Waters Rankings 2015: Best Agency Broker ─ Bloomberg Tradebook

Sabrina Gagliotta, Tradebook’s global head of trading and execution consulting, made this point immediately when we discussed the win: when you have access to Bloomberg's terminal, you not only have easy access to eyes, you can create solutions that integrate into a traders work flow from the research phase to execution.

As a result, almost everything Tradebook now does is designed with a cross-asset mentality, from its algorithms to complex workflow tools and analytics that allow market participants to plug in proprietary modeling and trading programs across a global range of direct market access (DMA) points.

One particular focus area revolves around complex relative-value strategies, which pair up orders that might play an option against an equity, or an equity against an index future. The strategy, Gagliotta says, is typical of Tradebook’s approach. Of course, an algo is available to help traders construct and execute their chosen pair, but much of the value-add happens before that. In this case, Tradebook’s global head of product development, Yurij Baransky, and CIO of enterprise solutions Vipul Nagrath, developed a front-end “cockpit” that allows users to visualize the strategy at hand and compare the spreads incurred by a particular pair; assess the volatility, benchmark or other risks that may be targets for the desired hedge; and compare the different values that become relevant as two instruments are placed in a buy/sell relationship.

That all sounds complicated—and it is—but the goal is quite simple and reflects Bloomberg’s broader push for elegance of user experience: locate all the information necessary in one place, and arrange it in a way that is easily understood. While building these tools, Tradebook has also made it a point to develop the platform for mobile, and particularly for iPad use—an initiative that won it the best mobile initiative category in this year’s Rankings (see in the print edition page 74).

It’s old news that Bloomberg is good—perhaps better than anyone on the Street—at leveraging its privileged position on thousands of trading desks. Tradebook’s win this year is proof that it can listen, too.

It’s old news that Bloomberg is good—perhaps better than anyone on the Street—at leveraging its privileged position on thousands of trading desks. Tradebook’s win this year is proof that it can listen, too.