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.”
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