Today, we are speaking to Kunendiran Subramaniam. Kunen has extensive experience in FX marketing research and analysis. He has worked as an engineer for the better half of his life, but for the past three years, he has been a Key leader, Introducer, and Agent in the FX Industry with over 600 clients in Malaysia and Singapore. He has also been a provider of FX trading and back office training.
Do you have a diverse main profession or are you in the Forex Industry full time?
I work in the forex industry full time; not only as an Introducing Broker. I trade too.
What made you get into this business?
I was approached by a Social-Economic NGO on Forex World.
How did you get started?
I started off with trading; since I knew, I could not survive as an IB without being forex literate. So I attended basic training and applied my learnings to a Demo account. Books really helped to explore and find the best pace for self-education.
What do you think are some obstacles Introducing Brokers might face in your experience?
I have worked with many brokers and have managed to stay with few because brokers can be very pushy with expectations and demands. The Introducer will have difficulty if there is no onsite trainer to educate new clients to trade. The broker will not be so flexible with Introducers requests. Since brokers only target pro traders and not beginners a lot of the time.
A difficult task is finding good brokers and settling with them, having a good relationship between broker and introducer is very important.
What does being an IB comprise of? Can you break it down?
In essence, the IB is a guide and like a middle man for traders, so the role of the IB is to assist the client in things like choosing the broker, choosing suitable account type and completing the registration.
I work strongly with education, and it’s a service that takes you the long way in terms of client lifetime value and, of course, accounts as another source of income.
It is the IB’s responsibility to keep up to date with the latest offers; trading conditions and any other updates.
OK so since there is a plethora of responsibilities to follow through with I’d say being an IB is rather demanding as a profession. What would you say?
You just need to understand the type of broker you are dealing with before you introduce anyone and be responsible for what you are promoting, especially in choosing a right broker for the client.
How many hours per day do you spend on this?
At least 2-3 hours per day
Can it be your only source of income?
Of course, if you have the connections. For me as an Introducer, I cannot be dependent on Clients trades spread commission all the time; which is why I use a combination of trading & offering educational services along with introducing.
Thank you for your time Mr. Kunen. I think it is safe to assume that you are happy doing what you do in this industry?
Yes. Like any profession, it can be difficult because it requires you to be independent. However, it is worth it because you learn to grow and all the connections you make are yours to keep.
