May 16, 2012
JP Morgan to launch high-speed platforms across Asia
Michael Green, head of equity trading Japan, and head of electronic trading
solutions Asia Pacific, JP Morgan,
has told theTRADEnews.com the firm plans to roll out a low-latency platform in Tokyo, Australia, Korea,
Taiwan, with a view to launching in Hong Kong and India “further down the road,
as and when market structure and the regulatory environment allows”.
The move is part of significant global investment by JP Morgan in electronic trading
after hiring Frank Troise as global head of equities electronic client solutions
in 2010. Troise was previously head of equities
electronic trading at Barclays Capital and was at Lehman Brothers from 2005 to
2008 and at agency broker ITG from 1997 to 2005.
Green said the
firm’s team of locally-based quant specialists have been working on optimising the platform’s
algo strategies – “rebuilding the strategies from the ground up in partnership
with our local developers who have rolled out a next-generation platform
end-to-end”.
He added that JP Morgan’s quant team had produced dynamic real-time pricing inputs and
queuing capabilities, advanced crossing intelligence, dynamic re-profiling
using real-time market data, predictive momentum signals and complex event
processing (CEP).
“These teams have done a highly credible job of taking us from the
middle of the pack to a market leader in
terms of strategy performance, innovation, platform stability, customisation
capabilities, and being thought-leaders in this space,” said Green.
This year in
Asia JP Morgan has already added low-latency
DMA expertise on both the product
side and the sales side. The firm’s current Electronic Client Solutions (ECS) offering includes a full suite of algorithms for both lit and dark venues, customisation, advanced overlays, liquidity strategies including smart order routing and its dark pool, JPMX.
“JPMX has
tied up with some of the dark pool aggregators in the region, and discussions
with others are currently underway,” said Green. “We’re seeing a good linear
increase in volumes in all of the markets we’re operating in. The transaction-based cash equities
business that we’re in is based
around scale economics, execution technology, and the ability to internalise –
one must have the ability to
transact large volumes as efficiently as possible, which plays into an
electronic-based execution strategy.”
Green said
JP Morgan now had clients in Japan who executed 100% of their flow through the
firm, either using algorithms or DMA.
“That’s a big
change from five years ago,” he said. “A number of locally-domiciled Japan clients are now more progressive and sophisticated in
their preferred execution methodology than many global institutional
investors.”
Gavin Blair