Liquidnet continues to emphasize its Virtual High Touch 2018, unveiling the latest addition to its suite in the form of Best Ex Replay. The rollout is the first such launch for Liquidnet since the acquisition of OTAS Technologies back in May 2017, which has been instrumental in the new solution.
Last year, OTAS Technologies was absorbed into Liquidnet’s Virtual High Touch decision-support Trading Platform . Since then, the group has leveraged its expertise in industry-leading analytics and market insight, improving Liquidnet’s capabilities for the buy-side. The acquisition came at a key juncture for the institutional trading landscape, as it had been undergoing a rapid change amidst new regulations.
Fast-forwarding to today, Best Ex Replay reflects the latest addition to the Virtual High Touch suite, helping provide traders with global and broker-neutral technology. This is particularly relevant for meeting newer regulatory obligations, such as MiFID II, among others. Additionally, the solution fosters greater market awareness amongst traders.
Natasha Shamis
Natasha Shamis, Global Head of Product of Liquidnet, commented on the launch: “what we’ve heard from our global Membership [sic] is that every minute that goes into manual, administrative tasks such as compliance requests and best execution analysis—while valuable—is time that comes at the expense of alpha generation.”
This includes pinpointing context of execution decisions, investigating orders that experienced exceptional market conditions, as well as facilitating traders to provide detailed execution feedback to portfolio managers. “Traders need to spend their time on achieving best execution, not proving it. That’s what Best Ex Replay is for,” explained Shamis.
Best Ex Replay is powered by OTAS Technologies and helps shore up several key needs in the trading lifecycle. For example, a trader can utilize the tool to research their respective trading conditions of a security on a specific date.
In doing so, a trader can access a detailed report with a description of exceptional trading conditions during that day, market microstructure charts, and analysis covering return, volume, Liquidity , and spread. Of note, traders are given an option to run a performance report on an execution, which is pertinent to MiFID II best execution requirements.
“The recent introduction of MiFID II in Europe has accelerated global regulatory pressure on firms to deliver constant, detailed, and systematic best execution analysis. Best Ex Replay delivers meaningful execution and market information in a convenient and timely way—a broker-neutral solution covering most equity names in the US, Canada, developed Europe, Hong Kong, and Australia, whether or not an order is executed on Liquidnet,” reiterated Mark Pumfrey, Head of Liquidnet EMEA.
