Tag Archives: fixed income trading

Financial Technology Laboratories – Product Technology Briefing – BondPub Application Deployment for Distributed Environments

Financial Technology Laboratories, Inc (FTLabs) is a technology vendor for the fixed income securities markets – providing software and service solutions for the common problems facing sell-side fixed income broker-dealers such as liquidity management, quote distribution, RFQ distribution and aggregation, order management, execution management, market data feed integration, electronic trading integration, regulatory compliance, and trade reporting integration.

Fixed Income Trading Technology

FTLabs has taken steps to address several of the pain points associated with building and using a highly integrated and functional software system. An integration platform-as-a-server (IPaaS) called BondHub was built to manage and host all the necessary vendor data messaging integrations. A local application server, BondPub-WS, was built to provide secure and lightning-fast data delivery over the public or private internet to the trader workstations running the BondPub fixed income trading application. And, a highly functional and responsive Windows application was developed to provide traders with the best experience possible for their day-to-day workflow.

For the central integration hub – BondHub – new client onboarding doesn’t require the installation of any new hardware and only rarely required any software development. The client chooses from the existing ATS, clearing, and other vendors integrations, and the FTLabs team will configure the system and coordinate any client-specific integration tasks with the 3rd party vendor. For electronic trading integration with an ATS, for instance, this usually just involves agreeing with the ATS on the configuration, client identifiers, and schedule for starting trading. The data messaging connections are already in place between BondHub and the most popular ATSs and clearing vendors.

Next, the FTLabs local application server component – BondPub_WS (Web Services) – is installed on the client’s network or on the client’s cloud services at AWS, Azure, etc. This component handles all of the data persistence and the data communication between BondHub and the users that are running the BondPub application on their workstations. BondPub_WS persists all of the data generated in an instance of Microsoft SQL Server database to ensure sensitive client information never leaves the firm’s control or premises as can happen with some web-hosted systems. Real-time, bi-directional, data connectivity is established between BondPub_WS and each instance of the BondPub application using a robust communication technology called SignalR. The FTLabs onboarding team is always available to help with BondPub installation of the server or client in any way needed.

Microsoft Windows Integration

Finally, the BondPub user interface is installed as a Microsoft Windows application on the personal workstation of each trader or other user using Microsoft ClickOnce technology.

In the past, some of the management issues that came along with Microsoft Windows applications and with the Microsoft Windows Installer caused developers to decide to create Web applications instead of Windows-based applications – sacrificing a rich and responsive user interface for ease of installation.

FTLabs built the BondPub fixed-income trading platform application to use a Microsoft deployment technology called ‘ClickOnce’ to create a self-updating Window application that can be installed and run with minimal user interaction. By using ClickOnce, the BondPub application can provide the best of both technologies – responsiveness and rich interface of a Windows application with the ease of deployment of a Web app.

ClickOnce overcomes three major deployment issues with traditional Windows Installer deployment and installed Windows applications:

Solves Difficulties in Updating the application – With ClickOnce deployment, we can provide BondPub updates to the trader’s workstations automatically and securely over the internet (using HTTPS) from your firm’s BondPub_WS server or the FTLabs servers. Only the parts of the application that have changed are downloaded and then the complete updated application is reinstalled from a new side-by-side folder. This allows BondPub to be quickly and easily downloaded, deployed, and updated on a remote workstation.
Lower Impact to the User’s Computer – ClickOnce makes deployments of BondPub self-contained so that they don’t interfere with other applications or rely on installing or updating shared components.
Minimizes Security Permissions – Administrative permissions are not required. ClickOnce deployment enabled non-administrative users to install and grants only those Code Access Security permissions necessary for the application.

Especially in the time of work-from-home, making deployment and application updates for traders working remotely is extremely important. ClickOnce is just one of the tools that FTLabs has adopted to ease this burden on traders and on the IT staff.

To learn more about the benefits of the BondPub sell-side fixed income system, download a brochure with more information, or request an online demonstration, or call (646) 397-3938.

Financial Technology Laboratories Release Enhancements to BondPub Bond Execution Management System for Fixed Income Markets

BondPub provides bond traders a fast and reliable method for quote distribution and order aggregation across multiple trading venues in one application, enhancing productivity.

Financial Technology Laboratories, Inc. (FTLabs), a leading technology solution provider for the fixed income securities market, announces enhancements to the BondPub fixed income liquidity management system for the second quarter of 2020.

Designed by electronic trading industry experts and built for use on Windows and the Amazon AWS platform, the combination of FTLabs BondPub liquidity and execution management software and FTLabs BondHub managed routing network enables fixed income traders to centralize and manage much of their daily workflow from a single screen.

BondPub is a highly responsive and productive software tool for active corporate, agency, and municipal bond traders that want to free up hours of their day otherwise spent manually updating multiple systems. It is scalable for use by a single trader or by an entire department with any updates immediately reflected in real-time on the screens of other traders on the desk. BondPub provides:

Multi-level quote pricing and distribution to multiple ATSs from one spreadsheet-like interface
Mass quote markup/markdown
Aggregated order blotter showing consolidated view of all ATS orders
Configurable order alerts through pop-ups or email
Enhancements for taxable traders with spread-to-benchmark pricing and two-sided markets

“Productive management of quotes demands fewer mouse-clicks and keystrokes. BondPub achieves this with an intuitive workflow interface and reliable network connectivity. This translates to speed and accuracy, which is what matters in the market today,” says Robert Bottoni of American Capital Partners LLC.

