The U . S . market offers many different liquidity venues but the reality is that most is accessed from just a handful . I think it is fair to say that electronic trading is more mature in the U . S . than anywhere else right now . We have been very lucky to have an extremely hard working and dedicated trader in our Hong Kong office who has been part of my team for about seven years . We are currently looking to add to the headcount there in order to increase our fixed income trading capacity .
Data , the importance of standardising the use of FIX tags and evolving Transaction Cost Analysis
We use Bloomberg ’ s BTCA product to help analyse our equity data . We have had it for just over two years now and are constantly trying to increase and improve on the data that we feed it in order to obtain the best and most meaningful results we can . The increased trade and transaction reporting transparency requirements under MiFID II have helped push this data enrichment process particularly now brokers are populating FIX tags such as 29 , 30 & 851 . Amongst the many FIX tags that can be used , some counterparties are supplying more in-depth data with regards to how an order is being executed and giving us more granular details . An example would be where sell side counterparties are providing more detail around liquidity provided from the ELP , SI and / or CRB where some would amalgamate this into one high level proprietary type feed , others will break it down to give more transparency . Over time , I think there will be a more standard consistency across the industry FIX tags . We are trying to dig down in to the data that is being provided to us by all of our counterparties to determine what the additional data being provided means and how it is best linked to our TCA product to make it more meaningful . The biggest challenge is , how best we can use this data to our clients ’ best execution advantage , a challenge that many of our peers are grappling with too . Within Equities there are an increasing number of TCA providers coming up with smarter ways to analyse data . Some of these developments are for example to analyse the trading lifecycle in a slightly different way . It is always useful to have a choice around how the data is analysed and how it is presented as this area continuously evolves . It is in our interest to be cognisant of what various features the providers can offer us . There is a need to get smarter on how data is mapped back to systems which in turn will allow you to make more informed decisions on whether the strategies taken are positive or negative . You can also look at reversion statistics , how much liquidity was obtained and over what time period . I foresee as time goes on , with the development of richer data , the buy side will become more informed and
16 www . buysideintel . com Spring 2018