London Calling: It’s IDX Week
As I am writing this piece, I am conscious that we are already in June, and yet we still seem to be wrestling with the aftermath of the Brexit and Trump decisions, France’s newly elected President-elect Macron and the upcoming elections in the United Kingdom. How the current uncertain geopolitical climate will impact our industry is anybody’s guess. Of course we all hope for market volatility, but for that we are waiting.
One thing that may be in our favor is a potential loosening of regulatory oversight in the U.S., in particular a potential rollback of the Volcker Rule that could bring more money back into the markets. I don’t have a crystal ball but like everyone in the industry, my hope is for an easing of unnecessary regulatory oversight and a rise in market volatility.
Closer to all of our agendas are the closure of Nasdaq’s NLX derivatives platform, the alternative trading system TOM and CME Europe; the failed merger between LSE and Deutsche Bourse; and the ongoing race to be ready for MiFID II. While we at Trading Technologies cannot assert control over market closures, failed mergers or regulation, we can help our customers in one critical area: preparation for changes coming as a result of MiFID II, which needless to say we hear about in practically every customer meeting.
To that end, we have thoroughly analyzed the MiFID II regulatory documentation and clearly defined the most important technical requirements being developed to address our anticipated responsibilities to our customers in order to facilitate their compliance. During the last 12 months, we have been working with our customers to review our development plans, and the feedback has been extremely positive. We understand this is an iterative process with a closing horizon, and we have engaged with our clients to ascertain industry interpretations to produce a pragmatically technical adaptation to our products. We will continue to work closely with our customers to help them meet their regulatory obligations. Visit Trade Talk again next week for the debut of a multi-part blog series exploring many aspects of regulation, including of course MiFID II.
In the midst of this disruptive and highly unpredictable world, my own little bubble seems to be relatively calm and focused in comparison. The TT® platform is now two years old and continues to innovate and evolve as it challenges its older brother X_TRADER® for dominance. The product is continually growing and adapting as we strive to remain ahead of the game and—most importantly—best serve our clients. We have the ability to offer the flexibility of front ends with the original browser-based interface, TT Mobile and the newly released TT Desktop version, which enables the creation of complex multi-window workspaces that can span across 16 monitors.
We also have a roadmap to add 10 additional markets to the TT platform in the next year—all newly launched exchanges that our clients are asking for to consolidate their electronic flow. We also have integrated third-party and bank algos with the TT platform and significantly enhanced our presence in London with a new data center, resulting in improved platform accessibility, regional resiliency and enhanced performance. Finally we have added FIX-as-a-service (FaaS) to provide scalable access to TT’s high availability and fully redundant global order-routing network via FIX.
All of this has resulted in a greater adoption of the system. The likes of Marex, Macquarie, BNP, Berkeley Futures, Citi, Credit Suisse, BAML, Morgan Stanley, AMP, Sino and RJ O’Brien are among the FCMs now delivering the TT platform to their clients. And just today we announced that ABN AMRO Clearing has joined the list of firms contracted to distribute the TT platform to their global customer base. James Fairweather, Global Director of Global Execution Services at ABN AMRO Clearing, explained, “TT’s ease of deployment, on-the-go access and global connectivity will deliver great value to our international network of professional traders and derivatives brokers.”
IDX week is upon us, and I expect it will be another fantastic week bringing together the leading players in our market to debate and wrestle with the issues that are affecting our industry. No doubt the aftermath will be a market with more challenges and opportunities for all participants involved.
Where we historically focused on a rather narrow set of users, we now find ourselves embracing multiple user types seeking solutions not only for execution, but also for network connectivity, market access and more. If you’re in London this week, stop by our stand at IDX to learn more. Have a great IDX.