The FTLabs BondHub managed, hosted routing network enables BondPub to communicate with ATSs and clearing firms with:

Outgoing quote distribution to the ATSs and other systems
Incoming orders and drop-copy trade notifications from the ATSs and other systems
Outgoing drop-copy trade notification for integration with in-house or 3rd-party systems
Programming API available for system integration with both BondPub and BondHub

Financial Technology Laboratories Enhances Sell-Side Fixed Income Execution Management System

Financial Technology Laboratories, Inc. adds trade reporting and compliance capabilities to BondPub, a state-of-the-art software system for sell-side fixed income traders centralizing quote distribution, order aggregation, and trade reporting.

Financial Technology Laboratories, Inc. (FTLabs) announces new system enhancements for the BondPub fixed-income execution management system for sell-side bond trading desks, providing clearing connectivity with the major clearing platforms to allow for straight-through processing of trades, trade and account level compliance checking, and trade compliance reporting.

Built for the Microsoft Windows platform and designed by industry experts in electronic trading, the BondPub execution management system (EMS) enables bond traders to efficiently control the real-time outbound distribution of their corporate, agency, CD, and municipal bond market quotes, aggregate inbound order flow from the most requested bond trading venues, and report trades to clearing.

The BondPub application software connected through the BondHub managed connectivity network gives sell-side bond traders a competitive edge by providing them with a clean and intuitive user-interface where they can manage quote pricing and distribution to multiple fixed income alternative trading system (ATS) venues in one place. Orders from all connected trading venues are aggregated in a single order blotter. A consolidated trade blotter supports trade reporting to the major clearing platforms.

“When American Capital Partners began expanding our fixed income division, we needed a platform that would enable us to control all our ATS markets with one system. We chose FTLabs BondPub as our platform. They also built in straight-through processing so all our ATS executions instantly report and book with our clearing firm. FTLabs is turning out to be a great fit.”, said John Picerno, Head of Trading for American Capital Partners, Inc. of Hauppauge, New York.

BondPub protects the sell-side desk from broken trades and overselling with built-in distribution controls that automatically reduce quantities or remove quotes on all other trading venues the instant an order is received. It incorporates a high-performance calculation engine that supports real-time quote pricing on a yield, percent of par, or spread-to-benchmark basis.

BondPub securely connects clients to the FTLabs cloud-hosted BondHub managed connectivity network where quotes, orders, and trade notifications are exchanged with data vendors, trading venues, and clearing firms. BondHub acts as a shared integration platform as a service (IPaaS) so that client firms do not have to manage and support their own individual connectivity to industry vendors and services.

Financial Technology Laboratories Releases Enhancements to BondPub Bond Execution Management System for Fixed Income Markets

BondPub provides bond traders a simple, fast, and reliable method for quote distribution and order aggregation across multiple trading venues in one application, enhancing productivity.

Financial Technology Laboratories, Inc. (FTLabs) releases major upgrade to BondPub, a fixed income execution management system for bond traders, including:

Enhanced support for corporate bond trading with spread-to-benchmark pricing and bid-ask quoting for making two-sided markets.
Expanded integration with most major ATS platforms supporting drop-copy trade messaging for incorporating ‘done-away’ trades into the BondPub workflow.

Built for the Windows platform and designed in conjunction with electronic trading industry experts, BondPub’s execution management system (EMS) software solution enables bond traders to control the real-time outbound distribution of their corporate, agency, CD, and municipal bond quotes and aggregate the inbound order flow from the most requested bond trading venues in one simple user-interface.

BondPub gives bond traders a competitive edge by providing them with an intuitive Microsoft Windows application to manage quote pricing and distribution to multiple alternative trading systems in one place. Orders from all the connected trading venues are aggregated in one order blotter.

BondPub increases the efficiency of the trading desk with built-in data distribution controls that eliminate overselling and broken trades by automatically updating quotes across all venues as soon as an order is received.
It also includes a high performance calculation engine that supports real-time quote pricing based on percent of par, yield, or live spread-to-benchmark pricing.

“BondPub is a big productivity enhancer for our trading desk. We used to spend hours a day updating prices across all the major platforms to keep up with the markets. When we sold, we would race to update our listings to keep quantities accurate to avoid the risk of overselling. BondPub now automatically handles all of that giving us back hours in our trading day.”, said Peter Scott, Managing Director Fixed Income Investments for Moors & Cabot, Inc..

Financial Technology Laboratories Launches Bond Execution Management Software for Fixed Income Markets

BondPub provides bond traders a simple, fast, and reliable method for streaming distribution of quotes and aggregation of orders to multiple trading venues in one platform, maximizing return.

Financial Technology Labs, Inc. (FTLabs), a leading provider of technology solutions for the fixed income securities market, announced today the beta launch of BondPub™, a fixed income execution management solution tailored specifically for bond traders.

Built on a Windows platform and designed in conjunction with electronic trading industry experts, BondPub’s execution management solution is intended to serve as a complete solution-in-a-box that enables bond traders to control the outbound distribution of their corporate, agency or municipal bond quotes and aggregate the inbound order flow from the most requested trading venues in one simple real-time interface.

BondPub increases productivity by responding in a fraction of a second to confirm orders and send updated quotes.
Key features for bond traders include:
High performance calculation engine that supports real-time quote pricing based on percent of par, yield, or live spread-to-benchmark pricing.
Security controls that eliminate overselling and broken trades when an ATS order is received by automatically updating all trading venues at once.
Automatic drop copy trade notifications of transactions completed on the ATS platforms into a consolidated order blotter.
Integration with the firm’s existing systems resulting in reduced manual keying and minimal (minimized) reporting time.

James Rucker, President of FTLabs said, “BondPub was developed with the trader in mind so that they can focus on trading in one interface rather than the mechanics of managing quotes and transacting with many different platform interfaces.”