Trading Technologies (TT) has acquired TRAFiX, adding global equities and equity options to a platform that already covers futures, fixed income, foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies. The acquisition fills a remaining gap in TT’s asset coverage.
London's trading industry is coming home!
The transaction closed today (September 30), although its financial terms were not disclosed. TT said it plans to integrate TRAFiX’s order and execution management technology into its cloud-based platform.
The company began as a futures trading technology provider before expanding into fixed income, spot FX, forwards, swaps, non-deliverable forwards and cryptocurrencies.
Adding cash equities and equity options would allow clients to manage trading across the main asset classes through the same technology provider.
Equities Added to the TT Platform
TRAFiX provides combined order and execution management systems, FIX connectivity and trading applications for global equities and options. Its clients include broker-dealers, asset managers and proprietary trading firms.
According to the announcement, TRAFiX has more than 200 customers and connections to over 100 trading venues.
Once the integration is completed, TT customers would be able to route and manage equity orders alongside other instruments through a common order and execution management system.
The combined platform is also expected to bring market connectivity, risk controls, regulatory reporting and trade surveillance into the same workflow.
For firms currently operating separate trading systems for different desks or asset classes, the practical change would be the ability to consolidate more of their order flow and supporting data within TT.
Trading Technologies has not disclosed an integration timetable or explained whether TRAFiX will continue to operate as a separate product during the transition.
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Acquisition Follows Stated Plan
The transaction implements a priority that TT identified earlier this year. In a February strategy update, CEO Justin Llewellyn-Jones named equities and equity options among the company’s main areas of interest for acquisitions.
TT has also been building functions around the trading workflow. Its acquisition of OpenGamma added margin and capital-efficiency analytics, while its existing products cover clearing, post-trade allocation, transaction-cost analysis and compliance monitoring.
In a separate review of order and execution management investment, TT said many sell-side firms still maintain separate systems across desks, regions and asset classes.
TRAFiX gives the company the equity execution and connectivity layer needed to extend its proposed consolidated model to those businesses. The company has not disclosed whether TRAFiX’s management or staffing will change following the acquisition.
