The TRADE 53 | Page 87

[ S U R V E Y | E X E C U T I O N M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M S ] TORA TORA established its base of business some years ago, building around the needs of hedge funds and Reliability and Availability starting in Asia. While its business has grown since Latency then, that remains the core of its business and is reflected in the responses received within the Survey. Client Service Personnel More than three-quarters of responses were from Ease-of-Use clients based in Asia, with Japan a particular area of Handling of New Versions/Releases activity. This was a significantly higher proportion than any other provider recorded. Almost 80% of Breadth of Broker Algorithms respondents were hedge funds. This again was well Timeliness of Updates for Broker Changes in excess of most respondents. While a few long-only FIX Capabilities managers did respond for TORA they were in a small minority. A little over half of the respondents use Breadth of Asset Class Coverage TORA as a multi-asset class capability while a further Breadth of Direct Connections to Venues 24% use it for trading a single asset class across mul- Product Development tiple brokers. The nature of TORA clients means that its scores Ease of Integration to Internal Systems may be less directly comparable to other providers. In Overall Cost of Operation addition the number of responses in 2017 was more than double the level recorded a year earlier. In that Tora context it is worth noting that 2017 scores were maintained 2016 at similar levels to a year ago, taken overall. The aver- 6.35 6.05 age declined by an insignificant 0.06 points and was 6.02 5.92 providers. In four the third highest among the profiled categories the average score was better than 6.0 (Very 6.37 6.19 Good) across all respondents and TORA outscored the 5.82 5.81 overall Survey average in all 13 categories. The best scores included 5.50 Client Service 5.43 where TORA achieved its highest score. The extent of 6.05 broker links was also 5.88 seen as a key relative strength. The lowest score was 5.71 5.69 in Product Development. While the average was 6.12 better than the 5.90 5.0 default score, a number of clients commented on 5.36 areas where they would like to see 5.66 improvement. These included a desire by one client to 5.74 5.85 more easily incorporate their own capabilities within 5.69 5.15 the platform. TORA is clearly a major factor in the key markets 5.58 5.89 it has chosen to serve. It would appear to have the 5.77 5.62 capability to expand beyond these areas to the extent it chooses to do so. Reliability and Availability 6.05 Latency 6.02 5.92 6.35 6.37 6.19 Client Service Personnel 5.82 5.81 Ease-of-Use 5.50 5.43 Handling of New Versions/Releases 5.88 6.05 Breadth of Broker Algorithms 5.71 5.69 Timeliness of Updates for Broker Changes 5.90 6.12 FIX Capabilities 5.36 Breadth of Asset Class Coverage 5.66 5.74 5.85 Breadth of Direct Connections to Venues Product Development 5.15 5.69 5.58 Ease of Integration to Internal Systems 5.89 5.77 5.62 Overall Cost of Operation 0.00 1.00 2.00 2016 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 2017 Issue 53 TheTradeNews.com 87