Tag Archives: Dodd-Frank

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Fixed Income, Tech Talk

Thiel-backed e-Bond Trading Platform Trumid Rolling Up w Electronifie; 1+1=3

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The notoriously fragmented universe of upstart electronic bond trading platforms that aim to address “the lack of liquidity” concerns voiced by institutional fund managers and deliver e-bond trading tools that enhance transparency and make trading fixed income products easier for buysiders is starting to consolidate. This week Trumid, founded in 2014 and funded by among others VC icon Peter Thiel and investor George Soros announced the acquisition of competitor Electronifie, founded by former Goldman Sachs ‘braniac’ fixed income trader Amar Kuchinad.  Electronifie, also founded in 2014 has been fixed on delivering an “all-to-all” round-lot trading platform for investment grade corporate bonds.

Fintech merchant bank SenaHill Partners, which spearheaded the initial funding round for Trumid during its startup phase and was later engaged by Electronifie to assist in identifying strategic investors, brought the two companies together for transaction.  SenaHill Securities served as financial and strategic adviser to Electronifie in the transaction. Upon closing, over 350 institutions will be on board Trumid Market Center, the company’s all-to-all trading network for corporate bonds. This includes 20 of the top 25 asset managers in the world and 60 broker-dealers. Following a regulatory approval process, Trumid expects the transaction to close early in the second quarter of 2017. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ebond-trading Trumid acquires Electronifie
Electronifie Founder Amar Kuchinad (l) Trumid President Mike Sobel (r)

“We pride ourselves on building a strong user network and delivering great products that make corporate bond trading easier. Trumid continuously strives to improve all aspects of our clients’ trading experience,” says Mike Sobel, president of Trumid. “The Electonifie team shares that vision and the combination of our networks will enhance the all-to-all liquidity available on the Trumid platform.”

Trumid recently closed a USD28 million capital raise, with participation from existing lead investors Thiel and Soros, as well as from new partners including CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund. With this capital, Trumid will continue to proactively grow and improve its offering, including its data science effort Trumid Labs, expansion of its salesforce, and development of new products.

According to one e-bond trading pioneer and a SenaHill Network Advisory Board member, who in 1994 helped introduce BondNet, the industry’s first web-based, inter-dealer electronic trading platform for corporate bonds, stated “As evidenced by the nearly two-dozen initiatives launched during the past 4-5 years alone, there’s been no shortage of smart folks who recognize the need for a centralized platform in which corporate bond market participants can transact in an efficient manner, particularly in the Dodd-Frank world in which the role of liquidity-providing sell-side dealers has been greatly diminished.  The plethora of platforms launched during the recent decade has created further fragmentation within an already-fragmented marketplace, so now it makes perfect sense for there to be a consolidation. This deal is a clear sign that roll-up schemes, where the vision that 1+1=3 is the next logical step for those who embrace the view that electronification of bond trading is good thing.” Continue reading →

Fixed Income, People Profiles, Tech Talk

Fixed Income FinTech Chapter 14: More e-Trading Platforms for US Govt Bonds

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The US Government Bond Market is set to explode…with more e-trading systems.. MarketsMuse Tech Talk continues its curating of fintech stories from the world of fixed income and today’s update is courtesy of WSJ’s Katy Burne, who does a superb job (as always) in summarizing the latest assortment of US Government bond “e-trading” initiatives. MarketsMuse editor note: The financial marketplace is now littered with electronic trading platforms ostensibly designed to enhance liquidity and address the needs of respective market participants.

The once-revered premise of electronifying old-fashioned, non-transparent OTC markets so as to make them fully transparent and in turn, enhance liquidity in a manner that would inspire institutional investors to increase use of those products has, according to many, morphed into a ethernet rat’s nest. There are now almost as many of flavors of institutional electronic trading platforms as there are ice cream flavors from by Ben & Jerry’s and Baskin Robbins combined. Most if not all are ‘accelerated’ thanks to the innovation of rebate schemes, payment for order flow menus, and of course, high-frequency trading (HFT) applications, which has made the market structure more akin to a continuous “Battle of the Transformers.”

