Portware, a supplier of multi-asset electronic trading systems, has said interest in its Strategy Server algorithmic engine has increased strongly as traditional buy-side firms look to take advantage of, and better understand, high-frequency trading.
Strategy Server allows users to build their own high volume, high-frequency trading strategies. It combines trading-specific functionality with complex event processing (CEP) and offers real-time market data and connections to over 400 trading venues and brokers.
While Strategy Server’s main clients are quantitative funds and proprietary trading desks looking to develop their own high-frequency trading strategies and automate their workflow, Ary Khatchikian, president and chief technology officer at Portware, notes that institutional buy-side firms are also looking to take advantage of the product’s functionality.
“We have recently seen an increase in the number of institutional buy-side firms using Strategy Server to give them more control over their flow and introduce some quantitative strategies into their trading,” Khatchikian told theTRADEnews.com. “We provide real-time analytics so the buy-side can see their market footprint and participation with these strategies, as well as being able to detect when they are being gamed and what kind of flow they are interacting with.”
Khatchikian added that sell-side firms with reduced budgets and fewer IT staff are also opting to buy trading functionality from vendors rather than build it themselves.
“Strategy Server gives hedge funds, prop desks and traders the tools they need in a production environment, such as specialised market data feeds and prime broker access, to get their models up and running very quickly,” he said. “It also gives them the mechanics to build their own standard algorithms, such as VWAP and TWAP, and stat-arb strategies.”
In addition to the increasing interest in high-frequency equities and options strategies, Khatchikian noted a strong growth in building customised strategies for foreign exchange (FX) trading, especially among quant firms, who he said are keen to assume more control over FX execution using the Strategy Server’s prime brokerage connections and smart order routing capabilities.