What is a Single-Dealer Platform?

If you would like to read a more detailed discussion of single-dealer platforms please download Caplin's Single-Dealer Platform white paper.

Definition of a Single-Dealer Platform

A multi-dealer platform is a trading venue for a particular type of asset class, FX for example, which presents prices from, and the opportunity to trade with, several dealers.

In contrast, a single-dealer portal is an internet portal which presents prices from, and the opportunity to trade with, only one dealer.

So a single-dealer platform (SDP) is the technology infrastructure on which a single-dealer portal runs, although increasingly the term single-dealer platform is used to describe both the technology infrastructure and the resulting trading application.

You can read more about single-dealer platforms on Wikipedia.

Single-Dealer Platform Features

By choosing, and building upon, the correct set of technology, a single-dealer platform can span multiple asset classes, integrating them together in the client application.

Taking this one step further, by choosing the right underlying framework it's not only possible to offer prices for, and trading in, multiple different asset classes, but also to design client applications designed for different types of user.

So you could have, for example, one interface for internal sales traders, a different one for hedge-fund managers and yet another for active FX traders.

These could all be operated on top of the same single-dealer platform which has suitable interfaces to your internal trading, pricing and permissioning systems in multiple asset classes.

Caplin provides a framework to investment banks that enables them to quickly build, or enhance, their single-dealer offering, or to create a single-dealer platform for the first time.

Caplin's Single-Dealer Platform Framework: Caplin Platform

Caplin Platform is easily implemented for an initial asset class, usually FX, and is then easily extensible to include other asset classes. This flexibility means that your trading application can be extended quickly and easily to meet changing business requirements or market conditions.

Our customers currently provide a whole range of instrument classes in their single-dealer platforms, including: FX cash, FX futures and options, Rates, Structured products, IRDs, Equities and F&O.

Caplin Platform is normally paired with Caplin Trader to deliver native web apps built in HTML5 and Javascript. However Caplin Platform supports a wide range of alternate client-side application technologies including Flex or Silverlight, locally installed applications typically written in Java or .NET, Apple's native iOS to support Apple iPhones and iPads, through to direct APIs that connect the single-dealer platform to a client-side remote application.