Waters Rankings 2018: All the Winners and Why they Won

This year’s Rankings lunch, held on July 12 at The Players social club in New York featured four double winners – Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, IPC Systems and S&P Global Market Intelligence – two fewer than last year’s awards, with Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters repeating their multiple wins from the 2017 Rankings.

And while some winners continued to dominate certain categories – Bloomberg (best sell-side OMS provider), Thomson Reuters (best low-latency data feed provider), Numerix (best market risk solution provider), Eze Castle Integration (best cyber-security provider), Charles River (best buy-side OMS provider) and IPC Systems (best trading floor communication system provider), a number of previous winners traded places by winning new categories this year, including StatPro, Tradeweb Markets, SmartStream Technologies and Electra Information Systems.

But this year, one firm – IPC – stood out above all others by once again claiming the title in the best trading floor communication system provider category, its 13th win on the bounce, an astonishing feat by any measure.

Last year’s Rankings attracted a record 495 entries, a number not quite matched by the 468 entries we received this year. Write-ups by Hamad Ali (HA), Josephine Gallagher (GA), Emilia David (ED), Wei-Shen Wong (WSW), James Rundle (JR) and Victor Anderson (VBA).

This year’s Waters Rankings winners (click on the links below to access the write-ups):

Best Agency Broker: Weeden & Co.

Best Crossing Network Provider: OpenDoor Trading

Best Reconciliation Management Provider: Broadridge Financial Solutions

Best Algorithmic Trading Provider: Wolverine Execution Services

Best Artificial Intelligence Technology Provider: Sentieo

Best Sell-Side Order Management System (OMS) Provider: Bloomberg

Best Buy-Side Order Management System (OMS) Provider: Charles River Development

Best Portfolio Management System Provider: RiskVal Financial Solutions

Best Execution Management System (EMS) Provider: LSEG Technology

Best Performance Measurement and Attribution System Provider: StatPro

Best Transaction-Cost Analysis (TCA) System Provider: Tradeweb Markets

Best Enterprise Data Management (EDM) Systems Provider: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Best Reference Data Provider: Bloomberg

Best Corporate Actions Solution Provider: SmartStream Technologies. Click on this link to view a Q&A with SmartStream’s Adam Cottingham.

Best Low-latency Data Feed Provider: Thomson Reuters

Best Data Analytics Provider: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Best Distributed-Ledger Technology Provider: AlphaPoint

Best AML Compliance Solution Provider: NICE Actimize

Best Market Risk Solution Provider: Numerix

Best Credit Risk Solution Provider: Moody’s Analytics

Best Market Surveillance Provider: Nasdaq

Best Reporting System Provider: FactSet Research Systems

Best Accounting System Provider: SS&C Advent. Click on this link to view a Q&A with SS&C Advent’s Robert Roley.

Best Cyber-Security Provider: Eze Castle Integration

Best Outsourcing Service Provider: Electra Information Systems

Best Trading Floor Communication System Provider: IPC Systems

Best Network Provider: BT

Best Mobile Solutions Provider: Thomson Reuters

Best Cloud-based Services Provider: Eagle Investment Systems

Best Cloud Infrastructure Provider: IPC Systems