Sell-Side Technology Awards 2022: Best smart order routing product/tool—Dash Financial Technologies, an Ion company

OVERVIEW

Despite advancements in the space, one of the biggest complaints among users of smart order routing tools has remained unchanged for years—a lack of genuine customization capability. Nearly all platforms now offer parameters that can be adjusted for things like aggressiveness and the opportunity to select liquidity destinations. However, the ability to truly tailor strategies for desired speed, yield capture, fee mitigation and price discovery is rare. Given the pressure faced by sell-side firms to provide value and reduce costs, this flexibility is crucial. 

THE SOLUTION

Several years ago, Dash created its Sensor algorithmic trading/smart order routing platform, which includes a full suite of benchmark and liquidity capture strategies for US options and equities. The suite was built from the ground up with full customization in mind—Dash’s concierge desk works hand-in-hand with clients to implement the Sensor strategies in the same way a tailor creates a bespoke suit. Clients work with Dash to fine-tune the strategies to their specified firm-, trader-, or even symbol-level preference, however defined.

Working in tandem with the Dash360 Analytics portal—which provides full transparency into how their orders were routed, how much liquidity capture was achieved and the associated fees or rebates—Sensor users can create a perpetual cycle of execute, analyze, and refine that enables continual performance optimization.

Sensor also offers unique functionality, especially for trading US listed-options—a market in which Dash is the largest agency execution provider by a wide margin. Trading options requires specialized tools to address the market’s unique structure and intensive data consumption requirements. Sensor was built with these nuances in mind, with specific functionality designed for complicated execution scenarios such as crossing, complex order book interaction, and volatility trading.

WHAT’S TO COME

• Global expansion of Dash’s options product suite
• Further enhancements to Dash OMS, including full incorporation of Dash 360 transparency tools into the front-end and introduction of broker-neutral capabilities
• Tighter integration into other Ion Markets technology platforms based on client needs

WHY THEY WON

There are two qualities that separate Dash’s Sensor offering from other smart order routing tools on the market: transparency and customizability. Both are critical to market participants looking to measure the quality of their executions and, based on their analysis, optimize their trading strategies with the view to improving outcomes.