FlexAdvantage Blog

Big index funds and mutual funds that trade passively are popular these days, but moving large positions without incurring market impact can be challenging. Pension funds and index funds that periodically rebalance their portfolios once a month or once a quarter can face similar portfolio trading risks. FlexPTS (Portfolio Trade Scheduler) To solve this problem, ...

21

Jul

Tick Pilot – The Road Forward

By Ivy Schmerken, Editorial Director Trading in securities of some small cap companies will change next May when the industry is scheduled to implement the tick-size pilot widening spreads for more than 1,000 stocks. But like Y2K, Reg NMS and other regulatory projects, the technology changes are not trivial ...

29

Jun

Liquidity and Fixed Income Trading — Trends to Keep in Mind (Part 2)

Corporate Bonds By Ivy Schmerken, Editorial Director Electronic bond trading is in the spotlight as traders and investors focus on a potential liquidity crunch in the U.S. corporate bond market, setting the stage for an influx of fixed income trading platforms to match buyers and sellers. As dealers have pulled back from risk-taking, market participants …

23

Jun

Liquidity and Fixed Income Trading — Trends to Keep in Mind (Part 1)

US Treasuries By Ivy Schmerken, Editorial Director While media headlines have obsessed over a lack of liquidity in corporate bonds, some market experts appear to be more nervous about U.S. Treasuries, which is the largest and most liquid asset class in fixed income. Electronic trading has grown in U.S. Treasury bonds just as it has ...

15

Jun

ETF Trading and Order Management

With an eye on new revenue opportunities, sell-side firms are launching trading desks for exchange traded funds, a global market that has close to $3 trillion in assets under management. Investors have been pouring money into ETFs, as they offer low fees, exchange trading and exposure to different countries, regions and asset classes. While sell-side ...

7

Jun

Advanced Trading Analytics: A Look at TradeMap Execution Strategy Designer

When a buy-side trader turns on the execution management system in the morning, the blotter could have a large number of orders clamoring for attention. Determining a path for each order can be time consuming. Each order has different characteristics and can be traded in different ways. Now traders can visually design strategies in an …

12

May

Spoofing and the Flash Crash – Six Things You Need to Know

By Ivy Schmerken, Editorial Director Charges against a UK futures trader accused of manipulating the U.S. futures markets has ignited debate on whether “spoofing” was a contributing factor in the 2010 Flash Crash in U.S. stocks. In the entertainment field, you often watch a spoof on Saturday Night Live, but the consequences are usually innocuous. ...

5

May

New Excel Plugin Available for FlexEdge’s Predictive Analytics Solution

Do You Use Microsoft Excel to Assist With Your Trading Analytics? Microsoft Excel remains one of the most popular tools for quantitative analysis by virtue of its simplicity and accessibility. And since many of our clients use Excel to produce analytics, it was only natural that we would offer an easier way for our data ...

20

Apr

FX Trading – Seven Trends the Buy-Side Needs to Consider