More than 20 clients have signed up to use trading technology firm Fidessa’s European Intelligent Liquidity Access (ILA) strategy since the launch of its first phase in April, the firm said. Clients include founder members of trading platform Turquoise. According to Fidessa, there is also a pipeline of European clients due to sign up in the next few months.
The first stage of the Intelligent Liquidity Access Strategy packages Fidessa’s smart order routing capabilities with low-latency connectivity and distribution; a virtual market grid that provides a view across all the different markets; smart order workflow to support the consolidation of positions across multiple venues; and specific access to Turquoise, Equiduct and Chi-X. It is the first in a series of scheduled releases over the next 18 months.
The second stage of the strategy is due for release at the end of 2008. It will incorporate additional smart order routing functionality, and will include access to BATS Europe and Nasdaq OMX Europe. A third stage will add specific dark routing and reporting capabilities, before a hybrid version providing combined dark and light routing becomes available in 2009.
“With the introduction of a number of new MTFs and the need for smart order routing, Investec has used Fidessa’s ILA offering to engage with these venues, allowing us to provide best execution for our clients and thereby delivering a higher level of service,” said Trevor Gatfield, head of operations at asset management firm Investec, in a statement.
“We put a great deal of thought into the implications of multiple liquidity destinations and worked hard to develop a comprehensive set of tools that support the new smart workflow that our enterprise and hosted clients require,” said Steve Grob, director of strategy, Fidessa. “Fidessa’s European ILA offering enables clients to really take advantage of trading across the post-MiFID landscape and eliminates much of the extensive effort required to develop such essential capabilities in-house.”