Argamon and Afterprime: Co-Founders Launch Institutional Liquidity Engine and World’s First ‘Get Paid to Trade’ Brokerage

 

Global Prime co-founders Jeremy Kinstlinger and Elan Bension are back - with a new 2-brand vision aimed at reshaping both sides of the FX market: institutional liquidity through Argamon and retail trading through Afterprime.

 

Argamon focuses on market-making and prime brokerage services for brokers and institutional clients, while Afterprime delivers retail trading with a radically different proposition — zero commission, ultra-tight pricing, and even payment for eligible clients to trade.

 

From Global Prime To Two New Brands

Kinstlinger and Bension exited Global Prime in April 2023 after more than a decade building its reputation for A-book transparency. Before the sale, they had already launched Argamon, with Afterprime following soon after as a separate retail brand.

 

 

“We both co-own the group,” explains Kinstlinger. “Elan looks after Argamon and I look after Afterprime. Argamon continues doing its price-making, market-making and servicing institutional clients, while Afterprime is the retail brokerage.”

 

This split, they say, allows each brand to focus on its strengths while sharing core infrastructure and relationships built over many years in the industry.

 

Argamon: Market-Making With Institutional Discipline

Argamon operates with two prime brokers — NatWest and Hidden Road — leveraging deep bank relationships dating back to the Global Prime era. “We were one of Hidden Road’s first FX PB clients,” says Bension. “We’ve got an incredible relationship with the management and are provided an excellent service. The recent Ripple acquisition only further bolsters their balance sheet and that filters to more benefits for the client.

 

Argamon have 2 Tier-1 Prime Brokers supporting the business. One was added to serve interbank participants not accessible via the second PB that has a deep presence in Digital Asset and other markets, giving Argamon “the best of both worlds” in terms of liquidity access.

 

Unlike many so-called “market makers”, Argamon uses a hybrid approach. “Afterprime is probably still one of the only retail brokers passes all flow to our liquidity providers,” says Bension. “We’ve acquired the ability to build our own order book which means we can control the end experience for the client. The added benefit is liquidity provider feeds remain dark.

 

Risk is taken selectively and for short periods. “Instead of waiting for the client to close, we’ll look to exit within three to four minutes,” Bension explains.

 

This capability allows Argamon to offer consistent fills on larger tickets — for example, a 10–20 million AUD/USD order — and exit quickly without LP complaints. “We actually want the stuff that other people don’t want,” says Bension. “What others classify as toxic, we can often manage profitably.”

 

 

A-Book Ethos With A Market-Maker’s Toolkit

While Global Prime was known for its pure A-book execution, Argamon has taken the model further. “We act as a liquidity provider to our clients, but without the misalignment of interests you get with a B-book,” says Bension. “We make a spread and exit risk quickly. Whether the client’s trade then wins or loses is just the market’s choice.”

 

Clients range from retail brokers to institutions, often coming via word of mouth. “We don’t look at traditional marketing. People hear about us from partners and clients that have experience working with us, says Bension.

The firm also uses third-party tools such as Mahi to complement its offering. “Because we’re a small team, we leverage off tech from a few different sources,” says Bension. “Some of our partners come from Citadel, Morgan Stanley, and Barcap — they bring the tech, we bring the distribution, for example our recent partnership with TOA Labs.”

 

Afterprime: Retail Pricing Disruption

Afterprime inherits the execution ethos from Argamon but competes in the retail space. The model is simple but potentially disruptive: zero commissions, all-in pricing significantly below the industry average, and in a world’s first, paying up to $3 per lot ($15pm) to clients for their trading volume.

 

“Our all-in cost including zero commission + spreads are around 74% cheaper than the industry average and 41% cheaper than the next best broker on forexbenchmark.com,” says Kinstlinger. “We’re not just claiming to be the lowest cost — we’ve got independent data to back it up.”

 

 

'See Your Cost Advantage'

Afterprime's 'See Your Cost Advantage' Calculator (Source: LiquidityFinder)

 

So confident are they at the potential cost savings for clients, Jeremy and Elan have created a "See Your Cost Advantage" calculator, working with ForexBenchmark, where you can select 60+ other brokers to compare savings on the amount of trades you do, monthly average return over a defined time period. You can view the calculator on LiquidityFinder here

 

The “Get Paid to Trade” concept is, according to Kinstlinger, unprecedented in CFDs, or any other brokerage model. “Robinhood brought zero-commission trading to equities. But in any brokerage space, no one has ever said, ‘We’ll pay you to trade, on zero commissions’” Kinstlinger says. Afterprime flips the model — turning trading volume into a new revenue stream for the trader, on top of the significant cost savings.

 

It’s invite-only and designed for professional traders, not beginners. “If you’re paying $7 per lot elsewhere and we’re paying you up to $3 per lot plus charging zero commission, that’s a $10 per lot advantage,” Kinstlinger explains. “One of our largest clients are already saving $140,000 a month in commissions and would be looking to earn between $20,000 and $40,000 a month from flow incentives.”

 

Not For Everyone — And By Invitation

Afterprime’s client acquisition strategy deliberately avoids the $500-deposit mass retail model. “It’s not about the number of accounts,” says Kinstlinger. “It’s about attracting professional traders and giving them the best environment to win.”

 

Prospective clients apply for access, stating their trading style, volume and objectives. Existing member referrals are fast-tracked. The broker is also building a private client community for it’s members, alongside the public Discord already on offer. 

 

The application process involves answering a series of (very sensible) questions to root out the more serious traders, and checks for aligned flow which is anything that is not toxic such as latency arbitrage for example. 

 

Crypto And Multi-Asset Capability

Afterprime offers FX, metals, and crypto CFDs, sourcing most crypto liquidity in-house with its partnership with TOA Labs. “Ninety-five percent of our crypto order flow is passively worked into exchanges and private venues,” says Bension. “Our execution costs have come down dramatically, so we can pass some of those savings onto our clients.”

 

The company also creates synthetic pairs for specific client needs, such as digital currencies against JPY for a Japanese broker.

 

Strategic Separation — Shared Philosophy

While Argamon and Afterprime operate in different market segments, the execution philosophy overlaps:

🔸 Alignment with clients by avoiding the conflict-heavy pure B-book model.

🔸 Leveraging futures markets to manage risk quickly and efficiently.

🔸 Deep liquidity relationships built over a decade.

🔸 Technology partnerships rather than over-investment in in-house builds.

 

Bension is clear that their approach is long-term. “We’re here for the long term, enjoying the ride, and now it’s about capturing market share.”

 

The Road Ahead

Both companies are gearing up for growth in 2025–26. Argamon will continue building its reputation among brokers and institutional clients for reliable market-making and bespoke liquidity. Afterprime’s near-term focus is responding to the full launch of its 2.0 platform, new website, and marketing campaign built around the “Get Paid to Trade on the Lowest Verified Costs” model.

 

 Kinstlinger is confident: “The market average costs 285% more than Afterprime, and even the second-best is 70% higher. On top of that we’ll pay you to trade. No one’s ever done that in this industry.”

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