Despite the rising concern  on the part of both institutional investors and regulators as to the impact of market fragmentation (the latter of whom are easily-cajoled by the phalanx of lobbyists and special interest groups),  the Genie is not only out of the bottle, it’s reach continues…and the US Govt bond market is, according to those leading the initiatives described below, ripe for ‘innovation,’  for two good reasons. The first is the widely-shared belief that the rates market, which has been mostly range bound for several years thanks to the assortment of QE programs and lackluster economic recovery. is now anticipating a major uptick in volatility, which is a trader’s favorite friend. Secondly, the role of major investment bank trading desks, once ‘controlled’ the market for government bonds, has become severely diminished consequent to Dodd-Frank and the regulatory regime governing those banks and the financial markets at large.

Here’s the opening excerpt from Katy Burne’s column “Antiquated Treasury Trade Draws Upstarts”..

A host of companies are vying to set up new electronic networks for trading U.S. Treasurys, the latest upheaval in a $12.5 trillion market already being reshaped by some large banks’ pullback and the growth of fast-trading firms.

The efforts highlight the shifting role of banks, and gyrations in the market as the Federal Reserve prepares to lift interest rates in the months ahead.

Traditional Treasury trading is now widely viewed as “antiquated and rigid,” said David Light, a former head of government-bond sales at Citigroup and co-founder of CrossRate Technologies LLC, which is launching one of the new venues. “It simply did not evolve with all the changes in technology and regulation.”

Currently, there are two main channels for trading Treasurys on screens. Banks trade opposite their asset manager and hedge fund clients, with identities disclosed, via either Bloomberg LP or Tradeweb Markets LLC.

The banks then trade with other banks and professional investors anonymously, in exchange-like systems on either BrokerTec, owned by broker ICAP PLC, or eSpeed, owned by Nasdaq OMX Group. The banks trade with other banks in a wholesale market on one set of prices; they trade with customers on another set of prices. Continue reading →

Tech Talk

Market Manipulation or Rapid Fire Trading? Regulators Eye Spoofing

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MarketsMuse update courtesy of Feb 21 WSJ story by Bradley Hope

One June morning in 2012, a college dropout whom securities traders call “The Russian” logged on to his computer and began trading Brent-crude futures on a London exchange from his skyscraper office in Chicago.

Over six hours, Igor Oystacher ’s computer sent roughly 23,000 commands, including thousands of buy and sell orders, according to correspondence from the exchange to his clearing firm reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. But he canceled many of those orders milliseconds after placing them, the documents show, in what the exchange alleges was part of a trading practice designed to trick other investors into buying and selling at artificially high or low prices.

Traders call the illegal bluffing tactic “spoofing,” and they say it has long been used to manipulate prices of anything from stocks to bonds to futures. Exchanges and regulators have only recently begun clamping down.

Spoofing is rapid-fire feinting, and employs the weapons of high-frequency trading, aka “HFT”. A spoofer might dupe other traders into thinking oil prices are falling, say, by offering to sell futures contracts at $45.03 a barrel when the market price is $45.05. After other sellers join in with offers at that lower price, the spoofer quickly pivots, canceling his sell order and instead buying at the $45.03 price he set with the fake bid.

The spoofer, who has now bought at two cents under the true market price, can later sell at a higher price—perhaps by spoofing again, pretending to place a buy order at $45.04 but selling instead after tricking rivals to follow. Repeated many times, spoofing can produce big profits. Make no mistake, spoofing is not limited to the fast-paced world of futures contracts; high-frequency traders are notorious for spoofing and anti-spoofing tactics across listed equities, options and other electronic markets.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law outlawed spoofing, but the tactic is still being used to manipulate markets, traders say. “Spoofing is extremely toxic for the markets,” says Benjamin Blander, a managing member of Radix Trading LLC in Chicago. “Anything that distorts the accuracy of prices is stealing money away from the correct allocation of resources.”

For the full story from the WSJ, please click here