Nomura launches ‘premium’ execution consulting service
Nomura has launched an execution consulting service within its Asia-Pacific electronic trading sales business to provide customised analysis to its premium clients in the region.
The investment bank describes it as the next generation to TradeSpex, its pre- and post-trading analytics suite which was developed by Nomura following its 2008 acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ European, Middle East and Asian equities and investment banking businesses, including the electronic trading technology, capabilities and experience. Nomura notes that it has invested heavily in this business post acquisition.
The consulting service, which was soft-launched last month, builds on the firm’s transaction cost analysis (TCA) products and platform. It incorporates quantitative consulting, trading research, market structure research and platform consulting and provides trading simulation.
Hongsong Chou, head of Nomura’s Asia-Pacific quantitative analytics and algorithms team, says: “TCA tells me the facts. But this is going into greater detail and trying to come up with new ideas and new ways of trading so clients can leverage all the algos they have access to.
“We are trying to scale our efforts up, combining both human resources and the spectrum of our offerings. Traditionally market and trading related data is offered by the research team, which provides fundamental analysis as well. We are taking those resources and putting them onto our execution desk, leveraging their knowledge and directly interacting with the sales trading team.”
He notes that Nomura recently consolidated its market data infrastructure and technology resources. “This empowers us to conduct analysis on a much bigger scale, going back into history and even going forwards through simulations.
“So what is new is really the breadth and depth of this analysis that can really make a direct impact on trading practice and investment strategy performance. Clients are also asking us to combine different analysis together. It’s our integration which is driving this new resource.”
He says Nomura will target this offering at its top 20-30 clients in the region initially as a premium service and, depending on uptake, may opt to offer it more broadly thereafter.
The consulting service is expected to be managed by a three-strong team in Hong Kong – included one resource from client service sales trading, and two from the quantitative analysis team – and two staff based in Mumbai.
“These kinds of services we consider value-added, each one involving a lot of data analysis and client interaction,” Chou adds, noting the firm may look to add a client-facing resource this year.
The service is overseen by Robert Laible, Nomura’s global co-head of electronic trading and QPS sales and head of program trading sales for Asia-Pacific, with Chou acting as his deputy.
“We can work with clients to help understand implications that market structure trends have on a portfolio, identify algorithms and time-horizons that best suit specific objectives, and undertake analysis on key events in Asia and globally,” says Laible in a statement.
In AsianInvestor’s 2010 service provider awards, Nomura won best onshore broker for Asia-Pacific. For details, please see the December issue of AsianInvestor magazine.