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Itaú Asset Management’s Christian Zimmer and Hellinton Hatsuo Takada drill down into the usage of FIX in Brazil, isolating the areas where FIX is developing and where there is room to grow.

Christian Zimmer, Itaú Asset ManagamentThe BM&FBOVESPA (BVMF) initiative to provide market data using FIX is just the beginning of moving past the basic usage of FIX in Brazil. FIX is being implemented under the Unified Market Data Feed (UMDF) banner with the objective of integrating the traditional FIX market data and Multimedia Multiplexing Transport Protocol (MMTP) market data streams. The communication efficiency between these two needs to increase a lot, because in Brazil the trading community is starting to go beyond the simple use cases for FIX.

Besides the FIX implementations, one example of this development is the FPL initiative tasked with creating a version of the FIXimate in Portuguese, which the local FIX engineers are contributing to. In the last FPL meeting in Brazil, the local public seemed to be a little bit more aware of FIX, while the use of the FIXimate in Portuguese indicates a growing development of FIX solutions in Brazil.

Currently, some brokers are providing simple execution algos to be used in the Brazilian market. However, these are not delivered via FIXatdl, but via an algo-number indicated in a general purpose FIX-tag. Currently, the algos offered are very simple: mainly VWAP, TWAP, Iceberg, and POV. More sophisticated algos that try to gain some alpha are present too, but they are not originally created by Brazilian market participants. These kind of algos are normally developed from global brokerage firms at their headquarters in the US or Europe and then applied/adapted to the local market (what we call tropicalization).

Even if the algos were customized by the international firms to fit local market data, we have our doubts that on the actual trading floor there are many buy-side traders using these advanced methods. There are mainly two reasons for the nonusage of the advanced algos. First, there is a lack of confidence whether international teams understand well the local Brazilian market. Second, most of the  time the big buy-side firms have mandates to achieve a 100% fill rate – something not guaranteed by the alpha-creating algos. This demand originates from the way the big asset management firms work in Brazil: they are more fundamental, and focused on allocation rather than trading.

The usage of FIXatdl could improve the usage of algos because of its standardization, but it is still hard to move forward on this issue.The sell-side seems not to be too enthusiastic, and thus, does not provide the buy-side with this efficient alternative. The buy-side is also not demanding it, which implies that there will be no advances.

In addition to FIXatdl, we expect the efforts of the FPL High Performance Interfaces Working Group to become applicable in the Brazilian market. The success depends on, obviously, if the exchange permits a separated access to their matching engine with this protocol dialect. But as there is always demand for lower latency, the outlook is positive for this initiative. The same might be true for the FPL Inter-Party Latency Working Group. Although there are hardware solutions to this problem and these hardware solutions may create less additional latency, it seems to be much easier for any mid-sized firm to use FIX-based latency analysis rather than buying an expensive system just for this purpose.

Otkritie’s Tim Bevan describes the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the Russian markets, and offers suggestions on how to effectively access the deep liquidity there.

How would you profile the firms that are interested in DMA to Russia?

Tim Bevan, OtkritieThere is an interest in DMA to Russia from prime brokerage desks because many of the hedge funds that use the global prime brokers have expressed interest in Russia, now that the liquidity has reached the point it has. It is worth pointing out that the liquidity in the local equity market is approximately $2.5 billion a day, and the derivatives market turnover is $10 billion notional a day. These are very significant and deep pools of liquidity. We are certainly seeing client pressure from different areas hitting Tier 1 banks, which in turn is reflected onto us. We are also seeing the big global electronic brokers looking to add Russia to their coverage.

There is sustained sell-side interest, but the other big pocket of interest we are seeing is from the low-latency, high frequency funds that utilize proximity hosting and co-location, who want to place hardware in Moscow and run their strategies in the electronic order books that are available there. There are many more of these types of participants now and they are often in London, New York, Chicago, Amsterdam, Paris and other parts of Europe.

How extensively are algos utilized in Russian DMA?

