Aizawa Securities Unifies Prop and Wholesale Agency Systems on Fidessa Platform

With changes in the Japanese exchange trading system world, Aizawa Securities, an independent securities company, has chosen Fidessa’s platform as its new proprietary and wholesale agency trading system.

“There are many benefits to unifying our prop and wholesale agency systems on Fidessa’s comprehensive trading platform. By outsourcing our front-end trading systems operations to Fidessa, we will stay ahead of the evolving trading system environment and changes in trading rules,” commented Hitohiko Kimura, general manager of the Securities Dealing Department at Aizawa Securities in today’s release. By outsourcing the front-end trading system operations to Fidessa, Kimura said his firm will “stay ahead of the evolving exchange trading system environment and changes in trading rules, while keeping system upgrade costs to a minimum.”

2013’s merger of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Osaka Securities Exchange to form the new Japan Exchange Group which will bring changes to exchange trading platforms, and has prompted securities firms to upgrade their systems, according to today’s release. Specifically, the merger will bring a new exchange interface, upcoming changes in decimal tick sizes for equity cash trading and the easing of short-sell uptick rules. Already the cash equity markets merged in July and the integration of the derivatives markets is due to be completed in March 2014.

The Fidessa platform will help the securities firm meet the demands of its buy-side clients by providing sophisticated trading capabilities to its wholesale agency business. “As part of our global expansion plans we want to offer our domestic clients the ability to trade overseas stocks, as well as reach out to overseas investors wishing to trade Japanese equities.”

Aizawa also plans to use BlueBox, Fidessa’s algorithmic trading engine to introduce automated trading into the firm’s prop business. By utilizing Fidessa’s global connectivity network and BlueBox we can provide both direct market and algorithmic trading services to those overseas customers,” continued Kimura.

According to Ian Chilton, CEO of Fidessa in Japan, “Aizawa made a strategic decision in selecting Fidesssa for both their agency and prop trading businesses.” Fidessa has extensive experience in the domestic agency trading business and has recently expanded its platform to cater to domestic prop businesses with their specific needs and unique compliance requirements, Chilton added. “Fidessa is fast becoming the benchmark prop/agency trading system for domestic securities firms in Japan.”

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