Agency broker and technology firm Investment Technology Group (ITG) has launched Raider, an execution algorithm for the US market that is designed to quickly seize opportunities in fast-moving markets.
Raider simultaneously accesses both lit and dark venues, including ITG’s own POSIT Marketplace, which combines flow from the firm’s POSIT Now and POSIT Match crossing engines, the ITG Dark Algorithm and external pools. As the algorithm does not post orders on the lit venues, they remain completely hidden.
Instead of using a benchmark, Raider identifies attractive spreads, executes quickly to capture them and then pulls back as the liquidity dries up and the spread widens again. The algorithm also allows users to specify the urgency of the trade, so its behaviour ranges from stealthy to aggressive.
“Raider uses multiple analytics to determine the right time to trade,” Hitesh Mittal, managing director at ITG, told theTRADEnews.com. “The first is spread: if the spread is very small it captures that. The second is the amount of available liquidity.” Mittal adds that the algorithm is particularly suited to today’s volatile equity market conditions.
According to Mittal, Raider’s unique selling points are its access to POSIT Marketplace, which is not open to third-party broker algorithms, and the strategy’s stealth and speed at capturing opportunities.
Raider can be accessed from any ITG execution or order management system –Triton, Radical, ITG Channel and Macgregor XIP – or any third-party EMS or OMS.