Blogs

In the past, European traders increased their allocation to algorithmic/direct market access (DMA) while reducing high-touch trading. This year, the biggest increase was seen in program trading by about 34%.

Topics such as market data costs, natural language processing, MiFID II research unbundling, Algo Wheels, exchange startups, market structure, dark pools, and desktop interoperability, resonated with the readers of the FlexAvantage industry blog.

U.S. lawmakers authorized a study focusing on the provision of investment research for small issuers, a sign they are wary of the U.S. adopting the European Union’s MIFID II unbundling rules which have brought sweeping changes to the research business.

By Ivy Schmerken Eighteen months after MiFID II rules to unbundle research payments from executions have been in force in Europe, U.S. asset managers are dealing with uncertainty around paying for research and how to compete with global firms that adopt the EU rules. Many US asset managers are evaluating the need for increased transparency …

Despite the view that MiFID II is a European regulation, US investment managers are experiencing disruption as they align their research payment and execution practices with the influential standard.

With the rollout of such a massive regulation as MiFID II, there are bound to be some hiccups, but so far firms are mainly wrestling with trade reporting and data quality issues. That sentiment was expressed on a webinar hosted by A-Team Group,  MiFID II Trading Technology Requirements:  What Worked and What Hasn’t? in which panelists aired their views on the most challenging aspects of the implementation and areas that need improvement.

MiFID II went live on Jan. 3 without much fanfare, but the EU regulation is already  shifting trading behavior toward Large-in-Scale block trading venues and new venues called systematic internalizers run by banks and high frequency trading firms. FlexTrade’s Ivy Schmerken examines.

With MIFID II’s rules on inducements now a reality, buy-side firms are paying close attention to the costs associated with their front-office trading platforms and analytics. The EU regulation, which took effect on Jan. 3, could draw scrutiny to execution services and tools that are sponsored by brokers, such as order management and execution management systems as well as trade analytics. FlexTrade’s Ivy Schmerken investigates.

2017 has been an interesting year for the FlexAdvantage blog’s coverage of industry news. Government regulations, such as MiFID II and the fixed income trading protocols, were obvious highlights, as were issues concerning data usage, the advent of augmented reality in trading, fragmentation in the options markets, and trends in currency markets. Check out our countdown of the Top 10 FlexAdvantage Blog posts for 2017.

With a new head of trading and markets at the SEC, there is some optimism that some of the complex market structure issues – such as make-taker incentives and sky-high market data costs — will be looked at in 2018. FlexTrade’s Ivy Schmerken covers the key takeaways on what matters to buy-side and sell-side traders, as discussed at Traders’ Magazine’s Nov. 7 Second Inaugural Market Structure Equity Town Hall.