Portware CEO Details Upgrades in Latest Version of EMS

The latest release, version 6.4, is a combination of responding to customer feedback, adding custom features already made for specific clients and combining individual tools to create new workflows, Alfred Eskandar, CEO of Portware, tells WatersTechnology.

Take, for example, the data warehouse functionality, which Eskandar says was originally a request from the vendor's $100 billion-plus global asset manager clients. The firms were trading in more than one region and wanted to rationalize best practices across their desks. Parts of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (Mifid II) now require this of all firms.

"What you want to do is to essentially benchmark yourself internally against how you're handling indication of interest (IOI) data, how you're handling algos, how you're handling implementation shortfall, etc. Then draw upon what you discover as a best practice for other areas around you," Eskandar says. "We can actually deliver full service. We can host it for you. We can customize it for you. So rather than just serving as a consultant and a software provider, we can be an enterprise-solution provider at that level."

Bring it Together

Another enhancement came from combining Portware's smart trader assistant (STA) and IOI scorecard. Eskandar says both tools can work independently of each other, but when combined they create an incredibly powerful workflow.

"We're taking stuff that used to be just stored and analyzed looking backward and creating predictive and decision support tools for traders," Eskandar says. "The idea behind it is: How do we lower the administrative obligation so they can continue to utilize their time for value-added performance and trade decisions?"

Eskandar says this latest version of Portware Enterprise is also the first product-ready release that exhibits the synergies between Portware and FactSet, which acquired Portware in October of last year.

The idea is to have information from FactSet populate all the windows that make sense for the users, according to Eskandar.

"A trader who is about to trade Microsoft can now also receive Street account estimates, review data, all of that stuff on Microsoft in their blotter. In the past, the trader would have had to go into another screen, type up Microsoft in a FactSet terminal or in another screen, pull that information and then try to drag it into a third window just to make sense of it. That's just nuts. We don't need to do that," Eskandar says. "We're just trying to reduce the number of steps a trader has to make to ultimately get to a decision. Our philosophy is the number of decisions that a trader needs to make is going up, yet the time per decision is rapidly going down."

Take Without Giving

Upgrades have also been made to Portware's Wave Optimizer, which helps users determine how and where to route and execute their orders.

For every order that hits the blotter it automatically is analyzed using Portware's predictive analytics and trade-scheduling capabilities, Eskandar says. This allows users to gain valuable information without sending an order outside their office to a sales trader or service provider.

"They are able to get full color on how that order should be traded. What algo should be used? What is the expectation behind this execution before completion? And what is the optimal trade schedule for that order?" Eskandar says. "In order to get that kind of analysis, I have to give my order to a broker. I have to give my order to another system. I have to give my order to another vendor. Well, that's the beauty of a blotter and the EMS. It sits within your walls. It sits with your company, and it doesn't have to leave to get that kind of analysis. The tradeoff was always, ‘You have to give some information to get information.' Well, you don't have to anymore."