Algos Go Global - How Do I Get a Ticket to Brazil?

Carnival, or Carnaval as it's spelled in Portuguese, runs through the weekend of February 21^st this year in Brazil.  Who do you think might be there?  Turns out it’s U.S. President Obama, in the form of thousands of plastic masks.  Wish you could send a likeness of yourself to the festival too?  You might not have made it to Brazil quite yet, but Apama’s algorithms have.

This week, we announced that Ágora Corretora, the largest broker in Brazil, is deploying the Apama platform to support algorithmic trading in both futures and equities on the BM&FBovespa, the leading exchange in Latin America and the world’s third largest in terms of market value.  Ágora is the first broker to develop and deploy unique trading strategies within the Brazilian market.  In the first phase of the project, Ágora has deployed the Apama platform in support of its proprietary trading desk. In the second phase, Ágora will provide access to the Apama platform for its buy-side clients to create, execute, and monitor customized strategies that are unique to their specific trading goals. Ágora represents the first broker in Brazil to offer custom algorithmic trading strategies to its clients.

Developments like these are important outside of Brazil too, as the buy side worldwide increasingly participates in multi-asset, cross-asset, and cross-border trading.  Historically, bringing order flow from market participants in the long-standing algorithmic trading centers such as New York and London to the Latin American markets has not been easy.  Doing so requires exceptional local market expertise and leadership.  As the Brazilian capital markets continue to become more strategic on the world stage, it is important for funds with expansion goals to see alignments of leaders.  In this case, the leading Brazilian broker has chosen to trade on Latin America's leading futures and equities exchange with the world’s leading algorithmic trading platform.

Maybe next year around this time, my customer visits will take me to Sao Paolo.  It will be interesting to see how trading firms have been able to innovative over the course of time on a flexible, open platform.  And then, a quick detour to Rio for some rest and relaxation. Maybe I’ll watch a parade.  No Obama mask required.  One more pin on the world map, with customers from New York to the Bank of China International.  How far can your trading platform take you?

-Dan