Obviously for a high frequency fund, the algo is the strategy. This is clearly different from execution algos, like VWAP, which are used to execute orders in a certain manner. Most Russian brokers have the most basic execution algos like VWAP, TWAP, icebergs, etc. It is a relatively new trend (i.e. 6-9 months old) for the big sell-sides to enter Russia, and many have not yet deployed their more sophisticated suites of algos into the Russian market.

Additionally, the Russian market itself, is quite unusual in that there is a lot of programming skill in Russia. The average Russian retail trader is quite often running an algo through an Excel spreadsheet with $10-20,000 worth of capital, so as regards alpha strategies, there is a lot of algo activity in the Russian market. In terms of execution algos, however, I think it has not penetrated this segment yet. As the sell-sides continue to move into the electronic market, the second phase will be to deploy their own execution algos and offer them to their main clients, but we are at the beginning of that part of the process.

With the majority of liquidity isolated in a dozen stocks, how would Russian DMA fit into a firm’s overall trading/investment strategy?

Liquidity is very concentrated in Russia. The top ten names account for the vast majority of liquidity, and even the top two or three probably make up 50% of the market. DMA is possible beyond the top 15 or 20, but it drops off fairly quickly thereafter. Obviously the big blue chip companies are where most of the interest is. Taking Sberbank as an example, there is no liquid Depository Receipt (DR) and there is an unsponsored DR trading of about $2 million a day in Germany. If you want to trade that stock, you have to trade the local market, where it trades between half to a billion dollars a day notional, so there are some very deeply liquid companies that are only available in the local market.

What other asset classes are being attracted or will attract DMA interest?

The biggest interest is in the RTS Index futures, which is an incredibly powerful product. Trading over $5 billion a day notional, more than double of all of Russian equity instruments (both DR and local), sometimes by a factor of two. RTS Index futures trade from 0700 UK time right through to the US close and are among the top ten most liquid equity index futures in the world. This instrument has generated the majority of interest from the quant funds, but interest is increasingly coming from more standard hedge funds and buy-sides where they are allowed to trade futures as it provides an instant hedge or leverage tool with an almost bottomless liquidity pool for any one player.

What a lot can change in a year! Since the last FPL Canada conference, held in May 2008, Canada has been drawn into the liquidity crunch along with the rest of the world. Yet Canada has a risk and regulatory model that is different from many of its established trading partners, most notably the US and the UK. Can the world learn lessons from the Canadian experience?

With only weeks to go until Canada’s leading electronic trading event, it is still hard to pick what the credit crisis and regulatory environment will look like on June 1st, the first day of the conference. What we do know is that there will be increased regulatory involvement, particularly in areas that were previously not subject to scrutiny. In the run up to the event, we asked a range of experts to comment on what they feel will be the hot topics at this year’s event.

Conference Hot Topics

(A) Market Volatility
Market volatility has certainly changed trading patterns. The increasing reliance on electronic trading, leveraged through Direct Market Access/Algorithmic Trading or a portfolio trading desk, is directly connected to the growing need to manage risk, volatility and capital availability. We have seen a dramatic uptake in these services/tools, as there has not only been a focus on how electronic trading is conducted, but also on the expectations of trading costs involved versus benchmarks. The greatest impact has been a higher use of electronic trading strategies relative to more traditional trading and a shift in the types of electronic trading strategies employed.

From a single stock perspective, many traders were loath to execute at single, specific price points due to the potential for adverse percentage swings in the high single to double digits. Algorithms have been employed on a more frequent basis, to help traders participate throughout intervals on an intraday basis, managing risk around the volatility. The violent intraday swings also create significantly more opportunities in the long-short space. Quantitative execution tools have became more of a focus, to take advantage of these opportunities on an automated basis.

