Trading Technologies Preps OMS Launch for 2019

Chicago-based vendor Trading Technologies has announced the 2019 launch of an order management system (OMS) designed for sell-side traders.

While labeled as an OMS, the system includes execution functionality and handles trading by futures commission merchants (FCMs) and brokers in fixed income and futures. Although TT OMS is a new product, it will contain many of the same workflows and functionality already available through the vendor’s existing product suite, TT Platform, albeit through a single screen.

The platform is currently scheduled for an early 2019 release, says Rick Lane, CEO of Trading Technologies.

“Much of the delay between now and 2019 will be spent integrating with our clients. And maybe this is part of the broader story, here. Much of the OMS workflow that we’re now branding and packaging as TT OMS has existed in one shape or form for many years, and this is an education piece as well as integrating into other platforms and integration points of our sell-side partners to make sure that they’re able to see a consolidated, holistic view across all of their order flow on their TT screen.”

Trading Technologies is working with a number of clients to ensure these workflows are “present and accounted for,” Lane adds. While TT OMS does incorporate existing workflows, it also includes integration with a number of new tools and products that the vendor has released of late, including its cryptocurrency trading technology, along with TT Score, the surveillance platform it built out following its acquisition of artificial intelligence specialist Neurensic in October 2017.

“Because we pride ourselves on our execution capabilities, we typically are everything that sits between the trader and the exchange, and therefore, generally speaking, most of the order flow that goes through our pipes originated in our pipes,” Lane continues. “So, a lot of the work we’ve had to do over the past few months, and really over the past few years, is around the ability to take order flow from all sources—from any source, pretty much any asset class—and be able to provide a consistent experience across all of those regardless of whether those orders originated in TT.”

Delivered on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis, TT OMS also represents a more significant shift for the company, which has been steadily rebuilding and re-engineering its technology from the ground up for a number of years now. In March, Lane outlined his vision for the future of the company, which at the time he described as a move away from its traditional heartland of screen-based execution management, and into a more varied role as a technology and infrastructure provider for the markets.

The release of TT OMS, he says, is one of the first major moves towards realizing those goals. While initially designed for FCMs and brokers operating within crypto, fixed income and futures, the platform will be the base layer for the company’s expansion in the future, Lane explains, which may include other asset classes and client segments, including the buy side.

“I may have used the phrase [back in March] that we don’t consider ourselves a screen company anymore, and this really is a big part of that strategy and that initiative,” he says. “We’ve now built the technology platform we intended to build, which will serve as the foundation for us for the next 25 years, and with it, we can really branch out of that core futures execution wheelhouse we’ve known so well for the last 25 years. TT OMS really is the first big product launch that shows the fruits of that labor, I think.”