Sell-Side Technology Awards 2014: Best Sell-Side Market Surveillance Product — Nasdaq OMX (Smarts Broker)

Used by venues, participants and regulators alike, Smarts Broker essentially utilizes the raw power of market information through data and regulatory reform, combined with an intellectual assessment of the more common frustrations expressed by compliance officers. Its connectivity scours the necessary data sources for a fit and proper investigative regime to be possible, merging data sets from exchanges with firms’ private trading information to provide an accurate and holistic picture of market activity. Critically, the information can be analyzed through cross-market and cross-asset visualizations that stretch across multiple venues, and the software includes the ability for users to define related information that should also be displayed on-screen with the order-book profile.

Market replays are included as standard, along with scores of pre-configured alerts that track suspect activity and correlate it against a number of potential market-abuse scenarios. The addition of business-intelligence tools allow compliance officers to identify trends that may not be immediately apparent through simply looking at order flow against the wider market data. Also differentiating Smarts Broker from similar products is the Smarts Case Management tool, born from the exchange group’s partnership with surveillance provider b-wise, which allows for the attuned management of alerts and a full regulatory audit trail.

While many sections of the market have been slow to adopt the kind of muscular surveillance regime that modern trading activities require, Nasdaq OMX has managed to produce a suite of tools that not only services the existing needs of compliance officers, but also bolsters their ability to ensure the safety of trading at their respective firms. For this reason, it beats the other contenders to take the category’s crown, in what has been a distinctly competitive year.

The need for effective tools and technologies to keep a close eye over trade flow in a real-time manner has grown proportionately. With Smarts Broker, Nasdaq OMX has continued to show that it is ahead of the curve in terms of both foresight and sophistication.