[ S U R V E Y | A L G O R I T H M I C T R A D I N G ]
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley’ s overall average score in this year’ s survey was 5.81, an improvement from 2024 with an increase of 0.23 though it still came up short of the survey average of 6.00. Morgan Stanley appears to have gained some positive momentum, however, as the broker saw increases in every category in 2025, with the largest year-overyear upticks being flexibility and sophistication of smart order routing( 0.46) and execution consulting( 0.34). The least improved category was customisation features which still grew slightly by 0.03. The broker’ s highest scores were in increase trader productivity( 6.05), speed( 6.03) and ease of use( 5.94).
Like other bulge bracket banks, when compared across the survey benchmarks, Morgan Stanley falls short of the category average across all service areas under review. The most significant areas of underperformance were customisation features(-0.49) and customer support(-0.46).
This year, Morgan Stanley received 89 responses, which ranks the bank fifth amongst its peers in terms of submissions. In terms of AUM, 38 % of long-only managers responding to this year’ s survey that do business with Morgan Stanley indicate they manage over $ 50 billion in assets, followed by those managers with between $ 10 and $ 50 billion in AUM at 26 %. The UK( 13 %) and Europe( 61 %) collectively represented 74 % of the respondent pool, with the remainder split across North America( 18 %), Asia- Pacific( 6 %) 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:
• Morgan Stanley remains a leader in electronic trading abilities
• Great algos but average coverage
• Looking for more APAC coverage
• More dark liquidity analysis
• Access to more portfolio or pair trading algos
MORGAN STANLEY RATINGS FOR ALGORITHMIC PERFORMANCE
Increased trader productivity |
Reduced market impact |
Execution consistency |
Cost Speed Anonymity Price improvement Customisation |
6.05 5.81 5.90 5.73 6.03 5.89 5.81 5.36
Ease of use |
Order routing logic / analysis |
Customer support |
Execution consulting |
Dark pool access |
Flexibility and sophistication of SOR |
Algo monitoring |
Average score |
5.94 5.72 5.71 5.75 5.88 5.85 5.68 5.81
KEY STATS Overall Outperformer: NO Category Outperformer: NO
6.05 Highest score( Increase trader productivity) |
5.36
Lowest score( Customization features)
|
0.46
Most improved( Flexibility and sophistication of SOR)
|
0.03
Least improved( Customisation)
|
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