Markets Media: Flashback Friday – Comfort in Custom Algos

By Jen Fagenson

December 1, 2017

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Markets Media’ John D’Antona discusses the evolution of algos and the never-ending development. With traders around Wall Street making changes to their strategies every day and the market structure changes over the past ten years, the need to anticipate changes makes sense.

Peter Maragos, CEO of Dash Financial Technologies agrees, noting that traders too are more complex – just like the algos they now use.

“Buy side traders are extremely sophisticated today,” Maragos began. “Many of them are looking to really drive the routing and posting behavior of their trading strategies, which means they need a degree of control well beyond simple aggressiveness settings. Most of our clients want to work with us to help them customize every aspect of the algo in the same way a tailor would design a bespoke suit.”

And the trading desk, not just the trader began to change. The trading floor, once only the bastion of traders and salespeople, started make room for algorithm developers who would work hand-in-hand with the trader to make his algos better, stronger, faster.

“They (traders) can only do that with a full view into how the algo performs, however, which is why full transparency into the order’s routing behavior is so critical,” Maragos said. “Ultimately, we see all buy side adopting a hands-on approach like this, which helps them drive value for their firm by maximizing alpha capture.”

To read the full article, click here.