Gone are the days when institutional trading usually meant equities trading only. In a world where other asset classes like fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives are increasingly traded electronically a la equities, FlexTrade Systems has evolved its product suite accordingly.
“FlexTrade continues to make great strides in the multi-asset EMS space,” said Jamie Benincasa, senior vice president at FlexTrade. “Our flagship product, FlexTRADER, has been chosen by increasing numbers of large buy-side institutions. Our expertise has also been tapped to help these firms optimize current FX workflow, as well as futures and options.”
“While equities continues to be a focus, none of the clients we’re bringing onboard are interested in just that one asset class,” Benincasa told Markets Media. “Everything is really trending towards using an EMS for multiple asset classes – FX, options, futures and fixed income.”
FlexTrade’s execution management systems and order management systems are used by buy-side and sell-side clients in more than 45 countries. Vijay Kedia is president and chief executive officer of the Great Neck, New York-based firm, which was founded in 1996.
Jamie Benincasa, FlexTrad
FlexTrade has shown it is willing to expand its reach if the right industry partnership presents itself. “Our presence in the marketplace is also recognized by well-regarded market data vendors, as evidenced by Thomson Reuters Eikon’s integration with our EMS to enhance their equities and futures trading capabilities,” Benincasa said. “Users of Eikon can now efficiently streamline their workflow and optimize their execution strategies via FlexTrade’s EMS.”
As more traders transact across borders, foreign exchange trading volumes are on the rise. And as FX increasingly moves to screen-based electronic trading, there is a greater need for Transaction Cost Analysis to enable traders to understand their costs and have the information and tools necessary to increase efficiency.
“Within the FX community, many firms want the same transparency they get in the equities markets, so we have seen a widespread need for proper TCA,” Benincasa said. “They want the capability to compare their FX execution prices to benchmarks. FlexTrade has met that need by providing Flex TCA, which has enabled them to drill down into daily, weekly and monthly activity. It also enables them to review and rank their liquidity providers, and adjust their trading styles accordingly.”
For 2015 and beyond, FlexTrade plans to ramp up existing business and expand into at least one new one. “Looking forward, we will be broadening our reach within the institutional trading community by expanding our presence in the fixed-income space as well as further developing our suite of FX pre- and post-trade processing capabilities,” Benincasa said.
FlexTrade and its customers are experiencing the impact of rapid transformation in fixed-income markets brought on by new regulations and shifting market dynamics. With market participants readying for more electronic trading of interest-rate derivatives in the still-nascent Swap Execution Facility space, FlexTrade plans to get involved.
Said Benincasa, “in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, we are in the process of registering as a swap execution facility (SEF), which we expect to be completed later this year.”