At HyperLinq, Amar Gautam and his team are building a cryptocurrency trading platform unique from anything available to traders today. By consolidating multiple portfolios with the click of a button, the platform enables users to manage the entirety of their holdings in a seamless, intuitive manner while offering deep, learnable insights into their trading activities. In this exclusive interview with TechBullion, Amar shares more insights into his mission at HyperLinq.
Please tell us a little more about yourself? How did you get to where you’re at today?
Sure thing. Well, I was born in India and received my education in India. I graduated in 2006 with a degree in Computer Science & Engineering. Right after I graduated I began my first job, where I developed software for banks and hedge funds. So I was fortunate to start so early on what would be the path which leads me to HyperLinq. For a short period of time I was a developer for the various electronic trading platforms that you see being offered by brokers in America. In 2010, I began working as a specialized trading API platform builder, which continued to give me the foundational knowledge to take that next step. And in 2018, I quit my job to begin working exclusively on HyperLinq.
Through my work beforehand, I realized there were sophisticated trading tools available in the traditional financial markets, but I noticed they were not available for cryptocurrency traders. It became my goal to address that unmet need. There were tools for the professional stock investor, but these same tools were not available for cryptocurrency traders – and I was out to change that. We began building this trading terminal to carry out transactions at “hyper speeds”, linking them to many different exchanges, and decided to fill this niche for experienced cryptocurrency traders who seek actionable & intelligent insights which would allow them to become more effective and efficient traders.
What makes HyperLinq stand out from the competition, and what are some of the unique services you are providing your users in the crypto market?
There’s a large fragmentation within the market when it comes to applications you can use as an investor. You can have a lot of mobile applications that can help you track your portfolio, track your cryptocurrency wallets. There are tools on the web to help you track prices, there are tools to help you execute trades, there are tools to help give you insights. But before HyperTrader, a trading terminal offered by HyperLinq, there was not really a tool to give you all of these tools in one place. We build a one-stop solution for tracking your portfolio, analyze markets, discover opportunities, manage orders and positions and analyze trades. All these tools with efficiency and speed that improves trader workflows that gives them an opportunity to make better profits. This is what really differentiates ourselves from other similar sounding platforms. There are many tools for everyday investors, but not many applications for sophisticated cryptocurrency traders.
How has your unique background on Wall Street as an engineer, and as a cryptocurrency trader alike given you a 360 degree view into what traders want?
As an engineer, I always see this mistake made where engineers believe that we can just make cool things, and people will use them. But that isn’t reality. We as engineers need to understand the psyche of a trader, the pain points of a trader, and build something to uniquely address them. Most of the platforms built today are built by engineers who don’t have much history as a trader. They don’t know firsthand what traders want, deal with, and have difficulties with. We know how important time is for these trades – how quickly you can make decisions, how quickly you can interact with the market, and how quickly you can execute these trades.
Instead of using email-based support, we exclusively use live chat on our trading terminal to interact with our traders. I understand how important it is to have instant, reliable feedback in a manner that’s catered to each individual trader. Sure, that means more work for us, but my background as a trader has shown me how invaluable that is to have, and I believe that is also a large differentiator between ourselves and the competition.
How has the exponential increase in cryptocurrency interest changed the trading landscape? What would you say is the biggest difference in trading platforms five years ago as compared to today?
Cryptocurrency traders are increasing by the day. When it comes to trading, I feel there is a misunderstanding when it comes to who trades. There are many different traders, and many different trading strategies right now. When we reference a trader, we are speaking about someone who is actively managing their portfolio and seeking to make profits in the near term, in some way.
With Robinhood, we have truly seen the democratization of trading, where someone can deposit a dollar into their platform and instantly buy stocks. There are more people than ever before who are interested and involved in cryptocurrencies, and I believe that is good for the market as a whole.
In your mind, how can trading platforms best adapt to suit changing customer needs?
Something that the majority of providers miss upon, is they are not talking directly to their customers. They are working within their silos and do not have a firsthand view of what is going on inside the mind of a trader. It is imperative that the trading platform interacts with its users and ensures they are happy, can receive feedback in a quick and constructive manner, etc. If you are not adapting, you are losing. With the ever evolving landscape of financial markets, the single most important thing you can do as a trading platform is to have your finger on the pulse of what the customer needs. You cannot do this with 3rd party interactions, you need to do it directly.
Why is it important to have a fast trading terminal, and how can it give investors an edge over the competition?
Many times, when you reference a fast trading terminal, it is assumed you are talking about network latency. But there is another layer to it. How quickly can you actually place an order? How quickly can you get the results from the platform? If something normally takes you 8 clicks to process, instead of 3 clicks, you are already behind. We are building a trading terminal that streamlines and removes friction points when it comes to placing orders and managing positions. It is very important that traders can take a minimum number of actions in any order they execute.
Anything else you’d like to share on the horizon for HyperLinq?
We are focusing more and more on data and analytics, so you will see more offerings and capabilities being rolled out for market analytics. We are exploring the possibility of adding more asset classes, as we understand advanced traders do not trade one asset class in isolation, but instead they trade multiple asset classes, like equities or forex.
For more information, please visit the website: https://hyperlinq.io
