Tradition Preps New Data Platform, Hires Broker Data Vet McGuigan

Interdealer broker Tradition has built a proprietary market data platform to serve as the delivery channel for data from the broker’s new TraditionData information services business to clients and distribution partners.

Dubbed Integrate, Tradition developed the platform entirely in-house to capture data from its brokerage operations and feed the data to its internal systems and to its distribution channel partners among major data vendors and specialist providers. The broker is currently onboarding datasets onto Integrate.

Tradition can also use Integrate to provide its data to clients who prefer to deal directly with the broker, by onboarding them to the Integrate infrastructure.

“The reason for implementing this is to capture internal data in real time, and to provide flexibility around delivery,” says Scott Fitzpatrick, head of TraditionData.

“Before, we had the [collection and distribution] capability, but if a client wanted to connect directly, that could mean the data coming out of the environment local to that business area—so if the client wanted more than one dataset, they might have to connect to multiple different areas,” he says. “This provides a single entry and exit point for consumption and distribution of data.”

The platform is a key component in the broker’s plan to increase revenues from its data business. Another key component will be the introduction of new data packages, and enhancing its lineup of data products by collecting more data from its brokerage business and creating new analytics.

For example, the broker is preparing to release a product that will enhance its foreign exchange cash and derivatives coverage, developed with an unnamed analytics provider, and is working on new content covering the Latin American markets and the gas and power markets.

To aid its efforts, the broker has just hired former Tullett Prebon Information sales exec Chris McGuigan as head of data sales for the Americas, reporting to global head of sales James Watson. McGuigan was previously global head of sales for rival interdealer broker TP Icap’s Data & Analytics division and head of Americas and European sales at Tullett Prebon Information, prior to which he was head of information services at MarketAxess.

Fitzpatrick says the broker plans to hire more sales staff to grow its data business revenues, but also says it will be more selective about picking channel partners to distribute its data, so that it doesn’t need to build too large of a sales team.

Tradition has used channel partners in the past to distribute data, but Fitzpatrick says it will be more focused about who resells its data, and will match global and regional providers with specialist data vendors, and as a result may end up with more or fewer partners overall.

“We’re going to pick the right partners for the right products in the right places,” he says. “First and foremost, [any partner] has to understand the client needs for the data. We’ll still focus on our partnerships with the big vendors like Refinitiv, Bloomberg and ICE Data [the data arm of Intercontinental Exchange, formerly Interactive Data], and we’ll also focus on specialists—especially in the energy and commodities space.”

For example, if a company is a niche player in certain oil markets or is just seeking to hedge interest rate exposure in a handful of currencies, it may need only a small number of datasets, rather than a full-service terminal or datafeed solution.

“Our objective is to provide a level of choice where, if a client says they want data in a cloud environment—say, Google or AWS, for example—or via an API, or a specific vendor’s datafeeds, we can say yes to all of those,” Fitzpatrick says.