SunGard Launches Assent ATS to Match Equity Orders
SunGard is announcing the launch of Assent ATS, an alternative trading system, for matching U.S. equity flows. The crossing network has been quietly operating for about a month, aggregating the diverse flows from SunGards’ different trading communities.
“We have institutional clients, high-frequency black-box clients and a professional trading community as well,” explains Chris Lees, VP, SunGard Trading in an interview with Advanced Trading.
SunGard is receiving the order flows from Assent, its broker dealer subsidiary, Brass, its sell-side order management system and GL Trade, a trading system acquired by SunGard last year. A lot of the sell-side clients using Brass are dealing with institutional flow, so they are sending in institutional size orders, in addition to retail order flow coming from the Brass client base, he said.
However, there are upwards of 35-to-40, and by some counts, 50-plus dark pools or crossing networks operated by broker dealers and third party agency brokers, so how is SunGard going to differentiate its new ATS? “What makes Assent ATS unique is the type of flow and the scale and diversity of the flow,” said Lees. Second, the ATS is very well positioned with other execution services they have in the liquidity services toolkit, he said. “If the ATS can’t give you an execution, we’ll use our smart router, sponsored access or dark pool aggregators. So we’re not just a pure destination in that regard,” said SunGard’s Lees.
When thinking about its execution suite, SunGard realized it “could provide a new pool of liquidity, allowing SunGard to execute within the SunGard family before we route outside,” explained Lees. “Because we have Brass on the desks of the sell-side community and we have the Assent user base, we have a diverse amount of liquidity flowing through the SunGard user base,” said Lees.
Tapping into the diverse flows enables SunGard to match trades before routing out to others public markets or non-displayed venues. “If we match it (flow) internally, then we hope to increase the fill rates they achieve and also reduce their costs from a trading perspective. In terms of the functionality of the ATS, a lot of dark pools operate in a similar way,” said Lees.
Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio
Tweet This