FlexTrade Systems, an algorithmic execution management systems provider, announced on Wednesday that Thomas Weisel Partners will deploy its new portfolio trade scheduler trading solution, FlexPTS, which it says enables users to determine the best trading trajectory for their portfolios while minimising market impact cost and the risk of underperforming benchmarks.
Utilising optimisation technology, FlexPTS establishes the optimal portfolio trading schedule weighing all the available data, such as user inputs, risk factor correlations, implied volatility, the estimated market impact cost, and the trader's short-term alpha goals. While the system initially employs its own cost model, as well as the short-term equity risk models from Northfield Information Services, FlexPTS is adaptable to any cost and risk models in use today, according to FlexTrade.
According to Robert Redfield, managing director, head of portfolio trading, Thomas Weisel Partners, FlexPTS' appearance is opportune. "Many of the schedulers available today have pre-set risk and cost models, and primarily handle pre-trading strategies on a single stock basis," notes Redfield. "With FlexPTS we now have the ability to develop the optimal pre-trade schedule for whole portfolios while using our own risk and cost models," he adds.
"Pre-trade planning on the portfolio level has always been a challenge in the industry," remarks Vijay Kedia, president and CEO, FlexTrade Systems. "FlexPTS enables users to optimise their pre-trade schedules and also allows real-time schedule adjustments due to its fast computation. This is another example of advanced capabilities bundled with our FlexTrader EMS, the broker-neutral trading platform."