[ S U R V E Y | A L G O R I T H M I C T R A D I N G ]
Stifel
Stifel’ s overall average score in this year’ s survey was 6.41, a significant uptick from 2024 with an increase of 0.30, representing the second highest score amongst its peers. The broker saw an impressive increase in every single category in 2025 except for one, with the largest year-on-year improvements being recorded in customisation features( 0.52) and cost and algo monitoring( 0.50). The least improved category was price improvement, which declined-0.06. The company’ s highest scores were in customer support( 6.67), ease of use( 6.58) and breadth of dark pools( 6.55).
Stifel has added to its electronic capabilities and liquidity solutions for clients not only by optimising smart order routing logic and adding more venues in 2024, but also with the development of Stifel X, which enables algorithms to interact with retail liquidity in UK, EU and US markets. When compared across the survey benchmarks, Stifel lands within the top three scores in all categories, including breadth of dark pools( 0.47), routing logic analysis( 0.47), increased trader productivity( 0.41), ease of use( 0.38), cost( 0.37) and speed( 0.33).
This year, Stifel received 60 responses – up from
34 in 2024- which ranks the broker fifteenth amongst its peers in terms of submissions. Around 28 % of long-only managers responding to this year’ s survey that do business with Stifel indicate they have between $ 10 billion and $ 50 billion in AUM. In addition, 25 % of respondents manage more than $ 50 billion in assets. The UK( 72 %) and Europe( 15 %) collectively represented 87 % of the respondents, with the remainder in North America( 13 %). The most commonly used performance measurement metrics were VWAP TCA and implementation shortfall TCA.
Sample feedback from respondents included the following:
• Coverage team always going out of their way to make trading easier and efficient
• Provides wealth and depth of algos, resulting in optimal prices with minimum market impact
• Excellent research and macro coverage
• Excellent client service and responsive to requests and questions
• Multiscale algos that allows different algo prices and volume
STIFEL RATINGS FOR ALGORITHMIC PERFORMANCE
Increased trader productivity |
Reduced market impact |
Execution consistency |
Cost Speed Anonymity Price improvement Customisation |
6.51 6.39 6.29 6.28 6.37 6.41 6.23 6.33
Ease of use |
Order routing logic / analysis |
Customer support |
Execution consulting |
Dark pool access |
Flexibility and sophistication of SOR |
Algo monitoring |
Average score |
6.58 6.40 6.67 6.34 6.55 6.42 6.44 6.41
KEY STATS Overall Outperformer: Category Outperformer: X15
6.67
Highest score( Customer support)
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6.23
Lowest score( Price improvement)
|
0.52
Most improved( Customisation features)
|
-0.06
Least improved( Price improvement)
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78 // TheTRADE // Q1 2025 |
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