Sungard extends buy-side suite in US, Europe

IT firm Sungard’s acquisition of trading technology company GL TRADE will give European buy-side firms better access to Sungard’s trading product suite and allow Sungard’s US buy-side clients to tap brokers in Europe and Asia.

A senior executive at Sungard’s Global Trading division, the unit formed from GL TRADE, told theTRADEnews.com that the firms’ integration would allow Sungard to expand its European buy-side client base by using GL TRADE’s European distribution for its trading products.

Yassine Brahim, segment president of Global Trading at Sungard, told a press conference in London yesterday that the acquisition, completed in November last year, will also enable Sungard’s US buy-side clients to broaden their investment horizons.

“The US buy-side community wants to move into Europe and Asia,” said Brahim. “GL TRADE is bringing a brokerage community that is very important to Sungard’s buy-side community.”

Users of Sungard’s existing trading tools, which include the Brass order management system and a range of market access tools, are predominantly used US buy-side firms, while GL TRADE’s client base is more heavily weighted to the sell-side in Europe and Asia. The acquisition will grant Sungard’s clients use of GL Net, an order routing and execution network of more than 300 brokers that provides direct market access to over 140 markets. Clients can also use brokers’ algorithms via GL Net.

EU: Final end-of-waste criteria report emerges

The European commission's joint research centre (JRC) has published its final recommendations on how to define when certain waste streams that have undergone recovery cease to be waste under EU law.

Under the recently revised EU waste framework directive, the European commission must assess the need for so-called end-of-waste criteria for several waste streams.

The JRC proposes a general methodology and principles for defining end-of-waste criteria at EU level. It says the criteria should cover the input waste material, the recovery processes used, the quality of the resulting product and its potential applications.

The report recommends quality control procedures to ensure criteria are met and suggests impact assessment guidelines for deciding whether such criteria should be set in the first place. The report includes case studies on setting end-of-waste criteria for compost, scrap metal and recyclable aggregates.

The commission is expected to publish its proposals for possible end-of-waste criteria by the end of this year.

MiFID benefits “an illusion”, despite price improvement

Instinet Europe’s chief executive has claimed that many of MiFID’s benefits “are illusory to the end-investor”, despite the agency broker reporting that it had achieved an average of 5.72 basis points of price improvement for clients in Q4 2008.

“We pass all price improvement back to our customers,” asserted Instinet Europe’s Richard Balarkas. “But there are a whole host of models on the sell-side. There seems to be little appreciation on the buy-side of the opportunity cost of using a broker that internalises a large percentage of flow, compared to one that opens up to as many external venues as possible,” he said.

Price improvement is generally defined as the difference between execution price and the best quoted price on the primary exchange at a given time. Instinet Europe data is based only on executions that remove liquidity from MTFs over the period in question.

Instinet Europe said it routed nearly 28% of its European equity trades away from primary exchanges by value traded in Q4 2008. The agency broker was among the first sell-side firms to connect to the multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) launched last year: BATS Europe, Nasdaq OMX Europe, Turquoise and dark pool NYFIX Euro Millennium. During 2008, the firm also executed the first trade on SWX’s Swiss Block dark pool, launched its own MTF, BlockMatch, and, along with Credit Suisse, became the first broker in Europe to offer reciprocal dark pool access. Instinet Europe executed 35.42% of its trades in French, German, Dutch and UK stocks on MTFs in the final quarter of 2008.

Dark trading doubles in US despite volatility - Rosenblatt

US dark pool trading more than doubled in 2008, according to an analysis by boutique agency brokerage Rosenblatt Securities.

The latest edition of ‘Let there be light’, the firm’s monthly dark liquidity tracker, noted that trading activity in 18 of the most significant US dark pools accounted 8.9% of December 2008’s total consolidated equity volume, up from 4.04% in January. A handful of dark pools operational in December, however, either had not launched or did not report their figures to Rosenblatt during January.

The report particularly noted the success of Level ATS, which saw a 115% increase in volumes through the year, Knight Link (up 107.6%), Credit Suisse Crossfinder (116.9%). Direct Edge (270.7%) and Getco Execution Services, which has become the fourth largest dark pool in terms of average daily volume, in the US since its launch on 19 March.

According to Rosenblatt, Direct Edge’s Enhanced Liquidity Provider (ELP) programme, which aggregates non-displayed orders from other dark pools, and new ROUD and ROUE dark order types, were a major driver for the platform’s growth.

EU: Final end-of-waste criteria report emerges

The European commission's joint research centre (JRC) has published its final recommendations on how to define when certain waste streams that have undergone recovery cease to be waste under EU law.

Under the recently revised EU waste framework directive, the European commission must assess the need for so-called end-of-waste criteria for several waste streams.

