Markets.com, the retail arm of prime broking, clearing and liquidity provider Finlato, will no longer offer its Investment Strategy Builder service to its customers.
The strategy builder tool allowed clients to design and build their own bespoke investing and trading strategies, or to select from a series of pre-built portfolios that offered exposure to a range of different sectors and asset classes.
The idea behind the product was to allow clients to build up a portfolio of investments, that was diversified, and met their individual risk appetites and goals.
The pre-built portfolios or strategy templates, offered by Markets.com ranged from ultra-conservative to high risk.
The tool could have been compared to IG Group’s Smart Portfolios or the recently launched Interactive Advisor, Interactive Brokers US-based Robo investment platform.
Asset allocation appears to be a service that’s in demand among retail investors, we only need to look at the growth in ETF investing among private clients to see that.
So it’s somewhat surprising to see Markets.com withdraw the service and to do that, without giving a fuller explanation for its decision.
The firm’s email to clients simply says that Markets.com is exercising its rights to withdraw the product, under its terms and conditions.
Markets.com clients using the strategy builder tool can no longer open new positions and must close their existing positions by May 25th.
Finalto was recently sold, by Playtech Group, to Gopher Investments, an Asian investment management group, one of a number of competing parties that expressed interest in the largely B2B financial services business.
Whether the change in services is part of a wider reshaping of the Markets.com business, under its new owners remains to be seen, but we will of course keep you updated on any further developments.
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