Client Case Studies
Equity Portfolio Trading at a Global Leader in Investment Banking
The Customer
The equity cash and program trading operation at the European headquarters of a major US bank in London turns over billions of dollars each year and can have hundreds of millions of dollars of exposure to market movements at any one time. Profitability for the desk is acutely sensitive to the ability of traders and management to understand exposure and performance at all times and tweak holdings accordingly.
The Challenge
With thousands of stock positions across several markets in a wide range of sectors recorded in multiple books being traded by a number of traders with different styles and remits, getting a true picture of exactly what was happening at any instant was not an easy task. State of the art systems exist for acquiring and delivering the necessary data to the desktops of those who need to know - the bottleneck was getting through the data. Limits, alerts and summaries all provided a snapshot of a particular piece of the picture - what was missing was the complete view.
The Fractal:Edge Solution
Fractal:Edge's unique visualization technology is perfectly suited to the demands of monitoring and managing thousands of fast-moving elements in real time. Following a proof of concept which demonstrated the power of the technology, we deployed our Fractal:Intelligence software with key business managers within the cash and program trading operation. Allowing an instant grasp of micro and macro level exposure and rapid navigation through the data, Fractal:Intelligence quickly proved its value and has subsequently been rolled out to a range of other traders and managers.
"Fractal:Intelligence has provided a step change in our ability to understand what's going on at any instant. Whether I want to understand what's happening overall, within a single book or an individual position level, with Fractal:Intelligence I can see it all, at a glance"
Managing Director, Cash and Program Trading
The Result
The deployment of Fractal:Intelligence has resulted in:
- Vastly improved visibility through position data across the floor - all information can be seen in one constantly updating picture, in exactly the way managers and traders want to see it
- Better understanding of exposure and performance right now for all users of the software - meaning more informed trading and hedging
- Greater leverage of existing IT investment and infrastructure - state of the art proprietary systems for data delivery can provide greater benefit with Fractal:Edge visualization
By moving your mouse over a circle and "hovering" over it (by keeping the mouse still) for a short time, you will see labels appear to show you the titles of the page you are hovering over (at 12 o'clock) and the pages it is linked to.
In addition, the Fractal Map will show a "crumb trail" for the page you are viewing by highlighting the relevant circles in red. The smallest red circle represents the page you are viewing and any "parent" pages higher up in the website structure will also be highlighted red showing you the route you would take to reach the page. Note that the homepage itself is never coloured red in this way.
