![]() ![]() Stratus was recently acquired by Alameida, Calif.-based Ascend Communications, a networking hardware maker. "The advent of electronic trading, alternative trading systems, FIX and other developments is also contributing to the upheaval," said Joseph Rosen, managing director at New York-based technology consultants Enterprise Technology Corporation. While BRASS's dominant position is still not in dispute, upheaval in the securities industry can sometimes take even the smartest players by surprise. Under sustained attack from BRASS, TCAM fired back in 1994, acquiring Marlboro, Mass.-based Femcon Associates, then the number-two player in the order-management business. The timing of the marriage could not have been better for BRASS and Automated, which had launched a new software written for the newly-popular UNIX platform. The shaky marriage, however, distracted TCAM from its core business product for equity-trading operations, say people familiar with the firm. In the early 1990s, computer-hardware maker Stratus acquired TCAM, hoping that the software-maker's dominant position would help it sell more computers on Wall Street. Mentioning Automated to a trader would have invited a blank stare. ![]() ![]() In the roaring 1980s, TCAM was the only game in town. In 1982, TCAM became the first vendor to develop an electronic trading system. TCAM sells and licenses its product and competes with Royalblue in the outright sale of its business.īRASS sells a total package to some firms, particularly the largest, and it runs the software and provides backup for other firms. In the latter, the trading firms do not have to buy and maintain the products. Order-management and trade-processing firms make money by selling their software and hardware to the sell-side community, and through subscriptions, with sell-side firms paying for each terminal or for licensing the vendor's software. Wall Street's order-management and trade-processing systems fall roughly into two categories: proprietary software developed by firms, accounting for 40 percent of the business and the rest, handled by vendors such as BRASS.īRASS is estimated to control 50 percent of the market, and has about 130 accounts. Keypunch operators then entered trade data for processing.Įventually, entrepreneurial vendors developed order-management and trade-processing systems to make post-execution support speedier and cheaper.īRASS, for instance, allows traders on Nasdaq desks to adjust their quotes to hold limit orders if necessary to monitor profit and losses, or P&L and to interface with clearing brokers.įaced with a cost-efficient alternative, traders abandoned the paper-based record-keeping and order management for TCAM, BRASS and others. After a trade was executed, a ticket was typically dropped into a box which was taken to the backoffice. Mistakes were made.Ĭlearing and settling trades was another matter. Sometimes keeping track of information was not easy. ![]() On a busy day, the trader's assistant scribbled down trade information. Years ago, Nasdaq traders used paper pads to track their changing positions, profitability and average costs. Moreover, BRASS handles a majority of the order flow on Nasdaq desks.īut the question remains: Can BRASS, the industry standard, stay on top in a business with hostile competitors?īRASS and its competitors have their origin in a bygone era. These include London's Royalblue Group, Trinitech Systems in Stanford and New York's QV Trading Systems. Weehawken, N.J.-based Automated is no longer an upstart, peddling its core BRASS system and order-routing services.īRASS now overshadows the rival product of TCAM, the New York affiliate of Waltham, Mass.-based Stratus Computers, and upstages the products of other vendors. Ten years ago, Automated Securities Clearance was a small but pushy software company that competed for order-management business with TCAM Systems. ![]()
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