[ A D V E R T O R I A L ]
Automating
trade execution,
intelligently
Charlie Campbell-Johnston, head of integration and workflow solutions at
Tradeweb, talks to The TRADE about the Automated Intelligent Execution
(AiEX) solution and the benefits of trade workflow automation.
What is the AiEX solution? Why did
Tradeweb develop it six years ago?
Charlie Campbell-Johnston: AiEX
is essentially the ability to trade
directly from your order man-
agement system (OMS) to a set of
pre-defined rules. It was developed
initially to help address capacity
issues faced by a large, real money
client at times of high volume.
Typically, a Tradeweb user
brings up a ticket, places dealers
in competition, sends the orders to
request for quote (RFQ), evaluates
the responses, then hits or lifts
the trade. AiEX allows the user to
pre-configure a set of rules within
Tradeweb, which are used to exe-
cute the order once it arrives from
the OMS. This frees the buy-side
trader to handle value-added flow,
which needs more time and effort.
The tool has quickly scaled
from smaller orders in the more
liquid asset classes, to less liquid
asset classes in larger size. This
26 // TheTrade // Autumn 2018
reflects the same dynamic on the
sell-side where traders have used
auto-quoting for some time, but
the scope has increased markedly
in recent months; AiEX allows the
buy-side to auto-submit, effectively
creating a mirrored workflow.
What is a typical AiEX workflow?
CCJ: Once an order is submitted,
tagged as automated, a scope is es-
tablished to validate which orders
can be made on a security, asset
class or size basis. Following ac-
ceptance, the order will be subject
to counterparty selection criteria.
Clients can choose counterparties
on relationship or sector strength,
but selection also incorporates
real-time identification of liquidity,
either through pricing axes or li-
quidity scores, to determine the op-
timal counterparty panel for each
order. The use of these rules means
orders go to RFQ instantaneously,
but RFQ session times can vary
according to acceptable pricing
levels, number of quotes and other
criteria. One client might execute
at the best price once they get five
responses, others might wait for
a particular dealer quote, with
parameters often set by the client’s
best execution requirements.
Through the extensive network
of connectivity already in place
with our client base, we are able
to leverage existing FIX links to
enable AiEX. For AiEX, the client’s
pre- and post-trade workflow re-
mains the same as a manual trade.
Both the pre-trade receipt of the
order from the OMS and the post-
trade data that flows back into the
OMS are essentially the same as for
any other trade. It’s as simple as a