MTFs and ATS's
Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs), Alternative Trading Systems (ATS's) and Inter-Dealer Brokers (IDBs) have requirements similar to Exchanges but with the added complexity of a fragmented market with a business orientated approach to competition.
The use of consultants who have worked extensively in the Exchanges space is invaluable in providing input to the strategy of a MTF to optimise competitive advantage through the deployment of low latency technology whilst minimising the time to market of the MTF and to ease broker and data vendor connectivity.
Example projects undertaken:
Technology comparison and benchmarking
At the core of any MTF is the need for technology which can simultaneously allow speedy implementation and yet provide unique competitive advantage. Often this becomes a decision to buy or to build.
Trading Technology has preformed comparison analysis of existing systems vs that available on the market. It is also privy to the technical workings of the systems which support incumbent exchanges and is aware of the limitations of these platforms both from a technical and from a functional perspective.
Requirements gathering
One of the greatest risks in any project is that of "definitional uncertainty". Many organisations find it difficult to write an objective set of requirements when entrenched in a particular set of business processes in combination with a legacy system. External consultants can help in two main ways; 1) Through knowledge of best practise 2) Through objectivity and being able to see "the wood from the trees". Trading Technology has written business requirements for many trading venues, and use a methodology which includes all of the participants of the exchange system, from the Clearing House through to the regulators, brokers and data vendors.
Request for Proposal management
Trading Technology has run many request for proposal (RFP) projects for competitive tendering of new systems. A core part of the RFP process is to define the requirements and elicit proposals which are structured to enable direct comparison. Our methodology is based on that used within Government Funding agencies such as the World Bank, AIDB, EUFare and EBRD. It ensures openness to public scrutiny, fairness and transparency.
Project Management
General project management can be best performed by an external consultant who is not beholden to the politics and structure of an organisation. Trading Technology's consultants all come from the technology side of financial services and are well versed in project management methodologies such as Prince II.
Project auditing and reviewing
Trading Technology has a risk-based review process for examining the health of any trading system project. No two projects are alike, and any aspect of a project may force it to fail, from technical problems through to communication issues, customer management and funding. Using a risk based approach ensures that the review is specific to the project being undertaken, is targeted and avoids large numbers of participants and paperwork.
New product analysis
Trading Technology has done a great deal of work in examining the attributes of new products which have been devised by ATS and IDBs as well as competing Stock Exchanges, with a view to define new requirements for a trading system and its intended method of trading, clearing and settlement. Products have included Options, Futures, Fixed Income stocks, warrants, ETFs, Single Stock Options and Futures, commodities and swaps.