Letter from Europe

I'm the Managing Director of OANDA Europe, based in London. Before I joined OANDA I was running my own consulting practice—I helped venture capital and private equity firms evaluate investment opportunities in early-stage financial services companies. Typically, if we invested, I would be retained by the target company to help them grow. To accomplish this I leveraged skills and experience gained in 10 years at McKinsey and nine at Capital One (which I joined when it was a start-up in the UK, in a role where I was responsible for conceiving and creating new ventures).

Three things attracted me to OANDA:

• The quality of the technology that drives the excellent customer experience on the trading platform and the rest of the products

• The opportunity I could see to help OANDA build a highly successful business

• The values and attitudes exhibited by Michael Stumm and the other OANDA staff I met during the recruiting process. Their integrity, openness, and willingness to listen and engage are compelling—and rare combination in business.

Abundant possibility

OANDA’s mission is to use outstanding technical solutions to create compelling, customer-friendly products and grow a sustainable business in the long term. We have the vision, energy, and talent to diversify beyond currency and providing end-user products into building infrastructures for others to use. 

The possibilities for OANDA are almost unbounded and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to help build the best OANDA we can—whatever that looks like, as we continue to grow. 

Back in June, we received our FSA authorisation which, for the first time, allows us to promote OANDA throughout Europe and support the company’s international growth. 

Europe is a sophisticated FX market which accounts for nearly 60% of total FX volumes—37% from the UK alone. Traders in this region need a sophisticated yet straightforward trading platform that fills orders promptly, with minimal slippage at ultra-low spreads—which is exactly the OANDA fxTrade platform. (I fear Europe will also soon need a platform for trading the Greek drachma, the Irish punt and who knows what other pre-eurozone currencies. Time will tell. Rest assured, OANDA adds new currency pairs to the platform whenever we see market demand.)

I spent three years in equity research as a sell-side analyst covering the UK banks in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis (and yes, I still have the scars!). I have a passion for markets, drivers of prices, and predicting the impact of events. I can’t wait to share some of my ideas with you on this forum.