[ A L G O R I T H M I C
T R A D I N G
S U R V E Y ]
Jefferies
J
TOUCHDOWN. The firm has seen an uptick in usage of
efferies Group LLC (Jefferies) is a US-based multi-
portfolio-level models this year offering a wide degree of
national independent investment bank and financial
functionality and flexibility to clients, as well as in its pairs
services company headquartered in New York. The firm
(spread) trading strategies.
provides clients with a full range of investment banking,
Jefferies garners the fourth-highest number of long-on-
advisory, sales and trading, research, and wealth manage-
ly fund responses (36) in this year’s survey. Sixty
ment services across all products in the Americas,
percent of clients say they trade at least half of
Europe, and Asia. Jefferies Group LLC is a
their portfolio value algorithmically. Mean-
wholly owned subsidiary of Jefferies Financial
Average
while, 41% of respondents doing business with
Group Inc., a diversified financial services
Score
Jefferies and captured in this year’s survey
company.
manage US$50 billion or more in assets. The
Jefferies’ algo suite includes liquidity solu-
firm receives an average score of 5.88—also
tions such as SEEK, DarkSEEK, BLITZ, and
fourth among peers. Jefferies has the third-high-
Patience. The company also offers a variety of
est score in the category of execution consulting
benchmark solutions, workflow solutions, and
(5.66). Although the company receives a high
list-based algos. In 2019, Jefferies continued to
number of responses and some standout
innovate and deliver new algorithmic solutions
rankings, most scores are mildly lower than last
to clients; examples include a high-discretion
year’s statistics, with the largest declines popping up in
adaptive algo called JUMBO and an innovative ap-
speed and algo monitoring capabilities.
proach to liquidity capture in and around the close called
5.88
JEFFRIES RATINGS FOR ALGORITHMIC PERFORMANCE
Increased trader
productivity Reduced market
impact Execution
consistency Cost Speed Anonymity Price improvement Customisation
6.11 5.91 5.95 5.76 5.91 5.72 5.60 5.75
Ease of use Data on venue/order routing
logic or analysis Customer
support Execution
consulting Dark pool
access Flexibility and sophistication of
smart order routing Algo monitoring
capabilities
6.14 5.72 6.23 5.66 6.02 5.90 5.75
KEY STATS
6.23 5.60 n/a -0.41
Highest score
(customer
support) Lowest score
(price improvment) Most improved
(n/a) Least improved
(speed)
88 // TheTRADE // Spring 2020