http://www.atmonitor.co.uk Where sophisticated traders access unique data Copyright 2011 ATMonitor.co.uk. All rights reserved. Hedge funds face many challenges with the Form Private Fund (“Form PF”) regulatory filing introduced by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”). This white paper reviews these challenges and discusses how your firm can overcome them with the optimal technology solution. Being prepared and armed with the right tool will enable your firm to meet ongoing regulatory changes and challenges. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=preparing-for-form-pf--regulatory-filing-management-white-paper May 15, 2012 Rising Sun is the latest addition to Fidessa’s library of white papers discussing the impact of global trends on local markets. It examines the extent to which Asian markets are embracing liquidity fragmentation, exchange consolidation and high-frequency trading (HFT), before looking at how far the domestic idiosyncrasies that made Japan a distinct and fiercely independent trading environment can accommodate these global influences. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=rising-sun--how-japan’s-evolving-markets-might-herald-the-dawn-of-a-new-era May 02, 2012 About a year ago ARQA Technologies started to introduce the broad possibilities of pre-trade checks developed within its trading platform QUIK to clients abroad. Numerous Russian and CIS clients as well as Russian subsidiaries of international houses have been using the tools of risk control developed for the QUIK platform for quite some time now. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=quikest-pre-trade-solution--risk-control-for-broker-dealers Apr 18, 2012 The number of strategies offered by the local alternative investment managers continues to grow. The firms which participated in our small Roundtable, held in March at a local Citi office in Ipanema, are running equity long/short, activist, credit, macro, quantitative, real estate and private equity funds. You will also find CTAs operating out of Brazil. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=opalesque-round-table-series--brazil Apr 05, 2012 One of the fundamental decisions that every trading algorithm needs to make as it feeds child orders into the market is where to route them. In a previous research note we reported some empirical results demonstrating that, generally, the market has a strong preference for routing aggressive orders to the cheapest venue that displays the best price. In this note, we demonstrate how this market structure can be exploited by a clever algorithm to obtain an all-in performance improvement when posting limit orders by effectively “hopping the queue. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=to-hop--the-queue--or-not-to-hop--the-queue- Mar 28, 2012 Since the early 1990’s Repurchase Agreements have been used for many reasons and it is widely known that repo is the pump that primes systemic financial liquidity. There are two common ways the global financial system uses repos: firstly, as an operational mechanism to cover short sales; and secondly, to add or take away liquidity from the financial system. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=market-insight--does-your-90’s-haircut-need-updating?---a-perspective-on-repo’s-and-the-global-market-reform Mar 09, 2012 While not as mature as their counterparts in the US and Europe, major Asian markets have surpassed European markets in terms of market capitalization and value of shares traded (in USD) over the past two years. From 2009 to 2010, they experienced the highest year-over-year increase in terms of domestic equity market capitalization and share trading value http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=trading-in-japan--fast--familiar-and-flexible-access-to-tokyo-s-markets Feb 29, 2012 It is generally accepted that transaction costs are of similar order of magnitude to commissions (10-20 b.p.) and in the case of less liquid stocks or very large trades may be as much as ten times commission costs. Even at this level (200 b.p.) the expectation is that price movients over time will dwarf these costs. For that reason some portfolio managers and funds regard transaction costs as relatively unimportant. However, while across a portfolio performance differentials are typically much smaller and as a result a difference in transaction costs represents a meaningful gain in overall alpha generation. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=transaction-cost-analysis-q-a Feb 29, 2012 In previous papers, Fidessa examined Australia’s shift towards multi market trading of its equities Industry. These covered the general (Aussie Rules) and the Impact on the sell-side community (Stuck in the Middle with You). Here we explore the implications of Best Execution and how some firms are turning it from regulatory burden into competitive edge. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=beauty-and-the-best-the-perils-and-opportunities-of-best-execution-in-a-multi-market-structure Feb 10, 2012 This document is based on the final report published by the European Securities Market Authority (ESMA) on 22 December 2011 on Guidelines on systems and controls in an automated trading environment for trading platforms, investment firms, and authorities. The content of this document is subject to change as the authorities publish their guidelines and recommendations to their official websites. Please note that this document is focused on new regulatory requirements pertaining to risk management for investment firms and does not cover details of non-risk management related aspects for trading platforms. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=overview-of-certain-key-regulatory-changes-in-risk-management-for-electronic-securities-trading-in-europe Feb 07, 2012 Due to electronic competition, global exchanges and regulators face the same issues: they have a limited set of solutions to design their markets. Competition pressure is pushing for mergers around the world, without decreasing the number of trading pools. Deutsche. Borse with NYSE Euronext, the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges, and BATS and Chi-X Europe belong to a long list of examples. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=navigating-liquidity-6--a-global-menu-for-optimal-trading Feb 01, 2012 We asked the respondents, ‘What are the Main Challenges to your Firm Right Now?’ and, unsurprisingly, 24% chose regulations as their first priority, with a further 15% selecting it as second priority. Other first priorities were investor/client demands with 14% and investment performance with 13%. Cutting costs also made an appearance: 26% selected this as either first or second top priority. Hiring and retaining talented people were also mentioned as other key challenges firms faced at this point in time. The lowest scoring category was finding new investment opportunities. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=-2011-global-investment-management-survey Jan 25, 2012 Eight things you wanted to know about Dark Pools but hesitated to ask...How do independant dark pools determine who can be members? Is there a level of distrust and obscure liquidity measures which make the use of dark pool dealing subject to best price irregularity? Selected Q&A commentary from MyATMonitor's Expert Panels. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=the-ins-and-outs-of-dark-pools Jan 18, 2012 As 2011 drew to a close and we at Instinet pondered what’s to come for traders, it seemed that 2012 would not so much see an emergence of entirely new trends but instead a continuation of many of the same developments from the past few years. The environment is unquestionably challenging. There are, however, some pockets of opportunity in which competition will be fierce. In what follows, we offer you our thoughts on what we believe will be the most important global market structure trends of 2012. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=what’s-in-store-for-2012?-predictions-on-the-top-seven-global-market-structure-trends Jan 05, 2012 ESMA notes that the guidelines have a narrow focus and that this is not intended to mean that other standards are not relevant to the trading activities of investment firms and the operation of trading platforms. Certain microstructural issues were deliberately left out of the guidelines but will be picked up again after the work on the guidelines is completed. http://www.atmonitor.co.uk/research/view.aspx?research=guidelines-on-systems-and-controls-in-an-automated-trading-environment-for-trading-platforms--investment-firms-and-competent-authorities Dec 23, 2011