Traders are navigating a time of significant turbulence. As they race to adapt to shifting market conditions to stay ahead, they must also keep the bigger picture in view: managing costs and driving firm-wide performance.
Achieving these goals requires access to advanced trading technology. And yet, despite the need for robust trading technology, traders report dissatisfaction with the capabilities of their execution management system (EMS).
What should traders look for in an EMS? We’ll cut through the confusion of a changing marketplace to identify technology that delivers the speed, precision, and multi-asset coverage needed to not only keep pace with market evolution but stay ahead of it.
The Trader’s Guide to the EMS: What to Demand from Your Trading Technology
Modern traders understand the importance of having complete confidence in their trading technology—especially when markets move fast and margins for error are razor-thin.
To stay ahead, your EMS must deliver the right features at the right time. Ask if the technology can:
Empower Traders to Focus on What Matters Most
In fast-moving markets, traders need more than just speed—they need precision, clarity, and control.
Using advanced trading tools to automate routine, low-touch trades frees up the trader’s time and mental bandwidth so they can apply their expertise, judgment, and strategic execution on harder-to-work orders.
Critical features like algo wheels streamline broker selection, helping minimize bias and enforce consistency. This allows traders to focus on performance rather than process.
Provide Centralized Liquidity Across Asset Classes
Many firms rely on many highly specialized solutions to execute different asset classes. But over time, these disparate, patched-together tech stacks create inefficiencies across the front office, forcing traders to navigate a maze of interfaces and protocols just to access liquidity.
What’s needed is a centralized platform—an EMS that aggregates liquidity across asset classes and brokers in a single, cohesive view. This not only simplifies access and better informs execution decisions but also strengthens risk management, streamlines workflows, and empowers traders to move faster and more strategically in dynamic markets.
Stay Agile and Evolve with Your Firm
Too often, traders are stuck with rigid platforms that can’t evolve with their firm’s needs. As markets shift or their strategies become more complex, rapidly adapting their workflows, adding new tools, or connecting with third parties becomes difficult.
Your EMS provider should offer a broad ecosystem of modular solutions that can scale alongside your business. By leveraging a platform built on open architecture and a language-agnostic API, firms should be able to easily deploy custom trading, market data, risk management, and analytics applications, among others.
This flexibility accelerates time to value when adopting new tools and ensures that your technology stack can evolve as the markets change.
Provide Client Service You Can Count On
In high-pressure trading environments, poor support from your vendor can slow execution, increase risk, and drain internal resources.
That’s why exceptional client service isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.
Your EMS provider’s service team should not only understand the technology inside and out, but also how you use it in the context of your trading strategies and workflows. From rapid response times to tailored support, their job is to keep your systems optimized and your traders focused.
Importantly, your vendor should also bring the experience and precision to seamlessly onboard your firm, ensuring minimal disruption during the transition and ongoing confidence as your needs evolve.
RealTick: Advanced Trading Tools for Navigating Times of Uncertainty
In times of uncertainty, traders need confidence that their technology will support their needs and provide robust tools to analyze markets, execute trades swiftly, and adapt to changing conditions.
In a rapidly evolving market, SS&C’s RealTick delivers the advanced trading tools traders rely on to stay agile and ahead.
This high-speed, multi-asset, multi-broker platform offers seamless, centralized access to the capabilities that matter most, helping traders and their firms navigate change with clarity and control.
Ready to explore what the right EMS can do for you?
Learn more about the essential role of the EMS, or contact us to start the conversation.
