What to Do When Off-the-Shelf Trading Tech Starts Slowing Your Growth

When you're just starting out in the trading industry or you're working with narrow parameters, an off-the-shelf trading platform might suit you just fine. There's no denying the advantage of these platforms: they're quick to deploy and easy to budget for, since you know exactly what you're getting upfront. This makes them an appealing choice in your early days of business.

But as you scale your business, you may find yourself hitting roadblocks. The problem with off-the-shelf platforms is that many of their features can't be tweaked by the user, and as your team grows and evolves, the preset workflows might no longer suit your business. Continuing to use a platform that no longer serves you might end up slowing your growth—not because your traders or strategies are underperforming, but because your own tools can't keep up.

If you're concerned about how off-the-shelf trading tech might be impacting your growth, we're discussing using bespoke tech as an effective alternative in this guide.

Bespoke Tech Gives You Control

If you want control of how your technology supports your business, you'll need to invest in a custom-built platform.

When you work with a team that designs your own tech, you'll be able to tailor your platform's performance and user experience to your specific needs instead of working around a pre-built architecture. Owning a custom solution means you don't have to wait around for third-party updates or feature releases—you set the priorities. Even just using composable architecture will give you the freedom to design systems that scale as your order volume grows or as you expand to new markets.

You Don't Have to Build it Alone

Building your own trading tech sounds daunting, but the good news is that you absolutely don't need to hire an in-house team from scratch or take on the development burden yourself. In fact, this is the less efficient and more expensive option, so it's not recommended in most situations.

Instead, you'll want to partner with firms like Devexperts, who already have decades of experience building and maintaining high-performance systems for brokers, banks, wealth advisors, and exchanges. The idea is that you work closely with the company to design and build the tools you need, then benefit from long-term support as your needs continue to evolve.

Final Word: A Better Tech Stack Means Faster Growth

When your infrastructure is designed for your workflows and strategy, you'll be able to move faster across the board.

Not only will you make better use of your data, but you'll also have the tools in place to respond quicker to market changes and prevent bottlenecks from slowing you down. Having that edge really matters. McKinsey research backs this up, showing that firms with flexible tech stacks respond faster and outperform less agile competitors.

Don't wait until you experience a full-blown failure before you switch to something better. If your growth has slowed and you're getting more and more frustrated with your existing tech, now is the time to act.