TS Imagine, a dynamic end-to-end trading and portfolio management software platform connecting the investment management industry to a network of brokers, banks and exchanges, has become the first vendor to integrate pre-trade cluster analytics from Goldman Sachs into its trading system to support buy-side best execution requirements.  

The integration means investment managers can automate more of their equity trading workflow thanks to Goldman’s pre-trade quant analytics. Goldman’s Quantitative Execution Services team classifies microstructure-based stock characteristics into “clusters”, which define the precise nature of tradability of stocks based on volatility, liquidity and complex, non-linear dynamics. By categorising stocks in this way, investment firms can make highly informed decisions about how they are going to trade – includingdriving the optimal order routing options for order executionright down to selectingthe bestalgo availableonTS Imagine’s Algo Wheel.  

Commenting on the integration, Michael Steliaros, Global Head of Quantitative Execution Services at Goldman Sachs said: “Detailed, accurate and relevant pre-trade insights have never been more important for equity trading. With the plethora of factors affecting execution dynamics globally, one needs to employ ever-increasing sophistication in disentangling said dynamics and translating them into actionable trading behaviour. Our proprietary trading cluster methodology is one such example of how our team can assist in that endeavour. The continued collaboration with TS Imagine helps deliver our market-leading analytics to buy-side firms, seamlessly integrated in their front-end, enabling access to the most relevant information required to best serve their clients.”  

“Integrating GS stock cluster analytics into the TS Imagine OEMS empowers the buy side to further enhance the decision making in their TS Algo Wheels—in particular, optimising the criteria for eligibility of what is sent to an algo wheel and strategy selection. The clustering data can be overlaid on typical wheel inputs, such as notional and ADV, with data-driven, stock-specific classifications,” added Alex Harman, Co-Head of EMEA Electronic Trading at Goldman Sachs. 

Dan Soudry, European Senior Account Manager at TS Imagine, concluded: "We are very pleased to integrate the GS cluster classification into the existing pre-trade analytics suite ofTS Imagine’s OEMS. By making them available within our blotter and automation tools, we believe it will enrich our OEMS workflow to assist the buy-side traderwith complextradingdecisions."