Portware to expand Alpha Pro to FX execution
Execution management and post-trade services provider Portware is to adapt Alpha Pro, the algorithmic execution tool it acquired from Aritas Group earlier this month, for FX transactions.
Aritas, formerly known as Pipeline, first launched Alpha Pro last summer as a tool to help buy-side traders find the optimal strategy for different types of trades. Alpha Pro uses real-time predictive analytics and market signals to recommend trading strategies and works in conjunction with the firm’s Algorithmic Switching Engine to choose appropriate algorithms over the course of the trade. The technology draws on 180 different algo strategies in total.
Portware is currently adapting the Alpha Pro tool and the Algorithmic Switching Engine, with a view to launching it in the FX space as early as June.
“This is a
natural extension of our broker-neutral trading solutions, and allows us to
partner with the entire broker community to maximise the benefit of these
advanced analytics,” said Alfred Eskandar, CEO of Portware. “Our goal is to
empower traders to analyse, communicate and execute their investment ideas in
an automated way. This acquisition allows us to offer any firm, regardless of
size, an extraordinary level of automation and choice in their trading
workflows. Clients can direct order flow to multiple brokers, improve execution
quality, and reduce trading costs while delivering consistent results across
multiple strategies.”
NYSE Technologies brings cloud platform to Europe
NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology arm of NYSE Euronext, has expanded its Capital Markets Community Platform into Europe. Operating from NYSE Euronext’s European liquidity centre in Basildon, UK, the cloud-based platform was designed to increase business agility, simplify market access and reduce trading friction by using on-demand computing resources.
NYSE Technologies worked together with computing firms EMC and VMware to develop the offering. Originally launched on 1 July 2011 from NYSE Euronext’s US liquidity centre in Mahwah New jersey, the Community Platform provides direct, on-demand access to the NYSE Technologies portfolio of low-latency services including Superfeed, Managed Transaction Hub and the Secure Financial Transactions Infrastructure network.
“Innovations such as NYSE Technologies’ Capital Markets Community Platform provide solutions that will drive efficiencies in the capital markets at a critical time, and help our customers unlock their potential,” said Dominique Cerutti, president and deputy CEO, NYSE Euronext. “Our cloud-based Capital Markets Community Platform empowers market participants, who are looking to reduce their IT infrastructure costs as well as gain rapid access to global markets and market information.”
RenCap connects to emerging markets via SunGard
Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital, which specialises in emerging markets, has joined financial technology provider SunGard's Global Network (SGN).
Renaissance Capital will be able to provide brokerage services for the Russian markets to the 2,000 asset managers and 530 brokers linked by SunGard’s international trading network.
SGN community members will also be able to route trade order flow via RenCap directly to Russia’s MICEX-RTS Exchange Group and the London Stock Exchange’s international order book, where Russian stocks comprise 92% of trade volume.
“Connecting to the SunGard Global Network will help us expand our geographic reach and increase our visibility globally,” said Sam Atkins, head of electronic trading group product development and exchange connectivity at Renaissance Capital. “Firms linked to the SunGard Global Network will be able to access our advisory services and leverage our expertise to access both emerging and frontier markets.”
Meanwhile, SunGard has extended its suite of securities finance solutions with the launch of Apex JSFC Trade Manager, which is designed to help reduce the costs and increase the productivity of lenders participating in the Japan Securities Finance Corporation (JSFC) daily auction of securities lending requirements.
Each day, the JSFC publishes the borrow requirements of market participants so that holders of stocks can submit their best offers in an effort to capture those lending opportunities. Apex JSGC Trade Manager automates the bid submission process and offers analytical tools to help traders determine the best quantity and fee for each stock and make better bids.
FlexTrade Systems connects to SIX Swiss Exchange
Execution and order management systems vendor FlexTrade Systems has become an approved independent software vendor with SIX Swiss Exchange.
FlexTrade will provide direct access to SIX Swiss Exchange via its execution management system, FlexTRADER, a multi-asset trading solution with pre-defined strategies and tactics for both portfolio and single stock trading. The platform provides real-time and post-trade analytics (FlexTQM), predictive analytics (FlexEdge) as well as risk and cost-optimised portfolio trade scheduling tool (FlexPTS).
It also provides integrations with order management systems, integrated real-time allocations and cash management, smart order routing, a complex event processing engine, commission management, transaction and IOI quality management and a strategy matrix.
Cinnober acquires Nomura’s Swedish technology centre
Trading technology provider Cinnober has agreed to buy Nomura’s Swedish technology development organisation in Umea. The deal includes 40 specialists in developing equity trading applications and platforms.
The acquisition provides Cinnober with expertise in execution services as well as high-volume, low-latency data warehousing and is part of the firm’s planned expansion of its product portfolio.
The technology development office stems from a Swedish financial IT company called Interbizz, founded in 2000. In 2003, Lehman Brothers acquired the company, which later was responsible for developing the London Stock Exchange multilateral trading facility system Baikal, among others. Nomura acquired the business as part of its purchase of Lehman Brothers' European and Asian businesses in 2008. The main focus for Nomura’s Umea team has been developing detailed analytics in real time. The team has also delivered platforms for trade reporting, market statistics and information.
“This is a great step in our company’s development and moves us toward our vision for growth ahead,” said Nils-Robert Persson, executive chairman of Cinnober. “I am very pleased that we’re now expanding our family with many highly skilled developers who – like the team in Stockholm – also have a proven track record within financial technology for marketplaces, banks and brokers.”
Meanwhile, data centre services provider Equinix has entered into an agreement to acquire ancotel, a provider of carrier-neutral co-location and interconnection services in Europe. With the acquisition of ancotel, Equinix gains one data centre in Frankfurt with 2,100 square meters of data centre capacity and increases its European network density by adding more than 400 network customers, which includes 200 new networks and 6,000 cross-connects.
The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2012, while ancotel’s assets also include edge nodes in Hong Kong, London and Miami, giving Equinix additional points of presence in these markets.
Bloomberg acquires PolarLake, launches EDM services
Bloomberg has acquired Dublin-based software provider PolarLake and is launching a new enterprise data management (EDM) service to help companies acquire, manage and distribute data across their organisations.
EDM is the process by which a firm manages reference data through its entire supply chain: how it acquires, shares, cleanses, manages, owns and distributes data to all users. Bloomberg’s new EDM unit, with the addition of PolarLake, will allow firms to increase their efficiency by better managing high volumes of data from multiple sources, either third parties or proprietary sources.
PolarLake will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bloomberg, but will operate as an independent business unit.
“The PolarLake purchase is a strong signal to the marketplace that Bloomberg intends to be a leader in the enterprise data management business,” said Thomas Secunda, Bloomberg co-founder and global head of Bloomberg’s financial products and services.