The JRC proposes a general methodology and principles for defining end-of-waste criteria at EU level. It says the criteria should cover the input waste material, the recovery processes used, the quality of the resulting product and its potential applications.

The report recommends quality control procedures to ensure criteria are met and suggests impact assessment guidelines for deciding whether such criteria should be set in the first place. The report includes case studies on setting end-of-waste criteria for compost, scrap metal and recyclable aggregates.

InfoReach TMS to be deployed in global markets by Marco Polo Network

InfoReach, a trading technology provider, is to have its InfoReach trade management system (TMS) distributed in the emerging markets by Marco Polo Network, an electronic trading platform.

The InfoReach TMS manages equities, futures, options and foreign exchange and combines order-entry, rule-based trading, order management, and FIX connectivity in a single broker-neutral trading platform. It also has basket trading, order routing, pre- and post-trade allocations, advanced algorithms and real-time position monitoring capabilities.

“Firms in emerging markets require advanced tools to help them navigate a rapidly changing global marketplace,” said Allen Zaydlin, CEO, InfoReach. “They need best execution via a scalable and flexible trading platform. This partnership with Marco Polo Network enables our trading technology to be used and deployed in these markets.”

Marco Polo Network will also use the full InfoReach product to develop its proprietary algorithms for Brazil, Mexico and other active markets. It has been branded Logita, and has already been deployed to two clients.

Brazilian broker breaks new ground with Apama

Software provider Progress Apama has predicted strengthening Brazilian demand for algorithmic trading solutions after unveiling its first client in the country, broker Ágora Corretora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliaro.

Giles Nelson, senior director of strategy at Apama, Progress Software’s complex event processing and algorithmic trading tools division, said both buy- and sell-side firms in Brazil are increasingly interested in using trading algorithms to facilitate their strategies.

“Algorithmic trading in Brazil is getting a lot of interest at the moment,” Nelson told theTRADEnews.com. “Brazil’s economy has been growing quite quickly, the market is quite liberal in nature and there is an increased amount of electronic trading generally. Because there is not much history of using technology for trading, it is easy for firms to adopt algorithmic trading technology without interfering with legacy systems. That combination of circumstances means it is a fairly hot market for us at the moment.”

This week, Apama announced that Ágora Corretora, a subsidiary of Banco Bradesco, had chosen Apama’s complex event processing (CEP) platform to support algorithmic trading in its equities operation.

Sungard extends buy-side suite in US, Europe

IT firm Sungard’s acquisition of trading technology company GL TRADE will give European buy-side firms better access to Sungard’s trading product suite and allow Sungard’s US buy-side clients to tap brokers in Europe and Asia.

A senior executive at Sungard’s Global Trading division, the unit formed from GL TRADE, told theTRADEnews.com that the firms’ integration would allow Sungard to expand its European buy-side client base by using GL TRADE’s European distribution for its trading products.

Yassine Brahim, segment president of Global Trading at Sungard, told a press conference in London yesterday that the acquisition, completed in November last year, will also enable Sungard’s US buy-side clients to broaden their investment horizons.

“The US buy-side community wants to move into Europe and Asia,” said Brahim. “GL TRADE is bringing a brokerage community that is very important to Sungard’s buy-side community.”

Sungard extends buy-side suite in US, Europe

IT firm Sungard’s acquisition of trading technology company GL TRADE will give European buy-side firms better access to Sungard’s trading product suite and allow Sungard’s US buy-side clients to tap brokers in Europe and Asia.

A senior executive at Sungard’s Global Trading division, the unit formed from GL TRADE, told theTRADEnews.com that the firms’ integration would allow Sungard to expand its European buy-side client base by using GL TRADE’s European distribution for its trading products.

Yassine Brahim, segment president of Global Trading at Sungard, told a press conference in London yesterday that the acquisition, completed in November last year, will also enable Sungard’s US buy-side clients to broaden their investment horizons.

“The US buy-side community wants to move into Europe and Asia,” said Brahim. “GL TRADE is bringing a brokerage community that is very important to Sungard’s buy-side community.”

Users of Sungard’s existing trading tools, which include the Brass order management system and a range of market access tools, are predominantly used US buy-side firms, while GL TRADE’s client base is more heavily weighted to the sell-side in Europe and Asia. The acquisition will grant Sungard’s clients use of GL Net, an order routing and execution network of more than 300 brokers that provides direct market access to over 140 markets. Clients can also use brokers’ algorithms via GL Net.

InfoReach TMS to be deployed in global markets by Marco Polo Network

InfoReach, a trading technology provider, is to have its InfoReach trade management system (TMS) distributed in the emerging markets by Marco Polo Network, an electronic trading platform.

