TradePortal was founded by a group of professional traders who had experienced the problems inherent in the legacy trading systems of the market. The company assembled a core technology team of highly talented software engineers and financial services experts to create reliable, quality solutions.

Origins of DMA
Direct Market Access trading technology evolved during the early 1990s as a response to congressional mandates for reform of brokerage and market making practices after the severe market decline in October 1987. Prior to direct access solutions the investing public had limited entrance into the markets. The average investor called in their orders to a brokerage firm which processed a hand written ticket that was eventually executed through a trading desk. This process took several minutes and represented the inefficient, slow and obscured model of the industry for many decades. Direct Access was introduced as a means to provide the trader with greater access to the market and more control over their orders than ever before. This technology provides several significant advantages, including:

1) faster execution of trades
2) better routing of orders, allowing the best price to be obtained
3) greater transparency for traders as to the type of order that is going to be sent to the market and
4) the instant visibility as to the market participant that filled the order and time of order execution.

Today it is estimated that some 30,000 semi-professional traders use DMA technology to trade and manage portfolios. More importantly, the technology is being increasingly adopted by institutions of all types and sizes to improve their performance. Furthermore, new rules and regulations governing the trading environment are creating even greater demand and opportunities for DMA technology.