Market capitalization of companies listed in Asia is about $34 trillion, representing about 27% of global market capitalization, OECD said last year. Broad trends are positive, with some expectation that Asian market capitalization will surpass the Americas by 2040.

Nearer-term, institutional trading and investing firms’ optimism toward the business prospects of APAC capital markets improved in 2025, according to the ASIFMA 2025 Asia-Pacific Capital Markets Survey. More firms said they will increase their presence in APAC markets this year, and no participant intends to exit any market.

Traders Magazine caught up with Alice Pocklington, Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific at Trading Technologies, to learn more about the firm’s recent initiatives and future plans in the region.

Briefly outline your role and responsibilities at Trading Technologies?

I joined TT about three years ago as the head of Asia, where I hold overarching responsibility for operational and commercial success in the region. My primary focus is on defining and executing our regional strategic roadmap to ensure we meet our ambitious growth objectives.

We have a diverse team of 40 people across Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, plus a few satellite locations, covering sales, engineering, product, infrastructure, and customer support. The teams work collaboratively to bridge the gap between our global vision and the specific nuances of each local market.

What were 2025 highlights for TT Asia?

We kick off every year globally by running regional internal sessions to make sure everyone is aligned on the vision and strategy. 2025’s regional kick-off theme was ‘Setting Records’, and now looking back at the year, I can certainly say we did that – it was a very successful year.

In Asia, we closed 2025 with a healthy 15% growth in the business. I think we onboarded over 30 new logos, ranging from small five-person shops to large corporates, regional banks and brokers. The relationships and the reputation that we have in the region is a testament to the TT brand, and it’s really positive to see how many organizations want to work with TT.

Volume traded on APAC markets on our platform in 2025 increased by just over 16%, which is a respectable lead on general market growth globally and across parts of the region. But what’s really interesting is that there was a 25% increase in volume traded by our Asia-based users, a large part of which was traded in Europe and the US. Whilst we’ve increased the number of users on the platform, this fits with the narrative we’re seeing in Asia; healthy economic growth, increasing investor sophistication, more education, easier access, and of course the need to diversify and mitigate risk with increasing geopolitical uncertainty.

Earlier in the year we released Pre-Trade Portfolio Risk, and we launched TT Select for ‘protail’ traders, both of which are very relevant to the Asian market place. We also partnered closely with exchanges in the region on the launch of new products and campaigns to collectively drive adoption and growth. We won an impressive six region-specific industry awards, again, setting a new record for APAC, which is really testament to the hard work and success of the entire team at TT, not just here in APAC but globally.

On a more personal note, I’m just really proud of the team. There has been a lot of positive change at TT over the last few years, new business lines, new products to sell and support – and it’s been impressive to watch the team adapt and deliver on everything asked of them.

Trading Technologies attended and participated in the FIA Asia Derivatives Conference in Singapore in early December. What were the main themes for TT and its clients?

FIA Asia is a great conference. As with FIA Boca in the U.S., there are so many people coming in from out of town for the entire week. With so many side events and meetings, it’s great to build on existing relationships and make new ones, but it’s also utterly exhausting at the same time!

Some of the key themes this year were around resiliency and risk management, which was no surprise. There was a lot of talk about geopolitical uncertainty, volatility as the new norm, fragmented liquidity, and capital efficiency pressures. There were interesting discussions around the shift toward predictive risk management – anticipating stress before it happens, how we can manage margin risk more effectively, and the roles of CCPs, regulators, and technology in achieving this.

Of course, AI was discussed at length, across risk detection and also in the context of trading, automation, market surveillance, and just generally enabling organizations to operate more effectively and efficiently in their day-to-day operations. As our very own Chief Product Officer Reena Raichura stated, ‘a successful AI strategy needs a solid data strategy’ – and it was very clear from the conference that data and analytics are becoming the new battleground for competitive advantage. If you get this right, you’re positioning your organization for success.

Reflecting on the content, I feel confident that TT is on the right track to deliver long-term value to our customers. We continue to evolve our multi-asset platform far beyond execution and connectivity with solutions across the entire trade lifecycle. Our deepening focus on data and analytics, coupled with the recent acquisition of Open Gamma for margin optimization, will provide a very relevant and holistic ecosystem for our customers.

What initiatives are planned for 2026?

We have a lot planned. But as I like to maintain, focus wins, particularly in Asia where you can’t be everything to everyone. There’s just too much diversity and too much fragmentation.

I look at three key business objectives. The first is targeted geographic expansion with regional banks and brokers, focusing on our bread-and-butter EOMS and clearing offerings across futures and options, fixed income, and FX. We provide access to local APAC and international liquidity venues and the tools needed to successfully interact with those markets.

Our second objective is to accelerate growth with the buy-side community. Historically we have had very strong sell-side relationships in this part of the world; now we want to expand our footprint with CTAs, commercials, props, and hedge funds. With the addition of our Data & Analytics and Quantitative Trading Solutions offerings, bolstered by the OpenGamma acquisition, we have the product suite in place; now we’re investing in the specialized talent required to cultivate these relationships.        .

Our third objective is to better leverage our partner ecosystem, which is vital in a region as vast and diverse as APAC. This network is primarily driven by our relationships with regional venues, where collaboration ranges from joint marketing and educational initiatives to co-selling our core offerings. Many of our partners are also customers, utilizing our platform for distribution and services, and establishing a more structured and focused approach to these alliances will be a big theme for us in 2026.