Alternative Data Gives Asset Managers Investing Edge

Some 71% of asset managers believe alternative data gives them an investing edge over competitors, according to a study by Greenwich Associates commissioned by IHS Markit. Around half of investment managers are using alternative data with another quarter planning to do so in the next 12 months, according to the research. Nearly 30% of quantitative funds attribute at least 20% of their alpha to alternative data, while 42% of asset managers believe the alpha edge they achieve using alternative data lasts at least four years. For practitioners, the tools to analyse the data are as important as the data.

Accuity Offers Sentiment-Based Research Terminal on MetaQuotes Platform

Acuity Trading, a provider of AI data-driven trading tools, has released a sentiment-based research terminal, essentially a news data solution based on MetaQuotes MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. The terminal augments existing services offered on MT4 and is the

springboard for Acuity’s services on MT5. Users of the terminal on MT4 or 5 can access financial news, calendar, sentiment data and Acuity’s unique AI-driven Market Alerts tool in a single expert advisor. By integrating the terminal product with the platforms, traders are able to conduct trade research within the platforms. The terminal also includes the ability to launch trade tickets.

Shield Adds Surveillance for Microsoft Teams

RegTech provider Shield Financial Compliance has integrated its platform with Microsoft Teams, a chat room and team collaboration solution in Office 365 that integrates people, content and tools. The integration provides full surveillance of Microsoft Teams and records and searches interactions, providing the ability to extract, review and analyse specific conversations to assist with investigation processes. The solution delivers out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Teams, ability to build detection scenario models to include all Microsoft Teams e-comms types and detect misconduct behaviour, and alerts and reviews of Microsoft Teams content.

Finnish Asset Manager Evli Goes Live on IHS Markit thinkFolio

Evli, a Finnish investment and asset management specialist, has gone live on thinkFolio, IHS Markit’s order management and portfolio modelling system. The multi-asset class support provided by thinkFolio was the driving factor in Evli’s decision to implement the solution. The asset manager is using thinkFolio’s full front office functionality across order management, portfolio modelling, cash management and foreign exchange, trading and compliance. Evli is also implementing the IHS Markit Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) platform for equities and fixed income. TCA aims to enhance Evli’s trading-related execution quality management and streamline performance-based order routing.

Red Box Partners Theta Lake to Detect Voice Compliance Risks

Red Box, a voice specialist, has partnered Theta Lake, a provider of compliance artificial intelligence (AI) for video, voice, and unified digital communication. The partnership allows Red Box customers to use Theta’s purpose-built AI and deep learning powered software to automatically detect compliance risks in their recordings and reduce the cost and complexity of managing corporate compliance and regulatory requirements to retain and review digital content. Red Box voice capture across all telephony systems enables Theta’s platform to leverage enterprise wide recordings and apply natural language processing and deep learning to automate detection of regulatory and corporate compliance risks.

Mariana UFP Selects TORA’s Cloud-based OEMS for Pairs Trading

Mariana UFP, a global broker, has selected cloud-based OEMS provider TORA for pairs trading in London, New York and Melbourne. In order to trade security pairs in large sizes, Mariana needed access to a range of sophisticated algorithms to fit potential trading strategies, and a capable OEMS to manage multiple orders simultaneously. Mariana opted for the TORA OEMS because the low-latency pairs trading tools offer a broad range of parameters to customise execution.

Options Extends Colocation Coverage at ASX

Options has extended colocation coverage for the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) at the Australian Liquidity Centre (ALC). This supplements existing market data access for clients in the region and across Options’ global managed colocation backbone. Options clients colocated within ASX will gain vendor access to ASX 24 and ASX Trade, bolstering the firm’s ultra-low-latency exchange feeds across equities and derivatives. The extension of ASX colocation is part of Options’ 2019 global platform expansion.

Investment Association Names Five Firms Joining Velocity Innovation Hub

The Investment Association has named the second cohort of FinTech firms joining its Velocity innovation hub for the buy-side and asset management industry: AxeTrading, a fixed income EMS delivering toolkits for trading connectivity, bonds pricing and data aggregation; BlueFireAI, which unlocks Chinese capital markets to foreign institutional investors; CUBE, an enterprise-scale platform delivering regulatory intelligence and change management; HUBX, a white-label solution for private markets advisors helping them track, distribute, and execute private deals; and Qwill Messenger, a single persistent chat app allowing clients of multiple firms to engage with staff within a space that is controlled by each firm.

BSO Becomes a Google Cloud Partner Interconnect Provider

BSO, a network, cloud and hosting services provider, has become a Google Cloud Partner Interconnect provider and will use the Google Dedicated Interconnect as a solution for connecting on-premise data centres to Google Cloud. BSO clients are onboarding with Partner Interconnect in Frankfurt and London, and the service will ultimately be available from all the 100+ PoPs presently on BSO’s global network. Emmanuel Pell, chief operating officer at BSO, says that for clients using artificial intelligence and machine learning, it is important to be able to burst into the public cloud from across the globe to meet business demands.

ULTUMUS Partners Velox Financial Technology

ULTUMUS, a provider of data services for index and exchange-traded fund products, has partnered Velox Financial Technology, a provider of real-time trading solutions for portfolio management, trading and analytics to investment banks and asset managers. The partnership sees ULTUMUS and Velox delivering services to clients as enterprise-wide managed data feeds as well as directly to trading desks, risk and performance attribution teams. Bernie Thurston, ULTUMUS CEO, says that using Velox’s trading technology framework will support the company’s services either in the cloud or installed on premise.