Executive Summary

About 5.0M active Korean retail traders face a usability gap in algo trading: available options are either raw APIs that require coding or cloud services that sacrifice control and execution transparency, leaving semi-professional traders and small prop shops to manage trades manually or rely on brittle scripts. This friction causes lost opportunities and operational risk for traders who want automation but lack developer resources. The product would be a desktop-first application that couples a visual low-code GUI for strategy design and backtesting with direct KIS OpenAPI integration for deterministic order execution, plus a library of prebuilt templates and one-click deployment to live accounts. Revenue would come from subscriptions and a strategy marketplace, targeting a $1.2B Korean retail algo market at roughly $240 ARPU/year. Now is a sensible time to pursue this: retail participation and turnover in Korea have risen, brokers such as KIS expose programmatic APIs, and LLMs plus low-code frameworks have materially lowered the technical barrier to strategy creation. With a Market Score of 95/100 and Revenue Potential 90/100, the structural conditions favor a usable desktop-to-broker offering. Where it can stand out is by combining deep KIS integration, desktop execution for lower latency and predictable routing, and UX built for non-developer active traders; however, realistic challenges include regulatory compliance, proving live execution and slippage performance, and competing in a medium-competition landscape. Success will hinge on audited execution metrics, strong onboarding, and clear differentiation versus API-only or cloud-first competitors.

Market Opportunity

Make Korean retail algo trading usable — desktop GUI + KIS OpenAPI automation targets a $1.2B = 5.0M active Korean retail traders x $240 ARPU/year total addressable market with medium saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 15% retail algo adoption growth (driven by retail participation & API availability).

Key trends driving demand: Retail participation rise -- increased retail volumes and more active traders create demand for automation.; Broker API availability -- brokers (KIS/others) expose programmatic access that enables third-party tools.; Low-code & AI strategy generation -- LLMs and low-code frameworks lower the skill barrier to building strategies.; Desktop + cloud hybrid workflows -- users demand local execution reliability with cloud-based backtesting/analytics..

Key competitors include Kiwoom Securities — KIS OpenAPI, Daishin Securities — Cybos/HTS, MetaTrader 5 (MetaQuotes), Python scripts, pykiwoom and Excel/VBA (community workarounds).

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Make Korean retail algo trading usable — desktop GUI + KIS OpenAPI automation

Executive Summary

Market Validation

Market Opportunity

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