The InfoReach TMS manages equities, futures, options and foreign exchange and combines order-entry, rule-based trading, order management, and FIX connectivity in a single broker-neutral trading platform. It also has basket trading, order routing, pre- and post-trade allocations, advanced algorithms and real-time position monitoring capabilities.

“Firms in emerging markets require advanced tools to help them navigate a rapidly changing global marketplace,” said Allen Zaydlin, CEO, InfoReach. “They need best execution via a scalable and flexible trading platform. This partnership with Marco Polo Network enables our trading technology to be used and deployed in these markets.”

Marco Polo Network will also use the full InfoReach product to develop its proprietary algorithms for Brazil, Mexico and other active markets. It has been branded Logita, and has already been deployed to two clients.

ISE establishes alternative primary market maker programme

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) has established an alternative primary market maker program to support new listings. Under the programme, ISE's competitive market makers (CMM) will be eligible to serve as the primary market maker (PMM) in certain options products and will assume the associated quoting responsibilities and order allocation privileges.

By extending the number of firms who can act as PMMs, ISE is broadening the pool of potential liquidity providers eligible to support new product introductions.

Previously, the ISE was only able to introduce a new listing if an existing PMM expressed interest in quoting the product. With the new programme, existing PMMs retain the first right to any potential new listings but if no interest in quoting a new or existing product is shown, CMMs participants will have the opportunity to be designated as a PMM.

Lehman buy will make BarCap “one-stop” execution service

Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the UK’s Barclays Bank, said it plans to become a best-of-breed global multi-asset execution service provider following the acquisition of the North American assets of collapsed US bank Lehman Brothers.

“Our plan is to integrate the best of both worlds,” Frank Troise, head of equities electronic product trading at Barclays Capital, told theTRADEnews.com. “Barclays Capital has traditionally been strong in areas such as FX, commodities, futures and high-frequency electronic equities trading. All of these capabilities are extremely complementary to Lehman Brothers’ strengths in analytics, internalisation, smart routing and algorithms for equities and options.”

The combined trade execution offering has been up and running for four months, having been launched just weeks after the deal to buy Lehman’s North American assets was agreed. As part of the acquisition, BarCap inherited Lehman’s pre-trade analytics tool Web Bench, LX internal crossing network, algorithms, direct market access capabilities, FIX connections and trading platform.

BarCap claims that existing Lehman clients have been able to conduct business as usual, with clients of both banks now taking advantage of a wider range of services that cover more markets globally.

“We are seeing an increased client demand for a one-stop shop from electronic execution,” said Brian Fagen, co-head of Americas liquid market sales at Barclays Capital. “Going to separate providers for individual products was frustrating for our clients and makes this combination a great fit.”

LSE hires former Lehman exec to succeed Clara Furse

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has named Xavier Rolet, former head of investment bank Lehman Brothers’ French operation, as its next CEO, replacing Clara Furse.

Rolet will join the LSE’s group board on 16 March, and take the helm from Furse on 20 May, ending her eight-year tenure as the exchange’s CEO. Furse will remain a director of the group until its annual general meeting in July.

Rolet served as a senior executive of Lehman Brothers (Europe) – now owned by Japanese investment bank Nomura – between 2000 and 2008, most recently as CEO of Lehman France. Before joining Lehman, Rolet held senior equity trading positions at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs.

New Chi-X hires to facilitate platform growth

Chi-X Europe, the pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), has added to its management team in preparation for the venue’s next stage of expansion.

“The appointments will make sure we have the right resources to deal with the growth of the platform and any challenges as they present themselves,” Peter Randall, CEO, Chi-X, told theTRADEnews.com.

Denzil Jenkins joins as director of regulation, having previously managed wholesale investment banking supervision projects at the UK’s Financial Services Authority. He was also responsible for the regulator’s team that supervised equity exchanges and MTFs, both before and after the implementation of MiFID.

“Denzil's appointment stems from the ever increasing interest from European and national regulators,” said Randall. “Ensuring we operate a fair and orderly market means we have to be ahead of the game when it comes to market surveillance.”

Customer, deal-maker, CEO: What will Rolet bring to LSE role?

Former Lehman Brothers France CEO Giles Rolet, who will take the helm of the London Stock Exchange from long-serving chief Clara Furse on 20 May, could be the shot in the arm the exchange needs to cope with its current challenges, according to market observers.

Rolet has a strong background in trade execution. Before his eight-year stint at Lehman Brothers (Europe), he held senior equity trading positions at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs. Some feel this experience could help the exchange weather the storm.

