The trading connectivity category was designed to find the brokerage firm that is best able to give electronic execution tools to the broadest range of clients. Every investment bank worth its salt in equities claims to be able to offer its trading services through several channels. They also claim to offer trading through the internet, and say they can deal with every order management system imaginable.
But as anyone who has ever tried to connect a computer to a printer or a PDA, yet alone another computer, will doubtless know, making such things work the way you want is often laborious. Connectivity at the Fix level is the most complicated.
UBS wins this award because it has proven itself willing and able to take on the hardest connectivity challenge, installing and making Fix connections work with those who have never used the protocol before.
UBS was the first installer of Fix connections for well over 200 fund managers, including some of the largest and most technologically sophisticated. The firm’s rivals joke that because it is so often the first to connect, UBS deals with all the difficult challenges, making it much easier for them to follow behind.