The EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) has radically changed the shape of the EU market. By opening the door to increased competition, traders now see a proliferation of new exchanges, alternative trading systems, and multi-lateral trading facilities, while existing exchanges expand their reach. A single security can now trade on multiple venues — complicating the analysis of liquidity and related trading decisions. By recent count, there are now 45 trading venues in Europe alone.
With no official European-wide "BBO" or consolidated last-trade ticker, this fragmentation of market liquidity makes trading a challenge. While market data vendors have stepped in to offer a consolidated last trade/BBO feed, some firms have found that the mix of venues does not match the way they trade.
The Aleri Market Liquidity (MLA) server offers firms a consolidated view of the market that exactly matches the way that they trade. In addition to assisting with MiFID compliance, Aleri MLA gives traders and trading application the insight needed to answer fundamental trading questions such as: Who has the best price? Who has the most liquidity? How is market depth changing over time?
Aleri MLA’s consolidated market view lets you take into account current conditions on all available markets when deciding where to trade. Using Aleri’s CEP authoring tools, you can extend your MLA model to perform smart order routing in compliance with your firm’s best execution policy. In addition to price, you can include other factors (such as transaction costs and customer preferences) in the routing decision. A compliance record documenting the basis for the decision can be archived for future reporting and auditing.