[ S U R V E Y | A L G O R I T H M I C T R A D I N G ]
BofA Securities
BofA Securities’ overall average score in this year’ s survey was 5.65, representing the lowest score amongst its peers. The score represents an improvement from 2024 with an increase of 0.09, yet comes up-0.36 short of the survey average of 6.00. On a positive note, the firm saw an improvement in many of the categories in 2025, with the largest year-on-year increases being ease of use( 0.30) and speed( 0.28). The least improved category was execution consistency, which declined by-0.11. The broker ' s highest scores were in ease of use( 5.88), customer support( 5.78) and speed( 5.77).
Not surprisingly, BofA falls below the survey benchmarks across all categories under review, with two potential areas of concern. The first key area is execution consistency( 5.54), which happens to be the lowest score for that particular category at-0.51 below the category average. The second key area of concern is reduced market impact( 5.56), again with the lowest category score at-0.45 below the average.
This year, BofA Securities received 66 responses, which ranks the broker eleventh amongst its peers in terms of submissions. Around 47 % of long-only managers responding to this year’ s survey that do business with BofA indicate they have more than $ 50 billion in AUM. In addition, 29 % of respondents manage between $ 10 billion and $ 50 billion. The UK( 23 %) and Europe( 45 %) collectively represented 68 % of the respondents, with the remainder split across North America( 29 %), Asia-Pacific( 2 %) and ROW( 2 %). The most commonly used performance measurement metrics were VWAP TCA, implementation shortfall TCA and liquidity capture.
Sample feedback from respondents included the following:
• Happy with effective IS aggressive algo
• Usability getting better and good customer service
• Smarter pair trade algo
• Enhanced dark liquidity analysis
• Visualisation tools and real-time heat mapping
BOFA SECURITIES RATINGS FOR ALGORITHMIC PERFORMANCE
Increased trader productivity |
Reduced market impact |
Execution consistency |
Cost Speed Anonymity Price improvement Customisation |
5.67 5.56 5.54 5.65 5.77 5.64 5.60 5.46
Ease of use |
Order routing logic / analysis |
Customer support |
Execution consulting |
Dark pool access |
Flexibility and sophistication of SOR |
Algo monitoring |
Average score |
5.88 5.53 5.78 5.72 5.68 5.67 5.56 5.65
KEY STATS Overall Outperformer: NO Category Outperformer: NO
5.88 Highest score( Ease of use) |
5.46
Lowest score( Customisation)
|
0.30
Most improved( Ease of use)
|
-0.11
Least improved( Execution consistency)
|
66 // TheTRADE // Q1 2025 |
|
|
|