Data provider Markit is developing a system to improve execution performance for buy-side traders. The system, called Trader Dashboard, is slated to be rolled out in 2015.

“It will provide buy-side traders with streaming ‘in-trade’ decision support aimed at improving execution performance,” said Tom Conigliaro, managing director and head of trading services at Markit. “It aims to provide users with triggers and data inputs to inform trading strategy and monitor execution performance.”

“Trader Dashboard will exploit the use of trading signals delivered to buy-side traders enabling them to ingest data, including TCA analytics, for making insightful and timely trading decisions,” Conigliaro said. “The system we are building will know which securities are relevant to the client, based on the integration with the client’s trading blotter, use of FIX message tags, and IOI data. As a result, we will have the ability to deliver timely signals that drive better trading decisions.”

Conigliaro was formerly at Goldman Sachs, where he established the Hudson Street platform, which hosted offerings from up to 12 independent technology and service provider firms in which Goldman took minority stakes and from which the buy side could access tools from a single hub.

After the 2008 crash, Hudson was unwound and some of these businesses were sold to Markit, including Wall Street on Demand (now Markit on Demand which included Commission Manager and Vote) as well as Quantitative Services Group (which houses Markit’s TCA and Factors suite of investment signals).

There has been a steady evolution within the asset management community resulting in increased demand for products that provide greater transparency and oversight into the responsibility inherent in the stewardship of their clients’ assets, including the commissions those assets generate, according to Conigliaro.

“Competition in the industry continues to intensify, and with such increased competition many clients need innovative ways to stretch their commission dollars and enhance performance as well,” he said. “Our clients use these products to not only assess their counterparties, but also to assess their own internal processes to ascertain if there are opportunities to be more efficient.”

One simple example is leveraging TCA analytics to switch algorithms in certain situations to adopt a more or less aggressive trading strategy to better access liquidity or execute an order more quickly in an adverse trading environment.

“Within the TCA product, we have a ‘best execution’ module based on a 605/606 regulatory reporting tool for the sell side,” Conigliaro said. “Recently we took that capability and leveraged it into a trading venue analysis for the buy-side after hearing from clients that such a tool would be very useful in their pursuit of best execution.”

Featured image via Dollar Photo Club