What the industry is saying:
“In terms of disruptions relating to market volatility, the Canadian trading infrastructure generally held up admirably. Most dealer, vendor, and marketplace systems handled the massive increases in message traffic and activity with little noticeable impact on performance. This is proof positive that the investment in capacity and competition was well worth it and is now paying dividends.” Matt Trudeau, Chi-X Canada

“Electronic platforms using FIX and algorithmic routers handled significant market fluctuations with no impact to performance. Speed to market for orders made it possible for traders to minimize exposure to huge swings in pricing and to capitalize on opportunity.” Tom Brown, RBC Asset Management

“Many traditional desks were shell-shocked and did not know how to respond to the volatility combined with the lack of capital. Electronic trading tools like algos enabled people to manage extremely volatile situations with great responsiveness. They were able to set the parameters for their trades and let the algo respond as market conditions warranted. Trading of baskets/lists made having electronic execution tools critical. You couldn’t possibly manage complex lists in real-time without very sophisticated electronic front-end trading tools.” Anne-Marie Ryan, AMR Associates

“The recent volatility spike means that risk will likely be scrutinized more in the future than in the past. Post-trade transaction cost measurement systems generally do not consider risk but instead focus on cost. To properly align the interests of the firm and the trader, performance measurement systems will need to reflect both cost and risk considerations.” Chris Sparrow, Liquidnet Canada

Jenny Tsouvalis of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) sees a need for effective integration of investment management and trading processes. “On-line, real-time electronic trading systems provide quick access to liquidity and when coupled with real-time pricing embedded into blotters, identify the effect of market changes on the portfolios and the effect of trading decisions.”

“Electronic trading has been successful because of its ability to be adaptive, so it is likely to change in reaction to current issues.” Randee Pavalow, Alpha Trading Systems.

“We’ve seen an increase in the use of algorithms and over the day orders as volatility has increased. The ability to smooth orders over a longer period limits the exposure to price swings during the day. VWAP, TWAP and percentage of volume, seem to be the algos of choice for many these days.” John Christofilos, Canaccord Capital

(B) Algorithms and Smart Order Routing

Smart order routing is still relatively new in Canada; however alternative trading systems and exchanges are now becoming part of the trading landscape. While the technology solutions are there, effectively deploying them in Canada requires further development. Presentations at the conference will focus on methods to source liquidity at the primary exchange and via the five alternative trading venues.

What the industry is saying:
“Significant progress has been made in multiple market connectivity and smart order routing capabilities during the past six months, but there is still a lot of distance to make up compared with other jurisdictions. Participants need to have greater flexibility and control when it comes to order routing.” Matt Trudeau, Chi-X Canada

“The inability of secondary trading venues to accommodate volumes and provide liquidity during primary market disruptions, raised questions as to secondary providers having sufficient connectivity to all market participants and the lack of price discovery transparency.” Tom Brown, RBC Asset Management

“Algorithmic trading technology really proved itself during a primary market outage. Clients were able to execute their strategies on Canadian inter-listed stocks seamlessly. Orders were posted in the United States, and if better prices were available in Canada, the algos grabbed them. However, few clients were willing to post bids and offers in alternative markets when no one else was.” Lou Mouaket and Graham Mackenzie, CIBC World Markets

“Electronic Trading, like traditional trading, is at the mercy of the exchanges being able to post bid and offers and execute orders on a timely basis. Once that connection is disrupted, the ability to order route to other markets through a “Best Market Router” becomes more important. Within a multiple market environment, the ability to execute client orders on other markets has become a must for dealers and clients.” John Christofilos, Canaccord Capital

Andres Araya Falcone of the Santiago Stock Exchange explains how FIX is increasing the range of services available to traders in Chile and throughout Latin America.

How is FIX facilitating DMA into the Santiago Stock Exchange?

The first concept of DMA in Chile began with what we call “direct traders” (buy-side traders) facilitating these specially authorized institutional clients, to send direct orders to the market via a “broker sponsor”. Thus, pension and mutual funds, insurance companies and other institutions, using trading terminals provided by the Stock Exchange, can trade directly in our market. The next natural step was the incorporation of electronic networks to attract order flow from the U.S., Europe and neighboring countries in Latin America, especially Brazil.

