trading.

7) How would you choose an introducing broker?
Firstly, the introducing broker must be regulated by the local financial authority. A regulation from an important authority is a guarantee of control and transparency over the activity of the introducing broker. Secondly, the customer care must be excellent to provide a professional and rapid support in every situation. Of course, another important aspect is the regulated and professional standing of the end provider and the high technology of their trading platform and the possibility to use additional programs focusing on technical analysis, like for ex. Autochartist, which is part of our end provider’s standard offer (in a demo and real version) for all our customers. The last important point is the possibility for the customer to attend an educational program to learn how to deal with the end provider’s platform and how to configure it according to his personal trading style. In this context, FXFlat offers not only group webinars and seminars, but also 1:1 support to answer directly to specific questions. Of course, customers should also have the opportunity to meet the team they are in touch with. FXFlat regularly organizes social and live trading events with its customers to get to know each other. A human dimension is then very important to FXFlat. I would just like to remind you the great event that FXFlat organized in March 2012 to celebrate its first 5 years of existence.

8) FXFlat is leading introducing brokers for CFDs and Forex trading. What do you offer?
Our end provider’s offer includes more than 120 currency pairs and more than 2300 CFDs on indices, commodities, equities, ETFs, currency pairs, interest rates, inflation rates and bonds. You can trade all these products with just one platform (FlatTrader) and for Forex customers can also take advantage of MetaTrader4. FlatTrader is obviously available in a downloadable and web-based version and we must not forget the latest interesting iPad and iPhone apps. Therefore, as I have just mentioned, our end provider’s offer includes Autochartist.

9) Why have you introduced binary options to your products?
We have launched binary options only a few months ago, but they are already a real success. We think that binary options represent an alternative product to Forex and CFDs and they can open new, interesting trading horizons for our customers. Binary options belong to our long-term project of providing customers with new solutions, products and technologies. By this way, customers can find the trading product that suits them the best. For this reason, customer can also take advantage of a free demo account designed especially only for binary options.

10) At FXFlat financial regulations are very important. Why?
Because financial regulations stand for reliability, control and transparency. Working with a regulated introducing broker and end provider means that customers have the certainty that his introducing broker and end provider cooperate with the relevant authorities in order to ensure total respect of the actual regulations. Another important aspect is the deposit guarantee. Customers must be informed of the applied procedure in case of insolvability of their introducing broker or the end provider. GFT Markets are FSA registered in the UK, therefore retail customers funds are covered up to 50 000 GBP per customer by the FSCS (British Financial Compensation Scheme) and all deposited funds are held in segregated trust accounts by GFT Markets.