Why pay for a FIX Engine? Over the last couple of decades, the FIX protocol has become pervasive in capital markets, providing the interoperability that enables much of today’s global institutional electronic trading.
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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Europe’s institutional sell-side firms have had a tough time in recent years. As well as the costly overhead of implementing and complying with MiFID II, the industry continues to grapple with a deteriorating economic outlook (compounded by the Covid-19 outbreak) and shrinking commissions, while structural changes have made equity […]
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A Match Made in Heaven? The Growing Importance of Systematic Internalisation
It’s easy, and perhaps convenient, to forget the mad scramble to be ready for MiFID II. Many firms struggled to interpret the operational implications of the 1.7 million paragraphs of text, turn them into policy and assess their potential business impact. The ‘day 1’ priority was just getting compliant with the new regime, and few […]
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Beware the onboarding nightmare in the battle for client order flow
Regulatory scrutiny of buy-side broker selection and best-execution benchmarking, together with research unbundling rules, have led many asset managers to rationalise their broker lists. With sell-side firms being held to ever higher standards, winning and retaining client mandates has never been more challenging. Typically, sell-side firms look to differentiate themselves through the quality of their […]
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Standing out from the pack or reinventing the wheel?
Last week our CEO, Mike Powell, took part in a panel exploring the much debated issue of whether firms should buy or build trading technology at the JSE’s SA Trade Connect event in Johannesburg. A familiar topic, but one that is constantly worth revisiting given advances in technology and the margin pressure facing financial institutions. […]
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Living with Giants – tough times for the institutional sell-side market
The institutional sell-side market has had a tough time over recent years. Concerns over economic outlook, shrinking commissions and rising costs driven by regulatory and structural change make equity broking and client facilitation ever more challenging. And while competing with the large global investment banks can appear daunting, the regional players, national champions and domestic […]
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Connecting Markets – Welcome Aboard!
Regulatory scrutiny of buy-side broker selection and benchmarking, together with research unbundling rules, has meant that many asset managers are looking to rationalise their broker list. Winning and retaining mandates is harder than ever. Typically, sell-side firms look to differentiate themselves through the quality of their execution or TCA performance, but a poor onboarding experience […]
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Fluid Dynamics – the evolving shape of European market liquidity
Nearly 2 years after the implementation of MiFID II, the equity market landscape is now taking shape. What was initially a race to be compliant has rapidly morphed to a battle of who can evolve their business models to take advantage of the new market structure and behaviour.
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Connecting Markets: Going with the Flow
With the competition for buy-side order flow more challenging than ever, and a crowded market with an uncertain outlook for domestic and global equities, we find sell-side brokers working harder than ever to win new customers and mandates.
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Nordic Trading – Market Insight a Competitive Advantage
Rapid Addition was in Stockholm last week for the FIX Trading Community’s Nordic Trading Briefing 2019 event. A strong turn out from local market participants and London counterparts led to some interesting discussion, particularly in regard to the Nordic equity market landscape. In terms of fulfilling their primary purpose of facilitating capital raising, the Nordic […]
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