Christian Hauff is CEO and co-founder of Quantitative Brokers.
What were the major themes of your business in 2015?
In 2015, the core focus of QB was continuing to build out our client base and further extend the application of our best execution and TCA suite to more futures markets, the cash treasury market and relative value executions. This year, QB finalized a number of industry partnerships and integrations with some of the industry's leading EMS/OMS providers, including REDI, RiskVal, InfoReach, and TradingTechnologies. These collaborations, coupled with the now 14 FCM's integrated with QB, have made client access and on-boarding with QB easier than ever. Another primary theme for QB throughout the course of the year was proactively analyzing and consulting clients on ways to optimize their use of QB's technology to even further reduce their slippage.
What are your expectations for 2016?
While continuing to enhance our algorithmic suite for the cash treasuries and futures markets, QB plans to expand into the Asian futures markets. The Asian markets are growing rapidly and QB clients are expressing a strong desire to reduce their slippage on these markets. Additionally, regulations around best execution practices and automated trading will influence market participants change in behavior towards more transparent solutions. In Europe, MiFID II continues to be a hot topic, and although its implementation date will likely be pushed to January 2018, it will continue to be a key area of focus in 2016, for all firms in this jurisdiction. Meanwhile, Reg-AT and FINRA 15-09 will be closely monitored in the US by market participants as they increase the standards, including registrations, of algorithmic market participants. Lastly, with the Fed finally lifting short-term interest rates off zero and announcing that they will continue to gradually raise rates, the fixed income markets should see some increased volatility as a result.
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