Institutional trading network Liquidnet has begun the roll-out of its new Asian platform and is introducing it to local clients this month.
“We’re in the process of rolling out a new platform while we’re out here and that has been creating a lot of buzz,” said Seth Merrin, founder and CEO of Liquidnet who has been visiting Asia. “We’re evolving from being a useful tool in our clients’ execution arsenal to becoming a decision management platform. It helps them work every order via decision making and analysis. It’s a much broader platform and it will enable clients to handle algo trading in an easier and more intuitive way We’re adding features on a monthly basis”
The new platform is already on the desktops of a handful of clients in Asia. The business is currently undertaking a further 40 demonstrations of its capabilities during the remainder of this month.
“The upgrade allows us to deliver different products through one channel and be more flexible,” said Lee Porter, Liquidnet’s head of Asia Pacific. “It changes the workflow a little, requiring less clicks to get through to a solution.”
The new platform encapsulates core crossing, transaction cost analysis, commission management, pre- and post-trade analytics and the ability to interact with algos provided by either Liquidnet or other providers.
“Our plan is to get all Asian clients on the new platform during the rest of the year. The wrinkles are being ironed out and it is now being deployed,” said Porter. “It is being done in a phased approach so that problems can be fixed. Everyone has their own workflows and their own nuances and wrinkles. As we get that feedback we take it back to the States and bake it into the next iterations of the product.”
Liquidnet has 280 members in Asia across 11 markets, with an average execution size per trade of US$1.2 million. Business was up 23% year on year at the end of July 2014 and both the first and second quarters showed record volumes.
Japanese business was up 140% year-on-year and that now accounts for 20-25% of Liquidnet’s Asian business, which in individual country terms means that Japan jockeys with Australia in second place behind Liquidnet’s Hong Kong crossings.