This Week: FlexTrade/BTON, Bloomberg, MarketAxess, Tradeweb, and more

FlexTrade integrates BTON analytics for best ex

Execution and order management systems provider FlexTrade Systems has integrated AI-driven broker selection suggestions from BTON Financial to improve best execution performance on their EMS.

BTON Financial, a data collaboration and order routing decision technology provider, offers automated order routing to buy-side firms. It suggests the most appropriate broker by using an AI-deemed ‘most appropriate’ algo. Andy Mahoney, managing director at FlexTrade, says the integration came about six months ago after clients and prospects expressed interest in ingesting BTON’s data in the FlexTrade system.  

Mahoney explains that once a hedge fund or asset manager has created the parent order within FlexTrader EMS, they ping out to BTON a symbol size and quantity, a set of eligible brokers, and an instruction. “They then give us back a recommendation of which broker would be best at executing this flow,” he says

The new integration expands on the existing automation capabilities within FlexTrader EMS and FlexAlgoWheel, which the company released in 2017. 

“There’s no world in which AI is stopping,” Mahoney says. FlexTrade is an open architecture system allowing it to integrate with third-party software and easily add additional third-party tools to their systems. 

A little under a year ago, FlexTrade, in partnership with a number of its clients, built a machine-learning model to predict instantaneous market impact. Rather than using standard econometric models, the model is based on a client’s interaction with the market. 

The integration of BTON Financial within FlexTrade Systems is an advancement in execution algo selection. BTON’s recommendation algorithm, based on a collective data set from the two vendors, uses artificial intelligence to suggest trading decisions. 

Integrations, Mahoney explains, reduce operational inefficiency. “There are fewer mistakes, essentially. You can imagine, if a trader is driving their flow off the BTON recommendations, they can automate that,” he says. “You have a world where the order comes in, it pings out to BTON, gets the recommendation, and then automatically goes out the door, thus giving a fully automated set of flow.”

The integration will be available to customers of both BTON and FlexTrade.

Bloomberg, MarketAxess, and Tradeweb call off project to become EU consolidated tape provider

Bloomberg, MarketAxess, and Tradeweb will no longer form an independent company to compete to become the fixed income consolidated tape provider (CTP) in the EU or UK.

The trading venues have cited “various developments in recent months” and “uncertain outcomes around product definitions and structural complexities” which could increase the time and cost of the project.

The joint statement indicates that the firms remain committed to the intiative. 

Zodia Custody collaborates on network with Metaco 

Zodia Custody, a digital asset custodian, integrated with Metaco, the Ripple-owned digital asset infrastructure technology provider, on a international network for institutions. The integration allows institutions to use Zodia’s custody solutions through Metaco.

The partnership improves connectivity to the foundational Layers 0 and 1 blockchains, creating a settlement network built on distributed ledgers. Metaco’s institutional clients can use the network’s interoperability standards to govern interactions with service providers.

Zodia Custody plans to develop and launch its own network in Q4 of 2023. 

Generali taps Premialab for multi-asset investments

Generali Investment Partners has selected Premialab for its portfolio management and risk solutions. 

Premialab’s data set is provided from 18 international investment banks. The company offers asset and wealth managers, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds improved asset allocation, strategy selection while controlling risk. 

BMLL adds Shanghai data and completes addition of China equity data

BMLL, a harmonized, historical Level 3 data and analytics provider, completed its China data offering. Data from each major mainland China Equity Exchange is now available via the BMLL data lab. 

This covers data available from Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong and expands BMLL’s APAC equities and ETF data coverage.

Big xyt releases portfolio liquidity solution with Baillie Gifford   

Big xyt, a smart data and analytics solutions provider, released a portfolio liquidity analysis solution. Developed in partnership with investment management firm Baillie Gifford, the solution helps buy-side firms view the liquidity of equity portfolios using market data.

Investment managers apply a dilution levy as part of their cashflow management process. This mitigates the impact of price volatility caused by cash flow activity. 

The new solution automates the process of dilution application and provides a quantitative view of the application of dilution charges. The solution aims to help investment managers minimize the impact of trading on a fund’s performance and apply test scenarios to evaluate the effect of volatile conditions.