Global provider of electronic trading and investment management technology, Horizon Software (Horizon), has extended its long-term relationship with Edelweiss International Singapore.
Edelweiss Singapore, which has been a client of Horizon since 2014, moved quickly to install the latest version of the Horizon Platform for Automated Trading (HPAT) in order to benefit from the enhanced core features for basket order management, integrated pre-trade risk measures and algo strategy testing framework. This partnership will also allow market participants who have no presence and no exchange membership in India to direct order flow via Edelweiss and trade Indian securities and derivatives. HPAT is an event-driven solution and is the market leader for high-frequency and low-latency algorithmic trading.
"The deal with Edelweiss is not specifically about their structured products offering but it will help to streamline that part of their operations," said Sylvain Thieullent, chief executive at Horizon Software. "Edelweiss has some exposure in the Asia-Pacific structured products market and our trading technology will support their trading activities specially around sophisticated hedging related to their structured products business."
According to Thieullent, Horizons' technology will enable Edelweiss "to optimise and manage more effectively" their existing inventory of positions to cover the exposure generated by their structured products business. "We have been working with them since 2012 and we have expanded the relationship and our service as their trading needs increased outside India, mostly around algo trading," said Thieullent. "This kind of partnership can also open up opportunities in other Asia markets such as India where having a local partner is key to succeed."
Horizon remains focused on tapping into new opportunities in Apac's structured products market "specially in mainland China where domestic players are seeking to increase their market share by taking over Western banks such as Barclays or RBS that are retreating or leaving the region altogether," said Thieullent. "Edelweiss is also good example of the growth opportunities in the region, and how foreign firms are expanding and seeking support from firms like us when they get out of their comfort zone. Our main role with firms expanding in Apac is to help them with their product needs."
Horizon will provide Edelweiss' trading teams with immediate access to a comprehensive range of features and the ability to execute sophisticated strategies and workflows, according to Navin Amarnani, senior vice president at Edelweiss Singapore. "Their unique 'Trade your way' philosophy gives us powerful customisation functions which significantly reduce our time-to-market for designing a trading strategy," said Amarnani, in a statement. "Importantly, we are able to keep our proprietary models confidential and that's crucial for our business growth."
Clement Pelletier, Apac sales director at Horizon, said the successful deployment of the firm's HPAT by Edelweiss has "enabled Edelweiss Singapore to develop and execute advanced proprietary strategies" and that Horizon's strategy will support Edelweiss Singapore's "ambitious plans for growth in the Apac region".
HPAT, Horizon's high-frequency trading solution enables buy-side and sell-side institutions to develop and deploy proprietary algorithmic strategies within their execution management system (EMS). The platform handles cross-asset and cross-product trading strategies on cash and derivatives markets.
Thieullent also said that beyond Apac, Horizon is working on a number of initiatives with French, Belgian and Italian banks seeking to streamline their offering and the connectivity with the manufacturing side of their businesses. "In Europe, we see opportunities around Mifid 2 and the increased need for connectivity between investment banks and the retail networks of those banks around ETF and structured products," said Thieullent.
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