Awards: smartTrade

Over the last 12 months, smartTrade Technologies has seen strong growth. The financial software company has added a raft of new clients globally, with Germany, Italy, Japan, North America and South Africa among the countries with healthy demand.

The firm increased its headcount, and launched a new blockchain-based solution that captures and sends post-trade data to a private and permissioned distributed ledger. It also built out connectivity to all major cryptocurrency exchanges to allow clients to trade digital currencies using the firm’s LiquidityFX aggregation system.

David Vincent, chief executive and founder of smartTrade, says that for the first time since the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive came into effect, financial institutions can once again focus on business as usual, rather than channelling all of their time and resources into preparing for the regulation.

With Mifid II out of the way, firms are now ready to invest time and budget in new projects to improve their existing infrastructures

David Vincent, smartTrade

“With Mifid II out of the way, firms are now ready to invest time and budget in new projects to improve their existing infrastructures,” says Vincent.

“Ultimately, sell-side, buy-side and corporate clients are looking for an agile solution and service with best-of-breed technology. Driven by time and cost-saving reasons, there is a vendor consolidation trend taking place, where firms are looking for a single vendor capable of covering all their FX and even cross-asset class needs,” he adds.

Replacing legacy order-management systems is now high on firm’s agenda, as well as optimising algorithms to improve fill ratios. And, following the publication of the FX Global Code of Conduct, transparency is also paramount.

Fast and reliable

Vincent says that because smartTrade does not charge liquidity providers, clients can estimate trading costs with more accuracy and evidence their outcomes more easily. The sophisticated and customisable graphical user interface of Liquidity FX means traders gain a quick and accurate view of the market, and they can place orders with ease.

“It’s fast, very reliable and seamlessly integrates with any other system. Execution, smart order routing and advanced risk features are all available in our aggregation system. To help with the Code of Conduct, last look and hedging rules can be directly configured in the system,” he adds.

Mifid II and the Code have both contributed to higher levels of transparency in FX markets, making control and auditability essential. These developments have also led to the widespread use of execution and transaction cost analysis tools.

To prepare for the arrival of best execution requirements under Mifid II, the company launched a cross-asset, big data analytics solution dubbed smartANALYTICS, which provides TCA reports as well as real-time and historical dashboards.

“We expect the FX market will go even further and for participants to start incorporating machine learning and algorithmic trading techniques into their FX execution strategies,” says Vincent.

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