Creditex Spins Off Q-WIXX Execution Service for Large Credit Derivatives Portfolios

Ivy Schmerken, Wall Street & Technology

Creditex Group is spinning off a new electronic platform, Q-WIXX Inc., for trading large credit derivatives portfolio. The automated execution service conducted its first beta trade for a portfolio valued at $1 billion (500 million euros) consisting of 131 North American and European credit derivatives names.According to Q-WIXX, the landmark transaction took 10 minutes to execute on the Q-WIXX platform - which was incubated and developed by Creditex, the leading electronic and hybrid marketplace in the dealer community. In the past, such a transaction would have taken more time. The shorter timeframe resulted in reduced market risk to participants, said the release.

The inaugural beta trade on the Q-WIXX platform was executed in conjunction with four major global credit derivatives dealers: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, along with Cairn Capital, a London-based credit hedge fund. Creditex Group is in the process of spinning off Q-WIXX, which will be a separate, independently managed entity.

The automated execution service was set up to assist hedge funds, correlation desks of dealers and buy-side market participants that regularly do transactions with lists containing over 100 credit derivative names and notional amounts of more than $1 billion per list. These transactions are known as Offers Wanted in Competition (OWICs) or Bids Wanted in Competition (BWICs).

One goal is for Q-WIXX is to add processing efficiencies to these large credit derivatives transactions. Q-WIXX will provide straight through processing via T-Zero, a post-trade electronic trade capture and messaging service for credit derivatives that operates as a separate subsidiary of Creditex Group. T-Zero hooks into other platforms, including DTCC's Deriv/SERV for trade matching. 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