In 2006, we built the first FIX interface using version 4.0 to connect to the Marcopolo Network, to attract the order flow of our local equities market. After that, the Santiago Stock Exchange launched its initiative to modernize the equities electronic trading system and developed Telepregón HT, jointly with IBM, which went live in June 2010. This system is ready for algorithmic trading flow since it supports a throughput of over 3,000+ orders per second with sub-millisecond latency. In designing the system, we decided to use FIX 4.4 to enable easier connection via DMA with other exchanges, sell- and buy-side firms and market information vendors. This has greatly facilitated the connection to different networks, such as Bloomberg, Fidessa and SunGard, among others. For all these initiatives, FIX has been crucial in facilitating the integration with these listed networks. During 2011 we will announce new network agreements.

Currently, referring to the equity market, 11% of order flow comes from DMA which represents an  average of a 27% increase over the last 6 months, today 19% on average comes from Internet retail order flow, and the rest comes from traditional OMS and Trade Work Stations.

As foreign investment into Chile and the Chilean market continues, how will the Santiago Stock Exchange upgrade its platforms to meet increased investor and trader demands?

In 2010, the Selective Share Price Index (IPSA), the country’s main stock market indicator, gained 37.6% in Chilean pesos (equivalent to some 46% in dollars). Share trading on the Santiago Stock Exchange rose to US$60 billion in 2010, up 30.5% from 2009, setting a new annual record. Trading was particularly strong in the second half of the year, which accounted for almost 60% of the annual total, reflecting strong demand from both local and international investors.

At the same time, by the end of 2010, the Santiago Stock  Exchange had signed a linkage agreement with Brazil’s stock exchange, BM&FBOVESPA, heralding the latest in a series of cooperativeprojects being run between Latin American bourses. The agreement, signed on December 13th, will enable connectivity between both exchanges for order routing and market data dissemination. It also includes separate initiatives for further development of the Santiago Stock Exchange’s derivatives market, the establishment of joint initiatives related to settlement, clearing and central counterparty services, as well as access to the BM&FBOVESPA /CME trading platform from Chile.

Market participants in both countries will be able to route orders for stocks, stock options and related derivatives listed on the other’s exchange. Both exchanges will also be able to receive and distribute each other’s market data. Clearing and settlement of orders will be done according to local market rules of listed instruments. These kinds of initiatives imply that the Santiago Stock Exchange’s IT platform has to be prepared to manage more than 6 million orders per day.

What plans does the Santiago Stock Exchange have to accommodate High Frequency Trading and algorithmic order flow?

We are working as an integrator of a state of the art product for algorithmic trading. In conjunction with Streambase, FIXFlyer and IBM WFO, we are creating a product we will call “Broker in a Box”. The idea is to provide a framework for capital markets, including a set of algorithmic order execution strategies designed to achieve best execution, access liquidity, minimize slippage and maximize profits for trading operations. These algorithmic trading strategies (like VWAP, TWAP, Arrival Price / Implementation Shortfall, etc.), are provided as fully customizable EventFlow modules which can be used in conjunction with the frameworks. Trading firms will be able to modify each algorithm to reflect their own “secret sauce” and to differentiate their trading strategies in the market. The Santiago Stock Exchange will provide an “all in one” solution: integrated markets, market data (from Integrated Latin America Market (MILA), NYSE and NASDAQ), co-location, monitoring, local support, etc.

Mihai Bistriteanu of Citigroup Global Markets Japan focuses on the trading pattern changes post-arrowhead implementation as well as its many opportunities and challenges.

Without a doubt, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's (TSE) implementation of “arrowhead” this January 2010 was one of the most important events in the history of Japan’s equity trading, with a lot of information and articles being circulated on the structural changes following the new system’s implementation. It is indeed amazing how arrowhead’s implementation changed the very core of Japan’s trading landscape making a huge impact on latency, market volume, trade size, price, as well as tick size dynamics.

Low Latency

Primary exchange speed was along awaited feature in Japan. The one digit millisecond turnaround on a non-collocated infrastructure, promised by the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), is now finally happening in Japan, with a few interesting trends starting to develop as a result of the higher speed:

 

  • Strategies requiring low latency infrastructure can now be easily implemented across Japanese stocks.
  • There is an ease of integration of TSE flow within SOR (Smart Order Routing) systems and crossing engines.

