Trading technology provider Fidessa has launched an international trading service that allows brokers to trade equities listed on a range of international exchanges without holding memberships. The service is available through Fidessa’s hosted trading platform in the US.
The decision to offer the service was ultimately driven by the buy-side’s desire to broaden their trading horizons, according to David Polen, senior vice president of product marketing at Fidessa. “We saw a real interest among the buy-side to trade on an international basis, and we saw our clients, the brokers, picking up that thread, coming to us and saying, ‘We need this ability’,” Polen told theTRADEnews.com. “I think the recent volatility in the market will only emphasise the need to diversify geographically.”
The new service is designed to support both US brokers without international operations, and also global brokers who have clients in the US. It grants US brokers access to markets in Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Brokers wanting to trade on exchanges where they are not members can use Fidessa’s global connectivity network to route orders to firms that have the relevant exchange memberships – either subsidiaries of their own group or other brokers.
“We have a large receiving broker network globally,” explained Polen. “We allow a US firm to act with their own entities in other regions and we have 310 receiving brokers globally so they can really reach out into regions where they don’t have a presence.” He added, “ We will of course continually add new brokers to the Fidessa network.”
As well as the 310 brokers, Fidessa’s global network also comprises 1,800 buy-side firms and 100 trading venues worldwide.
According to Fidessa, a number of brokers are already using the new service for domestic and international trading. The company plans to have more than 80 international markets available by the end of the year.
The integration of the new service with Fidessa’s US hosted trading platform gives users a consolidated view of both their international and domestic orders and positions. It also grants brokers access to Fidessa’s network of global ticker plants, which provide market prices from trading venues, news, fundamentals, charts and analysis.