The TRADE 61 - Q3 2019 | Page 92

[ S U R V E Y | E X E C U T I O N M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M S ] TS (TradingScreen) T S (TradingScreen) has been one of the main advocates of the integrated order and execution management system and has evolved its TradeSmart platform into this hybrid model, as well as building out is analytics capabilities through partnership with ITG (now part of Virtu) and improving standardisation and scalability through integration work with data special- ist IHS Markit. However, the vendor saw the largest fall in buy-side responses in this year’s EMS survey compared to the 2018 edition, drawing 44% fewer responses this time round. The vendor’s historic results in the EMS survey have shown respectable scores from buy-side respondents with year-on-year incremental improvements in most areas, and the story in this year’s edition of the survey is no different. TS recorded an average score of 5.88, just above the survey average of 5.78, which represents a year-on-year increase of 0.19. The vendor received scores over 6.0 in four of the 13 functional categories under review: reliability and availability (6.25), client service personnel (6.10), FIX capabilities (6.05), and breadth of direct connections to venues (6.17). Despite recording respectable scores across all 13 categories, TS was consistently placed on the mid- to-lower end of the provider profile scoring charts by this year’s buy-side respondents. TS saw year-on-year increases in all but one of the 13 categories reviewed in this year’s survey – the exception being a marginal 0.04 year-on-year decrease in the breadth of broker algorithms category – most notable in the breadth of direct connections to venues (+0.54), reliability and availability (+0.37), ease of use (+0.26) and product development (+0.25). Cost will always be a key consid- eration for trading technologies on the buy-side and while a score of 5.63 is by no means a bad result for TS it does show, at least in comparison to other provider’s results, that some users think there may be more value elsewhere in the market. While TS has again produced a solid showing in this year’s EMS survey, the firm is in danger of falling fur- ther behind its competitors in this space, as other pro- viders post significantly higher scores year on year and those with larger spending power seize their chance to acquire established EMS products and client bases. TS RATINGS FOR EMS PERFORMANCE Reliability and Availability Latency Client Service Personnel Ease-of- Use Handling of New Versions/Releases Breadth of Broker Algorithms Timeliness of Updates for Broker Changes FIX Capabilities 6.25 5.87 6.10 5.99 5.54 5.88 5.60 6.05 Breadth of Asset Class Coverage Breadth of Direct Connections to Venues Product Development Ease of Integration to Internal Systems Overall Cost of Operation Average score 5.91 6.17 5.67 5.79 5.63 5.88 KEY STATS +0.54 6.25 5.54 66% Best year-on-year score (Breadth of direct connections to venues) Highest score (Reliability and availability) Lowest score (Handling of new versions/releases) Most important EMS feature: Ease of use 92 // TheTrade // Fall 2019