Trade Ideas Limited (TIL) — the industry utility established by Citi, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort and Merrill Lynch to expand the use of equity trade ideas industry-wideincreased by 124 firms last year.
At year-end, 265 brokerage firms, hedge funds and traditional long-only investment managers in the UK, US and Far East had joined the trade idea platforman increase of 88% from a year ago. More than 6,000 new equity trade ideas were entered into the Repository and Distribution Centre (the server hub that enables institutional brokers to send ideas to their clients) in December 2007, up 272% from 1,709 ideas entered the same month a year ago. A total of 96,719 ideas have been entered into the RDC since its launch in October 2005, reflecting 334% growth since December 2006.
“Institutional firms and their clients increasingly are using equity trade ideas as a complement or alternative to traditional sell side analyst research in deciding when to buy or sell a stock,” says Simon Tizard, executive director of TIL. “Brokers are developing trade ideas because they are being paid to do so by their clients, and clients are paying because they are realizing value from them.”
“Due to growing demand, in 2008 we plan to introduce more features and further expand penetration into the US and Far East markets,” says Colin Berthoud, director of youDevise Limited, which markets the Trade Idea Monitor, the leading third party application for accessing the RDC.