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FlexTrade
A more than doubling in the number of responses
received by FlexTrade in the 2017 Survey put the firm
Reliability and Availability
in the position of being a profiled provider for the first
time. The firm offers a range of services and products
Latency
to both buy-side and sell-side firms. Clients’ locations
Client Service Personnel
include Asia, Europe and North America and all were
Ease-of-Use
represented among respondents. The services clearly
Handling of New Versions/Releases
appeal to large clients with half of FlexTrade respons-
es coming from customers with more than $50 billion
Breadth of Broker Algorithms
in AuM. However the firm also has smaller clients
Timeliness of Updates for Broker Changes
among its buy-side roster. It is also interesting to note
FIX Capabilities
that almost half of responses were from hedge funds,
with a smaller proportion from long-only managers, in
Breadth of Asset Class Coverage
line with the overall Survey.
Breadth of Direct Connections to Venues
Delivering a global service and product capabil-
Product Development
ity across a very broad base of clients by size and
geography undoubtedly presents challenges. In
Ease of Integration to Internal Systems
individual categories as well as across the survey as a
Overall Cost of Operation
whole, FlexTrade produced solid scores but did not
rank at the highest levels. The overall average score
Flextrade
was virtually
from twelve months ago.
2016 unchanged
2017
While comfortably over the default average score
5.27 scores were
5.50
of 5.0 (Good),
among the lowest within
those firms
profiled.
In
three
5.30
5.25 categories the Flex-
Trade result
was below 4.90
5.0 while it beat the Survey
5.07
average score in only two of the thirteen areas under
5.19 concern in this regard
review. Of 5.40
perhaps greatest
was the score
Service. This is an area that
4.52 for Client 5.03
is important
to all clients,
though interestingly less
5.82
5.31
critical to clients of FlexTrade based on the priority
5.05
4.89 Even so failing to achieve
assessment
of respondents.
5.49
5.69
the default
score of 5.0 in
this area should be a warn-
ing signal. 4.96
Scores were also
5.32 disappointing in Product
Development. While the firm has recently made a
5.59
number of 5.78
product enhancement
announcements,
any client 5.34
dissatisfaction 4.81
is something that competi-
tors will be
looking to exploit.
5.30
5.52
Overall FlexTrade performed well enough, but the
4.86
5.04
scale of the challenge to support and respond to client
demands should not be underestimated.
Reliability and Availability 5.27
Latency 5.30
5.25
5.50
5.07
4.90
Client Service Personnel
5.40
5.19
Ease-of-Use
4.52
Handling of New Versions/Releases
5.03
Breadth of Broker Algorithms
5.05
4.89
Timeliness of Updates for Broker Changes
5.49
5.69
FIX Capabilities
4.96
Breadth of Asset Class Coverage
5.32
5.78
5.59
Breadth of Direct Connections to Venues
Product Development
4.81
4.86
5.04
Overall Cost of Operation
0.00
1.00
2.00
2016
TheTrade
5.34
5.30
5.52
Ease of Integration to Internal Systems
82
5.82
5.31
Autumn 2017
3.00
2017
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00