“Volumes are down everywhere and all trading venues are competing for a smaller pot,” said Bob McDowall research director for Europe at research and advisory firm TowerGroup. “In this environment, it is all about the basic issues of quality and speed of execution. The appointment shows that the exchange is a little rattled by the inroads that some of the alternative trading venues are making into blue-chip stocks.”

In recent months, the LSE, like other major European exchanges, has been rocked by competition from multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and dwindling trading volumes and values. The average daily value of trades on the LSE fell 60% £6.2 billion in January 2009 from the record volumes seen in January 2008.

McDowall also expects Rolet to focus on resilience of the LSE’s systems. “The LSE clearly can’t have another outage as they did on 8 September last year. In that sense he is the right man for the times,” he said.

Credit Suisse AES forges derivatives links

Investment bank Credit Suisse’s Advanced Execution Services (AES) division, which supplies algorithms and trading tools to the buy-side, has expanded its derivatives capabilities by joining financial software firm Orc’s ExNet broker connectivity network and launching a joint offering with US options pricing and analytics firm Derivix.

AES’s new link with ExNet, which provides hedge funds, proprietary traders and other advanced traders access to liquidity pools, allows users of Orc’s trading systems to trade futures, options and cash equities using AES algorithms and market access.

“In particular, we have an advanced set of algorithms available in derivatives markets where Orc Software is well known,” said Guy Cirillo, global head of channel sales at Credit Suisse AES. “Now, Orc and Credit Suisse customers can together take advantage of our execution algorithms and market connections.”The joint solution with Derivix will allow the firm’s customers direct access to AES’s options and stock algorithms for use alongside Derivix’s options pricing and analytics. Using FIX connectivity, options traders will be able to access AES from within Derivix’s analytics front-end.

Nasdaq OMX installs low-latency Colombian trading platform

The Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC), Colombia’s domestic stock exchange, has launched a new high-speed cash equities trading system powered by Nasdaq OMX technology.

The new BVC system was introduced on 9 February and offers a high-volume, low-latency platform for market participants in Colombia.

The new engine will enable algorithmic and high-velocity traders to trade on the platform, as well as allowing the introduction of new trading products and services.

“Through our new equities system we are in a great position to grow business at our exchange and thus reach our 2015 goal of 200 new companies and 1.5 million Colombian families investing in our market,” said Juan Pablo Córdoba, president, BVC.

Brokers bidding against themselves in LCH battle

US post-trade processing firm Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) member-owned structure could complicate its battle to acquire European clearing house LCH.Clearnet.

The DTCC revealed its bid for LCH.Clearnet last October, but earlier this month a consortium of brokers, including inter-dealer broker ICAP, signalled its intention to launch a counter-offer. Many of the firms reportedly involved in the consortium either have significant US subsidiaries that are member-owners of DTCC, or, in the case of US institutions, are members themselves.

In challenging the DTCC for possession of LCH.Clearnet, consortium members are effectively competing with an organisation in which they collectively own a substantial stake.

“We don’t want get into a bidding situation where a firm is bidding against a branch of the same firm,” said a source familiar with the situation.

The brokers reported to be involved in the consortium with ICAP are BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, Société Générale and UBS. ICAP is the only firm that has publicly confirmed its participation.

Trading Technologies upgrades derivatives platform

Trading Technologies (TT) has released X_TRADER 7.6, the latest version of its derivatives trading platform. The new version adds features designed to enhance functionality, usability, deployment and user administration.

“In this tough economy, traders are demanding more and more from their trading platforms,” said Harris Brumfield, CEO, TT, in a statement. “This new version of X_TRADER incorporates a number of enhancements and should give our customers an advantage.”

X_TRADER 7.6 improves performance across all major functional areas, including price updates, order handling, contract loading and workspace opening. The new version also benefits from TT’s upcoming PFX price protocol architecture, which is designed to maximise the speed of price delivery, minimise the size of price messages, reduce client interactions with the price server and achieve faster price recovery in network outages.

X_TRADER 7.6 also provides new ways to filter and manipulate the display of market data, price movements and specific trading activity.

Smart Trade liquidity management tool adopts CEP

Smart Trade Technologies has agreed a deal to integrate EsperTech’s complex event processing (CEP) capabilities into its smartTrade liquidity management system (LMS).

The smartTrade LMS is used by buy- and sell-side firms to manage liquidity for best execution, smart routing of orders across multiple asset classes and geographies, and tighter control of order flow for risk management purposes. The system comprises four elements: LiquidityAggregator; LiquidityCrosser; LiquidityOrchestrator, a smart-order router; and LiquidityConnect, which link to multiple execution venues.

EsperTech uses an open-source Java CEP engine that detects and correlates complex situations in real time when user-defined conditions occur among large volume event streams. CEP is used by financial market participants to identify and exploit trading patterns using streams of market data.