Trade Secrets

Hedge fund managers are notoriously demanding and secretive when it comes to trading. Our second annual survey of hedge fund traders identifies the brokerage firms and electronic markets that serve them best.

Click here to see the ranking.

技术对现代生活的几乎各个方面产生了影响，股权交易也不例外。纽约证券交易所上市证券交易量的百分比实际上发生在大董事会上的证券跌至不到75％，这是交易所开始跟踪该数字以来近30年的最低水平。投资者越来越多地转向电子替代品，如Instinet，Liquidnet和Goldman Sachs Group的rediplus，因为它们比传统交易所更快，更便宜，提供更高程度的匿名性。

摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）北美电子交易销售主管布莱恩•法根（Brian Fagen）表示：“交易格局正在发生巨大变化。他说，没有回头路。纽交所与总部位于芝加哥的电子交易公司群岛控股（archipelagoholdings）的90亿美元合并预计将于今年初结束，这可能会加大电子交易的力度。

过去一年引入的监管变革，包括证券交易委员会的新监管NMS，或国家市场体系，可以让投资者更有信心以电子方式交易。REG NMS要求美国股票市场提供等于或优于最佳出价的投资者，无论是在传统的交换或等于Instinet等电子地点的情况下提供的。

Hedge funds are driving many of the changes. Although they represent just 5 percent of all U.S. assets under management, they account for about 30 percent of all U.S. equity trading volume, estimates Brad Hintz, a brokerage analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

这些基金的客户要求很高。波士顿咨询公司Celent的首席执行官Octavio Marenzi说：“尽管它们在投资策略和风格上可能存在很大差异，但在交易执行速度和在多种资产类别中运作的能力方面，它们通常比传统的机构经理更为严格。”对冲基金希望在价格、速度、填充率和匿名性等方面获得高质量的执行。

That's not to say that human traders are being arbitraged out of the equation. In fact, the opposite is true. Hedge funds want to know that their brokers are working to get their orders filled at good prices while maintaining their anonymity and providing market color and information.

一位做多做空的股票交易员表示：“要让执行情况以合理的规模接近市场价格，难度越来越大。”随着业务越来越电子化，人的因素变得越来越重要。”

交易主管史蒂夫•威尔逊,上下文Capital Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based convertible-arbitrage shop, it all comes down to trust. "I don't want to be entertained by a sell-side trader," he says. "If I give you my order, I want to know that you're doing what I want."

那么，哪些公司在满足对冲基金的交易需求方面做得最好呢？

To find out,Alpha根据我们姐妹出版物，在2005年11月发布的机构资金管理公司扣除了对负责机构资金管理公司的调查结果亚博赞助欧冠，仅使用参与的对冲基金投票。被要求受访者被要求对纽约和纳斯达克股票市场上市股票的执行质量等级经纪人经销商以及排名最佳电子通信网络和替代交易系统（见对冲基金股票交易). 此外，我们还询问了他们对交易的各个方面的意见，如公司的市场知识和技术质量。（有关方法的更多信息，click here.)

雷曼兄弟在纽约证券交易所和纳斯达克证券贸易公司中占据了贸易执行排名，正如在更广泛的机构经理投票中完成的交易执行排名。对冲基金赞扬雷曼在贸易完成之前为他们提供了预测各种情景下的交易成本的努力，以及使用Postrade分析的工具。他们还重视雷曼的传统交易台服务。对冲基金受访者在市场知识，交易智能方面的最佳状态，贸易智能，能力下降，尽量减少其市场影响和日常资本承诺的一致性。

雷曼兄弟并没有固步自封。在过去的一年里，该公司在纳斯达克的覆盖范围内增加了500家公司，目前总计约1750只股票。雷曼兄弟还保持了将自己的资本用于交易对手交易的意愿，在这段时期，大多数经纪公司一直在减少对股票交易的资本承诺，因为它们可以从自营交易等其他活动中获得更高的回报。

纽约证券交易所和纳斯达克交易中的2号摩根士丹利斯坦利享有更广泛的调查的最大改善。该公司向纽约证券交易所股票上市的三个地方迁移了三位，为纳斯达克证券的一个地方 - 这是一个迹象表明对冲基金特别值其交易能力。“摩根贸易商对客户非常敏感，”长短股票交易员说。像雷曼的贸易商一样，他们以其行业和市场知识而闻名，他们的“感觉”是如何工作的。

Morgan Stanley organizes its traders by sectors, much as it does its research staff. One way the firm tries to add value is by bringing clients, analysts and traders together over dinner to discuss their sectors.

"Our focus is on helping clients navigate the spectrum of choices to get to the best execution," says electronic trading sales head Fagen. "Information flow is a core value proposition."

交易员们称赞摩根士丹利的Passport网络交易执行和订单管理平台，该平台为对冲基金客户以及传统的基金经理提供交易前分析、交易后分析和交易算法，一应俱全。”Passport允许我们的客户自己使用我们的技术，”Fagen解释道。交易员表示，摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）正在不断升级Passport；最近的改进包括智能订单路由和期权价差交易能力的改善。

Hedge fund voters also give high marks to Bear, Stearns & Co., which moves up one and two places from the broader poll to No. 3 in both NYSE and Nasdaq trading. Traders praise the firm for its personal touch. "Bear's traders do a great job summarizing market color," says a trader at a multistrategy hedge fund. Bear Stearns also wins high scores for its ability to execute orders, market knowledge and trading intelligence.

