Accelerating the Growth of FlexONE OEMS in EMEA

Q. What trends have stood out for you this year?

I would say two components really stand out to us. There’s been a lot of discussions around
“direct to buy-side liquidity.” We are working very closely with actionable IOI providers, and SIs, to provide their liquidity directly to our clients, and we are even seeing some of the big banks potentially opening up their central risk books, so it’s super exciting on the liquidity landscape.

Another big theme discussed has been the OEMS. Historically, there’s been a lot of discussion about EMS and OMS, and now we’re having more and more OEMS discussions. That fits our OEMS solution, FlexONE, perfectly. This year, I’ve seen many hedge funds at TradeTech. Historically, there have been a lot of long-only asset managers. I think the hedge funds are really pushing the boundaries in the OEMS adoption, so it’s been fantastic for us to meet with these clients and prospects and discuss FlexONE.

Q.  How has the FlexONE business evolved over the past year?

So, 2023 was a stellar year for us. We onboarded many new clients. It ranged from new launches or spin-outs to some of the biggest in Europe, including several multi-strategy hedge funds. We have built out our team in EMEA. We have added capabilities within implementation, support, and development, and we also hired very senior global product heads to continue to develop the product. 2023 was a fantastic year; we’re seeing that momentum carry forward. Having the ability to have an OEMS platform where multi-strats can very easily add strategies and asset classes, add on new pods, and have a very solid order marking and risk and compliance framework has tied in nicely to the trends we are seeing in the market right now.

Q. Where is the most demand for FlexONE coming from?

The hedge fund conversations have really picked up. We’re seeing a lot of interest from the larger multi-strats, long/short equity, macro, and global quants. We’re having some very sophisticated and exciting discussions. Some of the firms have historically built a lot of technology in-house. We are now seeing a bigger trend to go to vendors such as ourselves that can help cater to their requirements.

We’re having a lot of discussions with large hedge funds and multi-strats that might have many different solutions. They have several EMS platforms that cater to certain requirements. They have an in-house OMS or an OMS they’ve built around themselves. Running order marking and centralized compliance is becoming quite difficult. FlexONE, having that all-in-one streamlined, very scalable, and high-throughput format, has helped us in these discussions. Being fully cross-asset and multi-asset means it’s a really exciting conversation for us this year.

Q. What is coming down the pipe for FlexONE?

So, at FlexTrade, we’re very blessed. We have 650 employees globally, and 350 of those are developers. We love to deliver cutting-edge technology, and we have such a great client base, so they help push innovation. We’ve done a lot of work in the pairs space. We’re seeing cross-currency pairs, we’re seeing cross-asset pairs. Having pairs in an OEMS is a real edge versus having it in an EMS standalone framework because we can handle compliance, risk, allocation, and short locates, which very few platforms can do. That’s been a massive push for us, and we’re seeing much development and resources going into that.

Another area is fixed income. We’re seeing a lot of fixed-income discussions. It’s an evolving market, and we’re working very closely with the platforms and banks. We’re seeing more interest from our clients in electronically trading fixed income. So, it’s been a good story. We’re excited about what’s happening and can’t wait to see what 2024 has to bring.

Interested in learning more about the FlexONE OEMS?

As asset managers and hedge funds look to embrace tightly integrated OEMS solutions, FlexTrade’s FlexONE team in EMEA is here to help.

For further discussions, please contact:

Dan.Enstedt – Head of Sales, FlexONE – EMEA – Dan.Enstedt@flextrade.com