SunGard says its Broker Direct U2 direct market access and market making system for sell-side traders is now live at more than 25 customer sites, including CIBC World Markets. Broker Direct U2 aims to provide an extensive range of automated trading strategies and order types, and has been expanded to include a FIX API.
“We are pleased with Broker Direct U2’s front-end flexibility and customization,” says Bruce Turner, managing director and head of U.S. equities trading at CIBC World Markets. CIBC’s Nasdaq trading desk uses Broker Direct U2 as its primary trading application for direct market access and quote management.
“The broker neutrality of the platform and cost-effective pricing model helps CIBC to succeed in the highly competitive electronic trading arena. Going forward, CIBC looks to extend the platform to other internal trading desks and to leverage a solution that can be integrated to the buy-side trading desk,” adds Turner.
Broker Direct U2’s GUI supports market making, agency and proprietary trading. The system also includes a software development kit that allows firms to build custom trading applications. The latest enhancement to this set of direct market access tools for the enterprise is a FIX API.
The interface, which offers FIX 4.0 to 4.3 compatibility, allows firms to connect their programme trading system, proprietary trading engine, GUI or OMS with Broker Direct U2’s order routing and automated trading functionality. The API, which provides one standardized interface to the equity markets, offers the same speed and reliability as Broker Direct U2 and will support Broker Direct U2’s full range of order types, automated trading capabilities and smart agents.
“Supplying a FIX interface for Broker Direct U2 brokers is essential for their proprietary, program and quantitative trading needs and helps them to offer seamless market wide access to liquidity points,” says James T. Leman, president of SunGard Trading Systems/BRASS. “This use of FIX, coupled with the power of the Broker Direct U2’s back-end capabilities, shows how technology can truly help the business to move trading to a new level of effectiveness.”
Near-term enhancements to the system will include basket trading, now in beta testing, and a broker-sponsored version of the platform that firms can offer to their customers. That component of Broker Direct U2 is nearing pilot deployment, Leman added.
The FIX offering is based on a robust technology architecture with redundant hardware, a resilient, networked database and order recovery technology.
Broker Direct U2 comes ready to integrate with SunGard’s BRASS trade order management system. The broker neutral system runs on Intel Xeon-MP processor-based servers and utilizes the latest Microsoft .Net technology for quicker upgrades and enhancements.
“A knowledgeable and dedicated support team has responded to functionality enhancements in a timely manner,” says Turner. “The support staff associated with the product has a good understanding of the automated trading environment and the importance of accessing liquidity efficiently.”