Thomson Integrates Trade Ideas

The service went live on Monday, June 20, allowing firms that either sign up for or already use StreamVPN to access the network via a link from the research and estimates component of their Thomson One screens.

Eric Frank, global managing director of Thomson’s Investment Management division, says customers were reporting that they felt overwhelmed by the research available via Thomson One and wanted the ability to “boil down” trading ideas generated by the sell side. Buy-side Alpha Network users invite selected dealers to send ideas to them via individual private networks, says Erik Wästlund, co-founder and Americas managing director at StreamVPN.

Alpha Network is a Web-based platform that allows broker-dealers to notify buy-side clients of potential trading ideas on an individual basis. Once a dealer submits an idea, the platform creates a hypothetical portfolio that tracks the price of the security until the sale date recommended by the dealer. Investment managers can use this to see how well a stock would have performed if they had acted on the advice, and can also use it to rank brokers, and to justify commission payments based on the quality of their ideas.

Though users cannot execute orders based on the ideas via Thomson One, they can use the system to look up more detailed prices and research. Wästlund suggests that future enhancements may include linking ideas directly to data on that security within Thomson One.

Max Bowie