[ A L G O R I T H M I C
T R A D I N G
S U R V E Y ]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
B
ank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) drew the
second-highest percentage of hedge fund respon-
dents within this year’s survey, with only Kepler Cheu-
vreux receiving more responses. BAML’s percentage
of the total hedge fund respondents, was consistent
with its percentage of responses in last year’s survey.
Just under half of these responses were from very
large clients managing more than $50 billion of assets,
with around one quarter from the $10-50 billion of
assets under management bracket.
The majority of respondents said their usage of BAML
algos increased year-on-year, with just under one
Bank of America
Lynch
quarter recording consistent
usage and Merrill
one respon-
Improve
dent indicating that usage had declined.
One-third Reduce
of
respondents said they Year
are considering
adopting algos
trader
market
productivity
2018
5.43
2017
impact
5.38
5.75
RATINGS FOR ALGORITHM PERFORMANCE
from other providers in the future, with optimised LIS
interaction, mid-touch service, SI routing selection and
innovative liquidity listed as desired algo features.
While BAML did record decreasing scores in nine of
the 14 categories ranked by respondents, these were
in-line with the overall survey averages. The bank saw
the most significant drop in rankings in the speed,
crossing and dark pool access, however the most con-
cerning will be a drop in its customer support rating,
which fell from a score of 6 in 2017 to 5.25 in this
year’s survey. BAML received marginally increased
ratings for its customisation and smart order routing
capabilities this year, with the largest increase coming
P C
for its execution consulting, which was scored 5.83 by
Execution
hedge fund respondents.
Cost
Speed
Anonymity ri u
consistency
5.69
5.50
5.80
5.31
5.65
5.74
5.43
Improve trader productivity
5.38
Reduce market impact
Execution consistency
5.31
Cost
5.17
2018
5.77
# #
2017
5.75
5.69
5.50
Speed
c s
5.69 # #
5.17
5.80
5.65
5.74
5.69
5.77
Anonymity
5.07
5.27
Price improvement
5.62
5.45
Customisation
5.74
5.80
Ease of use
5.05
Crossing
5.63
5.25
Customer support
Execution consulting
6.00
5.83
5.24
5.19
Dark pool access
5.61
5.62
5.58
Smart order routing capabilities
0.00
80 // TheTrade // Summer 2018
1.0 0
2.00
3.00
4.0 0
5.00
6.0 0
7.00