Real-money clients recognise that their FX trading desks have evolved over the last few years to require a hybrid set of skills combining voice trading with data-driven technology solutions used to create automated trading models.
FX Connect has worked alongside State Street’s real-money clients to develop the tools to advance this strategy, including providing interoperability to related third-party applications with its new desktop platform, improving trading efficiency across all asset classes.
“Our solution is used around the world by more than 500 asset managers and hedge funds – including 23 of the top 25 global investment managers – and 19 of the 20 largest global FX banks provide liquidity on FX Connect,” observes Greg Fortuna, head of GlobalLink Solutions FX Connect.
More than 65 liquidity providers subscribe to FX Connect, while its technology is used daily on over 250 trading desks with users in more than 35 countries. Real-money clients can access liquidity in more than 300 currency pairs for spot and up to 70 currency pairs for forward, swap and non-deliverable forward trading.
“FX Connect has been consistently enhanced to meet evolving client and market needs and deliver a market-leading offering for our real-money clients across the trade lifecycle,” says Fortuna. “Recognising that voice and automated trading have to co-exist, we have worked alongside our real-money clients to develop tools to support this strategy, including providing interoperability to related third-party applications with our new desktop platform.”
FX Connect invested heavily in new functionality for real-money clients over the review period, including an autopilot feature that allows users to automatically create and submit trades based on flexible, customised rules; the release of partial executions to provide users with fully algo flexible execution; an upgrade to the client reporting portal; enhanced post-trade integration with TradeNeXus; and improvements to the automated order router to meet real-money trading requirements for fully automated workflow.
FX Connect’s dominance in the real-money space has helped drive strategic acquisitions by State Street of complementary technologies and platforms, and has become a pivotal component of the integrated solutions provided via Charles River Development, BestX and other services.