TradingScreen and Advanced Financial Applications
(AFA) both announced partnerships with brokerage houses
last week, becoming the latest technology providers
to respond to client demands for a greater selection
of algorithmic trading products.
TradingScreen, a provider of multi-broker electronic
trading platforms, teamed with Susquehanna Financial
Group to offer SFG's algorithmic offerings through TradeSmart
2.0, TradingScreen's front-end graphical user interface.
"With this whole wave of algorithmic trading taking
place in the industry, with so many different providers
of this service, it's becoming more and more important
to have the ability to wade though these different offerings
and be able access to them from one platform,"
said Thomas Kim,
chief operating officer at New York-based TradingScreen.
Kim explained that TradingScreen's customers and prospects
are looking for better ways to choose among and manage
the many different algorithmic trading options without
having to bear a high cost of ownership. "We're
just seeing greater and greater demand from customers
and prospects looking for a better way to navigate through
the different providers out there in a more efficient
process," he said.
AFA, a New York provider of trading technologies to
buy- and sell-side organizations, said it is offering
Credit Suisse First Boston's Advanced Execution Services
(AES) through its Impact Pro platform.
"This deal has a lot of importance for both Credit
Suisse and ourselves in that there are two constituencies
within Credit Suisse, both the trading desk and prime
brokerage, that we can help connect to our application
and at the same time provide tremendous value to Credit
Suisse's clients," said AFA president Nilesh Nanavati.
The partnership was driven by common clients--the small
and mid-size hedge funds and lower-tier broker-dealers
that don't have the infrastructure to create their own
algorithms, said Ameet Shah, chairman and CEO of AFA.
Manny Santayana, managing director in CSFB's AES Group,
said the arrangement is in keeping with "our commitment
to provide our clients with the most advanced trading
tools available."
Algorithmic trading distribution agreements have been
accelerating recently. Last month, for example, high-tech
agency brokerage UNX signed a deal to give clients access
to Goldman Sachs programs via UNX's Open Algorithm Network.
Also in June, order management systems provider Linedata
Services announced an algorithmic trading interface
to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
"People are saying they want a platform that is
multi-broker and they want their trading tool to have
access to multiple algorithmic packages," noted
Jamie Selway, managing director of WhiteCap Trading.
"I don't know if I'd call it significant at this
point, but I think what you're seeing is more for ergonomic
reasons." Shah insists that the popularity of such
partnerships isn't necessarily a race for providers
to support numerous different algorithms. "The
race is what's demanded by the customers," he said.
"To the extent our customers request trading services
from their counterparties, we will be the facilitator
as a software vendor." |
Press
Releases 
