Solutions
EuroCCP and Turquoise have expanded their respective clearing and trading services into two additional markets, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The move makes Turquoise the first multilateral trading facility to offer trading and EuroCCP the first pan-European CCP to offer clearing services in the 25 components of the main Hungarian and Czech indices—the BUX and PX indices, respectively.
EuroCCP’s clearing services for Hungary and Czech Republic securities are open to any trading venue to which it is linked that offers trading in these securities.
Turquoise will offer trading in the Hungarian and Czech securities cleared through EuroCCP from 26 February.
The London Metal Exchange has submitted a formal proposal to bring trading of forward freight agreements on-exchange in a joint venture with The Baltic Exchange.
The LME proposal is to create a new, fully regulated exchange to bring transparency, efficiency and a robust technology platform to the dry-bulk FFA market, in collaboration and co-operation with all freight market participants.
The Baltic and its members are being invited to consider a substantial equity participation – between 25 and 50 per cent – in a new exchange, which the LME proposes would have regulated investment exchange status.
In addition, the LME’s support
Fixnetix, a provider of ultra-low latency market data and trading infrastructure connectivity services, now offers a direct market data feed and trading access to Burgundy, the regional multilateral trading facility for Nordic securities.
Traders can use Fixnetix’s 10 GB+ point-to-point high-speed fibre backbone network to connect with the new trading platform, which is looking to reach a market share of 25 per cent in Sweden this year.
Fixnetix also offers a direct market data feed from Burgundy, taking advantage of its high bandwidth provision to provide traders with realtime level 1 and/or level 2 market data exactly as it leaves
Hedgebay Trading has launched a monthly index that aims to give the hedge fund industry detailed insight into the average discount or premium to NAV that investors are paying for assets that have no contractual redemption rights to investors.
The Hedgebay Global Illiquid Asset Index is the first time that a breakdown of liquidity data has been made available to investors.
Illiquidity is the primary concern of hedge fund investors, with difficulties in providing accurate valuations of illiquid assets emerging as a key factor behind the collapse of several hedge funds over the last two years.
The IAI will be
Bats Exchange’s Multicast Pitch service, a real-time depth-of-book data feed, is now available via Atrium Network’s Exchange Ring, which offers dark fibre connectivity to exchanges, multilateral trading facilities and electronic communications networks.
Multicast Pitch allows Bats Exchange market data recipients to more easily redistribute the data within their own networks with up to a 50 per cent reduction in latency and 20 per cent fewer events than Bats’ TCP Pitch feed, a point-to-point depth-of-book market data feed.
Atrium Network offers connectivity to Bats Exchange for ultra low latency trading and data delivery. Customers can receive and redistribute real-time market
Fortis Bank Global Clearing and Tick-TS have entered into an agreement whereby trading companies can use the Tick-TS trading front-end in combination with Fortis Clearing services either with their own membership or with a shared membership of Fortis Clearing.
The combination of the Tick-TS trading front-end and the exchange memberships of Fortis Bank Global Clearing provides trading companies access to Xetra, Xontro, SIX Swiss Exchange, Wiener Börse and XIM (Xetra International Market).
In addition, Fortis Bank Global Clearing and Tick-TS also plan to provide access to the Euronext cash markets (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon), Eurex and US equity markets.
Butterfield Fulcrum, an alternative fund administration company, has launched a managed accounts platform that provides segregated and commingled managed accounts with a common set of tools for operations, administration and risk monitoring.
The platform, called Altinus, aims to provide an advanced operational and technological infrastructure that complements the investment management services provided by an asset allocator.
"Altinus is the first ever administrator sponsored managed accounts platform, and is based on ten years of managed account operations experience," says Akshaya Bhargava (pictured), Butterfield Fulcrum’s chief executive. "It is designed to eliminate service and fee duplication by allowing allocators to determine investment
Convergex Group, a provider of investment technologies and execution solutions, has launched a tactical trading algorithm designed for orders requiring careful execution.
Using a proprietary multi-dimensional sensitivity profile, Abraxas aims to exploit hidden liquidity, favourable price movements and volatility changes, while navigating difficult markets.
Abraxas is available to clients through all major OMSs, EMSs and through Convergex’s electronic trading desk.
Additionally, Abraxas has been deployed on Convergex’s high-touch desk, where Convergex leverages high performance technology on behalf of clients.
“Abraxas employs highly adaptable technology and simultaneously uses a mix of different order types to rapidly respond to changing
Icap Energy is introducing a combined voice-electronic broking service for OTC crude, fuel oil and middle distillate swaps, subject to regulatory approvals.
The service, Icap TrueQuote, will offer OTC oil swap clients a screen-supported voice hybrid service with execution and straight-through-processing to clearing.
ICAP TrueQuote will be powered by technology provided by IntercontinentalExchange and will be distributed on WebICE, the front-end to ICE’s trading platform.
“Oil is the only one of the five major OTC energy-commodity markets where electronic trading is not widespread. The financial crisis has resulted in an increased focus on counterparty credit risk and understanding of the
IlliquidX, a financial services boutique which enables clients to price and trade illiquid securities, says it has had a strong start to 2010 with January traded notional volumes more than double those of December 2009.
IlliquidX currently has over EUR1bn of assets listed on its web based platform.
Celestino Amore (pictured), chief executive and founder of IlliquidX, says: “We had a bumper second half of 2009, and our rapid growth looks set to continue this year. Since starting operations in March 2009, we are now connected with over 600 participants in the European distressed debt and illiquid securities market.”
