Thomson Reuters has bundled all of its foreign exchange trading services and capabilities into one platform, aiming for a simpler customer access to these services. The company said in a press release that this will create “a single point of access to the largest collective independent pool of FX Liquidity .” The move occurs as other FX trading platforms and ECNs have merged their various pools of liquidity to be available on one interface or API connection. Among other examples are EBS and Hotspot which allow for relationship based and ECN liquidity to be streamed on one unified front end.
From Pre-Trade to Settlement, All in One
The services and capabilities that forex traders will now be able to access through a single point, aptly and simply dubbed FX Trading, include pre-trade and post-trade settlement tools as well as trading capabilities. Among them are FXall QuickTrade, the request-for-stream service, Bank Stream, a continuous streaming prices tool, Matching and Order Book, which are central limit order books, and Dealing, the conversational dealing platform. The FX Trading Platform for desktops was actually launched last year but only now have all FX-related tools and capabilities been united under its umbrella.
Access to new order types, including Icebergs, Twap, and Peg
The single point of access to Thomson Reuters’ FX services will also offer access to new order types, including Icebergs, TWAP, and Peg. FX Trading will also be integrated with the firm’s Trade Notification capability, enhancing post-trade capabilities. The press release notes that users of the new system will have access to liquidity venues that were used in the generation of average daily trading volumes of $367 billion in the 12 months between start-October 2014 and end-September 2015.
FX Trading will also provide buy-siders with its FXall portfolio order management system, while for market makers the offering will include a single point of access to e-commerce and price creation and distribution tools.
Easier to Come by Liquidity Should Stimulate FX Market
"Market volatility, regulatory scrutiny and decreased risk appetite among market participants are all having an impact on FX market liquidity. This is why we want to make it as easy as possible for our clients to find the liquidity they need, have the flexibility to access it efficiently through a choice of venues and order types, and be confident that rigorous standards for behavior are upheld by Thomson Reuters for all users of our platforms," said Phil Weisberg, Thomson Reuter’s Global Head of FX.
In its latest financial report for the third-quarter of 2015, Thomson Reuters noted that FX revenues were weak, contributing to overall weaker quarterly results. However, in the company's press release regarding the new bundling of FX capabilities, Weisberg said that thousands of customers have already signed up for FX Trade.
