The cTrader Data Center
Contrary to what you might read on some forex brokers websites, the cTrader Data Center is and always has been in London. More precisely, the Equinix LD5 Data Center. Many brokers have their MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 servers hosted in New York. In a lot of cases, they do not explain that cTrader is
hosted elsewhere. Having different hosting locations for different platforms can seem confusing to traders and this is why trading platform server locations become ambiguous.
Why Brokers don’t Host cTrader in New York
There is an important difference between how the cTrader platform is set up in comparison to the MetaTrader platforms. Both MT4 and MT5 are licensed products, where MetaQuotes, the developer of the platform simply provide the software and the brokers are responsible for running it themselves. This means they can choose where to rent or install servers. cTrader, on the other hand, is provided by Spotware using a Software as a Service model. This means brokers do not need to host the trading platform themselves and therefore cannot choose where the platform is hosted.
Which Data Center Location is Better, New York or London
Both New York and London are major financial centres, so why did Spotware choose London as the location for the cTrader Data Center. Choosing which location is best for hosting a trading platform will ultimately depend on the brokers business interests. For example where they get liquidity from and where their clients are based would be two major factors to consider. London is generally a good location for accessing liquidity since there is a high concentration of prime brokers, prime of prime brokers, hedge funds and asset managers based in the City of London. However, London and New York trade at different times of the day, thus making one better than the other at different times of the day. However, the distance between the two cities is a mere 60 milliseconds and a lot of electronic trading is conducted over the “cable”.
Ultimately there isn’t much difference between the two locations as they are relatively harmonized thanks to technology and geography. The true decision factor falls down to where clients will be trading from. But then again, clients can even be using a VPS to put their trading robots as close as possible to the broker’s forex trading server, whether it’s cTrader in London or MetaTrader 4 in New York.