Among NYSE trading firms, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup round out the top five; Citigroup and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, for Nasdaq securities firms. Goldman does better among hedge fund traders than in the overall voting for both NYSE and Nasdaq trading.

Merrill, which cut its market-making activities in 2002 from 10,000 Nasdaq and over-the-counter stocks to 2,400, sees the steepest decline, dropping six places from the broad poll to No. 8 in Nasdaq trading. The firm scores poorly among hedge fund traders when it comes to its ability to minimize a trade's market impact and the quality of its trading technology.

Brokerage firms are still feeling the economic pinch of reduced trading activities by their traditional long-only money managers -- thanks in part to the mutual fund scandals of the past three years and the sideways U.S. equity markets -- as well as pressure from big institutional investors like Fidelity Investments to reduce trading costs. "The sell side is a lot different today than it was four years ago, when research services were highly valued and participating in hot new issues was a big-money play," says Context Capital's Wilson.

Brokerage firms are turning to hedge funds like Context to make up for lost revenue. "For Wall Street, hedge funds are replacing traditional asset managers because they're more active traders," says Karan Sampson, director of hedge fund marketing at consulting firm Greenwich Associates. In response to the growth in hedge funds, brokerages are increasing their ability to trade small- and midcap stocks and international equities, she says, as well as providing technology-driven services like algorithmic trading.

委员会汇率下降给华尔街公司的选择很少，但要满足对冲基金及其高批量交易策略。与通常专门从资产类别中专门专注的长期经理不同，对冲基金能够在市场和资产课程中自由进行交易 - 而且他们确实如此。对于他们而言，必须在同一公司内对不同的交易代表进行多次电话，可能是麻烦和耗时的。使用电子系统，它们可以在不同的资产类别或市场中同时进行交易。

电子交易系统还提供匿名,which is especially important to bigger hedge funds making potentially market-moving trades. They don't want competitors to see their trades and follow on or bet against them. As a result, many hedge funds use algorithmic trading systems, which break up trades into smaller, less noticeable chunks and spread the volume across a variety of markets and electronic platforms. According to a September 2005 research study by Greenwich Associates, 91 percent of hedge funds use self-directed electronic trading venues for NYSE trades, up from 71 percent two years earlier.

一家主要使用Rediplus系统的中西部对冲基金的首席交易员说：“交易自己比通过经纪人交易要容易得多。”如果你使用经纪公司，在他们的交易员回复你的时候，会有很多变数和等待时间。”

Hedge fund traders rate Rediplus best among electronic trading platforms and communications networks. Impressively, Rediplus jumps four places from the broader二在对冲基金调查中，买方交易者排名第一。Rediplus十年前由总部位于纽约的经纪商Spear，Leeds&Kellogg创建，作为该公司客户的电子交易工具，受到对冲基金的欢迎，因为它为他们提供了一个单一的基于Web的界面，用于交易多种资产类别。

"Traders are multitasking," says Jana Hale, global head of algorithmic trading at Goldman Sachs, which acquired Rediplus when it bought Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in 2000. "With Rediplus, traders don't have to be familiar with six or seven systems."

Greg Tusar，美国电子贸易主管称，在高盛，该系统现在提供投资组合交易;期货和期权;和欧洲，亚洲和加拿大股票。rediplus也与高盛的主要经纪产品集成，可以定制，因此交易商可以快速访问他们最多使用的市场或功能。

对冲基金选民中的第二个阶段，从更广泛的调查中起一个地方。其ECN于1969年推出，由对冲基金重视其高批量及其专有股票，包括连续横跨交易。Instinet通常每天交易1亿至1.1亿股。“拥有较大的流动资金，具有较大的流动资金，具有竞争优势，因为我们可以让客户更好地填补更小的市场影响，”北美驻纽约州伊斯坦特总统Michael Plunkett说。

像Instinet一样，LiquidNet经营私人过境网络，用于制度交易员。纽约的公司在对冲基金选民中排名第三，比整体调查的排名低两个地点。尽管如此，LiumentNet赢得了对冲基金投资者的赞美，希望贸易拨打大订单。自2001年4月成立以来，液体网络的平均执行规模近42,000股，超过90％的交易在竞标和提供价格之间完成。

电子交易最大的吸引力之一是成本：电子交易的成本要低得多，这不仅是因为交易中没有人手参与，而且因为更快的执行可以带来更好的定价。”作为减少显性佣金的一种方式，直接进入市场的努力始于20世纪90年代末和2000年，当时市场回报越来越难以实现。她表示，电子交易的佣金率可能低至每股半便士，而机构的全套服务佣金率为4至5美分。Greenwich Associates的调查发现，对冲基金的电子支付平均为每股1.9美分，而纽交所机构交易的电子支付平均为每股4.3美分。

纽交所与排名第四的执行场所群岛（Archipelago）的合并将进一步改变交易格局。这一举措创造了一个混合型市场——一个以场内交易和电子交易为基础的市场——为纽交所提供了重新获取订单流的工具，而订单流一直在稳步向电子交易场所转移。这一合并也引发了人们的猜测，即纽交所有朝一日将成为一个全电子市场，仿效欧洲和美国地区交易所完全取消场内交易的模式。

As the future unfolds, technology will continue to shape the marketplace. "The more sophisticated traders are now almost programmers," says Celent's Marenzi. "They use technology to try to beat the market."