One of the key drivers of arrowhead implementation is the aggressive growth of competition in Japan. The PTSs (Proprietary Trading Systems) and broker dark pools had the speed, and in some cases, price as competitive advantages. The liquidity available outside the primary exchange is still small compared to the ratios seen in Europe and the US.

A large percentage of the sophisticated buy-side investors refrained from using SOR technologies to avoid missing liquidity in the primary exchange because of the overall latency.

A standard matching system, with queue jumping functionality when posting liquidity, usually places multiple legs of the same order in multiple venues. When an order is matched in the proprietary crossing engine, the system sends cancellation requests to the other venues, and only when the acknowledgement is received is the cross executed.

The bottleneck for this technology used to be the speed of receiving the acknowledgement from the primary exchange, when the cross was found. Similarly SOR technologies send IOC (Immediate or Cancel) orders to multiple venues including primary exchanges. When one of the venues is slow, it will delay the entire system, therefore missing rapid price changes.

The fact that the TSE infrastructure speed is now in-line with its competitors will have a positive effect in widening the use of liquidity aggregation tools. This also may eventually result in an increase in liquidity on the alternative liquidity pools. The new broker pools and PTSs have to be competitive on all parameters (speed, price and liquidity) to enter and be successful in the Japanese market now.

Market Volume and Median Trade Size

Following the implementation, the volume growth started gradually. At this very moment, as I am writing this article, the rate of growth is still very positive. We expect this to reach saturation over the next couple of months. The main drivers behind the growth are the new strategies that take advantage of the high speed environment, as well as the general increase in activity at the beginning of the year and the market recovery.

Jay Hurley, FPL Global Foreign Exchange Committee Co-Chair and Vice President, Morgan Stanley Fixed Income, unravels FIX’s role in FX and argues for FX to be integrated into equities algo trading.

 

Adoption of FIX in FX

 

Adoption of FIX in FX for the core functions, such as streaming prices, orders and executions, has done well. Evolving from a situation where few ECN’s and banks used FIX for FX to one where the last ECN not using FIX will be FIX compatible in January of 2011. While adoption at the ECN level is almost 100%, for banks it is probably around 70%, up from 15% 5 years ago.

I would say FIX sold itself. It just naturally happens that when you get enough critical mass, after that tipping point, outliers start to look unusual. From there, it becomes more important for FIX to address more than just core functions. For instance, nondeliverable forwards (NDFs), which include most of the Asian currencies that cannot be freely traded, have some of their own specific features that need to be incorporated into the protocol.

 New Developments in FIX for FX

The FIX Protocol for FX has provided an opportunity for rapid product development and deployment, and in doing so has increased competition in the market space. FIX provides the flexibility necessary for a platform provider to work with potential users to provide product enhancements. If a product doesn’t meet the needs of the market participants, it will fail quickly; but other times a new product will fill a gap and become the new force in FX trading. This process does not need regulatory oversight for it to happen - it happens by innovation.

Currently, the GFXC is working on OTC options as well. FX specific issues for options revolve around the fact that often at the end of the day, traders receive deliverable cash, so questions like ‘What is the currency of your option?’ are not as obvious. In a currency option, you have several currencies: the currency of the option, the currency that it is against and the currency of the payment, which can be a third currency.

The FPL Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC) has also worked on FIX for allocations, which has some quirks for FX that are not present in equities. For example, if a fund manager has 50 sub-funds, often they will do a single FX trade, representing the net exposure of all of the funds. Rather than buying and selling some all day, they aggregate it. As a result, a single trade of ‘buy 1 million Euros, sell US Dollars,’ turns into an allocation of sell 50 million Euros, buy 150, sell 100, etc. Also, the net trade cannot be zero; otherwise, you cannot settle the trade. This issue caused a lot of consternation, but because there is still a need for a way to do the allocations in a trade where the net is very small, it was decided to have a one cent minimum.

Other factors FIX has to address include delivery and settlement dates, and NDFs cannot actually be delivered, so they are cash settled - normally in US Dollars. There are also questions regarding what fixing rate to use, because FX is an OTC market and there can be several semi-official prices to choose from.