Fidessa is used to capture all the originating institutional or client orders. These can be entered directly into the system or taken from an electronic source, such as from the internet, over FIX directly from an institution, or from a third party application such as Bloomberg™ or Autex™.

Once captured, orders are passed to the appropriate execution service for trading. Execution services vary from real people (market makers, sales-trading desks) to automatic computerized functions (auto execution, order crossing monitor) to remote electronic systems (order driven markets, other brokers, crossing networks).

Highly specialized routing rules can be defined to ensure orders are given to the most suitable execution services. Examples of these are:

	Small limit orders for European stock sent directly to the electronic market
	Large care orders for European stock sent to the sales-trading desk
	All UK FTSE stock sent to the appropriate SETS trader
	All non-traded stock automatically sent to another broker
	All orders sent to the crossing engine before being sent on to the next service

During the life of the order, the originator can receive real-time status updates to keep him fully informed of where the order is, the volume traded, and the average price achieved. In addition, the system keeps a complete audit trail of every action/event that occurred against the order.

All details regarding an order and any executions associated with an order can be viewed. A full audit trail for an order is available and lists all transactions that have successfully been applied; the audit trail captures the market prices at the time of each transaction and can be used to help resolve client queries. Sales people can be grouped together so that all staff in a group can view and manipulate each others orders.

Orders routed to traders automatically appear on their display via an alert trigger, and once accepted by the trader it is inserted into his/her active order monitor.

There are four main ways for the trader to work and track an order:

	By interacting with the European electronic order books – this interaction can be directly passing parts of the client order on to the market or indirectly trading on the market and assigning executions to client orders later
	Over the phone to brokers or market makers
	Over the phone to clients to actively cross client business
	Off principal house accounts

Traders are grouped together so that all staff in the group can view and manipulate each others orders. Furthermore, traders can be configured with access to a list of groups, and as a result, he/she can also view and manipulate orders entered by trading staff in those groups.

Top