The TRADE 68 - Q2 2021 | Page 81

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley offers electronic access across equities , options and futures markets globally . Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading ( MSET ) offers clients with a broad suite of algorithms , smart order routing ( SOR ) and direct market access ( DMA ). The bank recieved 36 submissions from hedge fund clients in this year ’ s survey , which in terms of number of responses , ranks the firm fourth across all providers in the survey . Almost one-third manage assets greater than US $ 10 billion and 56 % trade over half of their total traded volume through algorithms . In terms of geographical breakdown , respondents were based in the UK ( 47 %), Europe ( 25 %) and North America ( 22 %), with the remainder from APAC . The bank ’ s overall average score of 5.71 in this year ’ s survey has certainly travelled in the right direction - up from 5.60 in 2020 - yet still falls slightly below the survey average of 5.82 . Morgan Stanley underperformed the category averages across 14 of the 15 services areas under review , recording disappointing scores for clients in a number of key areas , such as anonymity ( -0.27) and customisation ( -0.20 ). It ’ s not all bad news however for the New York-headquartered investment bank , as hedge fund clients rate services provided as Very Good for ease of use ( 6.09 ) and breadth of dark or alternative liquidity sources ( 6.00 ). Year-on-year increases were achieved in 10 categories , having improved most significantly in ease of use (+ 0.42 ), customer support (+ 0.42 ) and execution consulting (+ 0.39 ). Overall , MSET scored highest in ease of use ( 6.09 ) and lowest in price improvement ( 5.36 ). Cost is the area in which the bank received its biggest drop , down 41 basis points from last year . In terms of additional features that the respondents relying on Morgan Stanley for algos would like to see , comments included more customisation on liquidity providers , auto auction engagement , global cash market access in lit and dark markets , an ability to trade single-name swaps in global markets , and a holistic venue overview of performance data for the platform over the past five years .