About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Fidessa BlockShadow Solves MiFID II Block Trading Problem

Subscribe to our newsletter

Fidessa has worked with long-standing client Redburn to deliver BlockShadow, a service driven by Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) and designed to provide intelligent access across conditional dark venues for best execution of large orders.

BlockShadow manages the whole process of placing multiple conditional orders on these venues, while at the same time sending slices to regular markets. When there is a match on a conditional venue, BlockShadow pauses the second ‘worker’ algo, waits for volume to be released, and then firms up on the venue concerned. This ensures the best execution outcome with zero over-fill risk.

Will Winzor-Saile, execution architect at Redburn, says: “We have always worked closely with Fidessa. The BlockShadow capability is an exciting addition to our technology stack. BlockShadow not only allows us to provide access to a broader spectrum of liquidity, but also means we are able to post the same block volume on multiple venues simultaneously. Since going live with BlockShadow, the additional volume from Turquoise, Cboe and Euronext has meant larger fill sizes, reduced market impact and better performance across all our trading.”

Robert Barnes, CEO at Turquoise, adds: “Products like Fidessa’s BlockShadow are able to manage conditional messages while working algo orders. This means Fidessa clients can access services like Turquoise Plato Block Discovery for Large in Scale (LIS) business while working firm orders below LIS on innovations like Turquoise Lit Auctions to achieve the best result on a continuous basis, the very definition of best execution.”

James Blackburn, global head of equities product marketing at Fidessa, concludes: “Competition for execution business is fierce. One of the biggest challenges for brokers in the post-MiFID II world is demonstrating their relevance, whether that is in research or in execution. BlockShadow, together with our liquidity partnership with Virtu, are just some of the ways in which we’re enabling our customers to demonstrate a clear advantage.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Enhancing trader efficiency with interoperability – Innovative solutions for automated and streamlined trader desktop and workflows

17 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Traders today are expected to navigate increasingly complex markets using workflows that often lag behind the pace of change. Disconnected systems, manual processes, and fragmented user experiences create hidden inefficiencies that directly impact performance and risk management. Firms that can streamline...

BLOG

LTX Builds on Partnership Approach for Streamlining Fixed Income Trading Connectivity

Late last year, LTX, the AI-driven fixed income trading platform backed by Broadridge Financial Solutions, announced a strategic partnership with e-trading technology provider TransFICC, aiming to simplify connectivity for bond dealers by enabling faster onboarding to LTX’s platform through TransFICC’s One API for eTrading. The new partnership comes in the wake of a similar arrangement...

EVENT

Data Management Summit London

Now in its 16th year, the Data Management Summit (DMS) in London brings together the European capital markets enterprise data management community, to explore how data strategy is evolving to drive business outcomes and speed to market in changing times.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...