Reinventing Algos: ITG Survey Finds Buyside Traders Seeking Custom Features and Increased Transparency

NEW YORK, March 13, 2017 -- ITG (NYSE:ITG), a leading independent broker and financial technology provider, today released a survey of North American institutional investors’ views of algorithmic trading. The poll follows on a survey released by industry consultants Greenwich Associates in January 2017, which found that only 7% of buy-side traders are fully satisfied with the standard algos provided by their brokers.¹

The ITG survey, conducted in early March, polled buyside professionals who participated in an ITG webinar on reinventing algos. The nearly 70 respondents represent institutional investors with assets under management (AUM) ranging from approximately $130 million to $1.8 trillion, with median AUM of $14 billion.

Survey Findings:

• Custom Flow: While most buyside traders prefer customized algos to off-the-shelf versions, only 24% send more than half of their daily order flow to custom algos.
• Strategy Improvements: The traders polled would like to see improvements in more complex algo strategies such as implementation-shortfall (IS) algos (60%) and liquidity-seeking algos (24%). Traders saw less need to change VWAP algos and Close algos (10% and 6%, respectively).
• Reinventing Algos: Buyside traders would like to see several improvements to the algos offered today. 73% would like to see more outcome-focused reporting, with details on information leakage. 61% call for increased algo transparency and easier-to-understand strategies. 39% want to see algos which adjust based on a trader’s execution history and investment style. 

Commenting on the survey findings, Ben Polidore, ITG’s Managing Director for Algo Product Management, said “We support a healthier market for algos where brokers compete on performance.  We are making key investments in our algos, with a recent focus on our IS algo which we’re updating later this year, and these survey results validate that strategy.”

ITG's global execution services platform includes industry-leading algorithms in 40 markets across the Americas, Asia Pacific and the EMEA region and POSIT^® Alert block crossing in 37 markets worldwide.  For more information about ITG’s trading capabilities please call the New York sales desk at +1-212-444-6100 or contact us at [email protected].

¹ Control and Transparency: How the Buy Side Seeks to Manage Their Broker Network. Greenwich Associates, January 2017

About ITG

Investment Technology Group (NYSE: ITG) is a global financial technology company that helps leading brokers and asset managers improve returns for investors around the world. We empower traders to reduce the end-to-end cost of implementing investments via technology-enabled liquidity, execution, analytics and workflow solutions. ITG has offices in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America and offers execution services in more than 50 countries. Please visit www.itg.com for more information. 

ITG Media/Investor Contact:

J.T. Farley 
(212) 444-6259
[email protected]