Buy-side calls for access to more trading venues – Fidessa

Fidessa LatentZero, a front-office software provider, has credited the 60% increase in users of its EMS Workstation execution management system in 2008 to the buy-side’s growing need to connect to more trading venues, particularly across Europe.
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Fidessa LatentZero, a front-office software provider, has credited the 60% increase in users of its EMS Workstation execution management system in 2008 to the buy-side’s growing need to connect to more trading venues, particularly across Europe.

“There has definitely been a group of clients that are looking to take on more broker services to cope with the growing number of markets they need to access,” Russell Thornton, EMS product manager, Fidessa LatentZero, told theTRADEnews.com. “The focus on trying to get out to different venues and making sure your orders are treated in the right way has become more important.”

Fidessa’s EMS Workstation is an internet-deployed, broker-neutral low-latency trading platform for equities and equity derivatives. It offers access to over 115 execution venues and 360 brokers globally and offers integrated access to algorithms from over 40 brokers. The increase in 2008 takes the total number of EMS Workstation clients to around 190.

This year, Fidessa plans to increase program trading functionality and add all US options data to widen its EMS client base.

“At the moment, the EMS is well suited to smaller hedge funds, but we hope that when we increase the program trading capabilities in the first half of this year, take up will be higher from long-only traders,” said Thornton. “US options data will be added around Q2-Q3 and will be targeted towards the US domestic market.”

In addition, Fidessa is expanding its Asian operations because of growing client demand in the region. The firm is opening a larger Asian headquarters in Hong Kong and appointing more staff in the region.

According to the firm, the impetus for growth was the Asian launch of the Fidessa LatentZero buy-side product suite and its hosted Asian trading, market data and connectivity platform for brokers, which now has 10 clients signed up to it.

“As our client base expands across the Asian region, it is important that we have the staff and infrastructure required to support these customers,” said Nevin Price, Fidessa’s regional manager for Asia, in a statement. “The staff numbers in Hong Kong have increased by over twofold in the last couple of years to 100 people, and the new office here, combined with the business continuity centre we opened last

year, will allow us to scale our operations further as our business grows.”

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