Expanding program trading capabilities will top the list of priorities for execution and order management software provider Linedata next year, driven by buy-side demand, the firm’s head of trading technology has said.
The execution and order management system provider will build out program trading functionality in new system releases due next year alongside advanced data visualisation and news features, according to David Hagen, vice president, Global Trading Technologies for Linedata.
“We’re expanding our program trading capabilities for next year, which has been driven by our clients,” Hagen told theTRADEnews.com. “Eight different heads of program trading desks [at long-only asset managers] have specifically asked for this functionality.”
Linedata’s clients include some of the largest traditional, long-only asset managers.
Hagen said a growing number of buy-side heads of trading were keen to make traders more relevant, as trading desks reduce headcount in favour of a greater reliance on algorithmic and technology-based trading.
As such, asset managers have indicated they are keen to empower buy-side traders to take a greater role across the entire investment process through new trading tools.
One such tool Linedata will offer next year is a widget that sits in the execution management system that gives a buy-side trader visibility over portfolio managers’ (PM) past activity.
“A trader will be able to see what names the PM has bought in the past, at what price and in what size, and how the trade performed, so he can alert the PM to suggest a trade in that same stock, or a similar stock if it meets those variables,” he said.