Sell-Side Technology Awards 2014: Best Sell-Side Front-Office Execution Platform ─ Bloomberg

“While the traditional order management system (OMS) is sometimes viewed as a commoditized utility, SSEOMS leverages a firm’s technology investment by integrating our cutting-edge workflow tools with the news, data, and analytics inherent to the Bloomberg Professional service,” says Geoff Patsch, global head of Bloomberg SSEOMS. “By employing Bloomberg’s full technology stack, we can immerse the sales and trading desk in intelligence and insights, allowing our SSEOMS users to service their clients with the greatest confidence in their technology.”

SSEOMS offers the largest FIX network in the industry, according to the news and data behemoth, as sell-side traders can connect with over 200,000 institutional buy-side traders for equities, futures, and options order flow. And if users choose, they can forgo Bloomberg’s FIX network and connect via external sources, such as through direct market access (DMA) and white-labeled solutions.

Bloomberg has recently enhanced its SSEOMS platform to offer more to sell-side traders looking to handle large basket orders, according to Patsch. “Traders can use SSEOMS to improve execution performance for buy-side clients that are looking to transition or rebalance their portfolios. With dynamic benchmark comparisons, a basket-level crossing engine, and advanced global routing functionality, SSEOMS helps sell-side program traders provide the best service for their clients,” he says.

Bloomberg has landed this award for the two years it has been on offer. The primary reason for that—and the reason it is the dominant player in this space—is because of the firm’s ability to link different offerings, such as its Launchpad platform, to a firm’s order flow, thus allowing that order to be cross-referenced against Bloomberg data, analytics and news.

Coupled with Bloomberg’s market data and analytics offerings, SSEOMS alerts can be used to notify traders to events such as historical trades, holdings, interest lists and notes previously earned. Additionally, customized trading montages provide the ability to establish custom buttons with all destinations and their corresponding order types available, including algo capabilities, according to Bloomberg.

“By employing Bloomberg’s full technology stack, we can immerse the sales and trading desk in intelligence and insights, allowing our SSEOMS users to service their clients with the greatest confidence in their technology.” Geoff Patsch, Bloomberg

“Winning this category in the Sell-Side Technology Awards for the second year in a row means a great deal to us,” Patsch says. “This recognizes all of the hard work our team has invested in building and enhancing the solutions for our sell-side clients.”