ION has released a new liquidity seeking trading solution aimed at helping traders boost performance amid the ongoing equities slowdown.
Named Fidessa Spotlight, the new solution allows for the seeking of a wider range of liquidity by combining dark pools with other traditional forms of benchmarking and order handling. This combination will allow buy-side users to reduce market impact, ION said.
The new solution allows firms to unlock previously “contingent” volumes, while maintaining spray and cycle orders on dark, lit, and conditional venues. Traders can also adapt the model using static data to control release of “sliced” or child orders across venues.
“For buy-side equities traders facing increased complexity and liquidity challenges, it’s fantastic to welcome a dynamic solution that will revolutionise trading across global markets through reliable and efficient automation technologies,” said William Cline-Thomas, senior product manager at ION Markets.
The new dark mechanism comes to market as firms are increasingly looking to technology as a solution to the ongoing slowdown in equities trading and capital raising globally.
In equities trading, a decline in client activity saw many Wall Street names including Morgan Stanley, Citi, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and UBS report a decline in equity markets revenues in the first quarter of this year.
Deal volumes have also remained largely flat in 2023, according to data compiled by Dealogic. The first quarter of this year saw around $153.2 billion in global issuance volume, up 18% on the last quarter of 2022 but still 7% below the first quarter of last year.
“Customers are at the centre of our product strategy,” said Sandeep V. Sabnani, head of equities product strategy and growth at ION Markets. “We are excited to introduce a global solution capable of unlocking more liquidity and improving equities trading performance across the market.”