02.14.2012

Algo Trading Seen Surging

02.14.2012
Terry Flanagan

SunGard’s Fox River subsidiary to provide single point of contact.

With demand surging for algorithmic trading, technology providers are mobilizing to satisfy this dynamic business segment.
SunGard has merged Assent, its broker-dealer subsidiary, with its affiliated broker-dealer, Fox River Execution, an algorithmic trading firm that SunGard acquired in 2010.

The newly consolidated broker-dealer, SunGard Brokerage & Securities Services LLC, will offer brokerage products and services to help fulfill customers’ trading and commission management needs through a single relationship.

Fox River Execution, a broker-dealer that provides algorithmic trading technology and execution solutions, will provide services to customers of SunGard Brokerage & Securities Services LLC.

“We’ve brought together all SunGard brokerage entities into a single entity,” Paul Daley, head of product development at Fox River Execution, told Markets Media.

Fox River will operate all of SunGard’s liquidity solutions, including its Assent ATS dark pool.

“The purpose of the consolidation is to provide a more simplified customer experience,” Daley said. “Instead of solutions being segmented across multiple broker-dealer entities, we will have a single regulated entity.”

Fox River Execution, provide customizable algorithmic trading solutions to improve execution quality, meet best execution requirements and better access available liquidity,.

“As an agency-only provider of trading technology, Fox River has no bias toward execution venues,” Daley said. “These algorithms provide a human element, mimicking the experience, logic and knowledge of a trader.”

Instead of focusing on benchmarks, Fox River algorithms are built to seek and secure the best possible price under current market conditions.

“We do this with embedded Trader Logic short-term alpha signals,” Daley said. “Trader Logic brings high frequency trading tools to the buy side.”

Demand for algorithmic execution will continue to increase as markets become increasingly fragmented.
“The movement from eighths to pennies, and from a single exchange to multiple exchanges, has resulted in a variety of venues and business models,” said Daley. “There will be no reversal of the trend toward algorithmic trading.”

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