Eze Castle Eases Trading

Eze Castle Software, a Boston-based purveyor of buy-side order management systems, has launched version 4.7 of its flagship Traders Console product.

The new version features a number of enhancements, including improvements to Eze Connect -- a FIX-compliant, electronic trading component embedded in Traders Console that gives users connectivity to brokers, ECNs and exchanges. Among the enhancements to Eze Connect is algorithmic trading, or the ability to customize order types by specific brokers, according to Jeff Shoreman, co-chief operating officer overseeing product development.

Basically, Eze Castle's goal, says company president David Quinlan, is to make routing orders as fast and easy as possible for buy-side traders. This is accomplished, for example, by providing shortcut keys that quickly call up algorithms dictating the best place to route a specific order. "We have taken time in crafting our approach to come up with a single framework," Quinlan says.

The new version of Traders Console also contains an upgrade to the system's fixed income capabilities, providing full trade capture for different instrument types, including the ability to have repurchase agreements captured in the system's repurchase agreements blotter, according to Shoreman.

To facilitate proprietary modeling, Eze Castle (booth 1817) also has linked up the system with Microsoft Excel, building a two-way interface with Traders Console. "It connects from our front end into the Excel front end for modeling by the firm, then back into our system for execution and a compliance check," adds Shoreman.

Compliance is an area in which Eze Castle has been focusing with its Watchtower product -- a stand-alone portfolio compliance application for investment managers. Watchtower, according to Shoreman, allows orders to be "packaged up and shipped as summary violations to the chief compliance officer, who can then look at a blotter and drill down into specific orders. They can then hold them for review, sign off, or reject and send them back."

Additionally, the vendor is highlighting its Commission Optimizer budgeting tool, acquired when Eze Castle purchased a "mini company" from the Bank of New York a year and a half ago that specialized in high-end commissions management.

Traditionally, buy-side institutions undergo a voting process through which portfolio managers decide how much each of their sell-side counterparties will receive in commissions. The Commission Optimizer tool is used for planning, monitoring and reporting on the brokerage allocation process and can be tailored to a company's needs and its specific order management system.

"So the commission optimizer has voting and budget management capabilities and then attaches to the OMS -- not only our OMS but any: Charles River, Macgregor, etc. It runs against budget items and provides as much reporting as you'd like [in order] to provide you with the details of who you are paying and how much," says Quinlan.

The Bank of New York company came with 20 established clients at the time Eze Castle made the purchase. Quinlan says the vendor has sold the Commissions Optimizer to seven or eight of its existing Traders Console clients to date.

Eze Castle has participated in the SIA Conference for a number of years, having a booth of its own for the last few. "The show draws in many people in a concentrated way. I think it's a good opportunity for people to come and see that we are doing more in terms of connectivity with brokers," says Quinlan. "Because brokers and money managers attend, it is a unique spot on the conference circuit as it hits the target markets on both sides."