Waters Rankings 2016: Best Crossing Network Provider — TradingScreen

TradingScreen describes TradeCross as "the first anonymous pan-European crossing network designed by the buy side for the buy side," given that a group of Europe's largest long-only asset managers supported the New York-based electronic trading solutions provider in its efforts to build a crossing network that covers all bonds, currencies and countries.

TradeCross allows users to negotiate anonymously only with those counterparties that are within their preferred price range. It was built particularly to address the ongoing issues of bond market illiquidity, which, combined with far-reaching regulatory changes, have negatively impacted fixed-income volumes by strangling trade executions. 

The technology was white-labelled and introduced to the market on two continents, Asia and Europe, as two different products under the same name. The Asian system is run and marketed by the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), while its European twin is under the control of TradingScreen itself.

The TradeCross platform is influenced by two groups of asset managers, according to Alexandre Carteau, OTC product business manager at TradingScreen. The first group, he says, is the “governor’s committee,” which runs the initiative and decides how they want to see the platform in the future, while the second group is the “trading committee,” which runs the trader’s experience. “They are essentially in charge of what the trader sees and needs,” Carteau explains. TradingScreen executes possible changes or upgrades in the system based on suggestions from these two constituents.

As of now, there are 25 members that have come on board over the last seven months; TradingScreen estimates that the process will finish somewhere around September. “Then, we’ll have a full platform and we’ll get out of the beta and have a formal launch,” says Carteau. 

TradeCross allows users to negotiate anonymously only with those counterparties that are within their preferred price range. It was built particularly to address the ongoing issues of bond market illiquidity, which, combined with far-reaching regulatory changes, have negatively impacted fixed-income volumes by strangling trade executions.

According to Carteau, the fact that TradingScreen was able to construct a system with the help of the buy side is just one side of the story. The other side, he says, is that the firm is using innovative ways of bringing clients together. “We handle both interests and positions—that has always been very different compared with other platforms, which rely on orders,” he says. 

This is the second win for TradingScreen in one of WatersTechnology’s awards: Back in May this year, the firm received the award for the best sell-side OTC trading initiative at the Sell-Side Technology Awards for its TradeExchange platform.