Global Execution Management Platform for Equities Business
A US-based equities business successfully used an internally developed execution management platform for program trading over several years.
The platform fully met business needs from a performance perspective (supporting ~10,000 orders per day), offered robust functionality (including all required trading and auto-execution features), and complied with SEC, FINRA, and other regulatory requirements.
When the business expanded into the EU and APAC regions, the engineering team faced several challenges:
- Slightly different business functionality and controls across regions (e.g., best execution, short selling, price markups/downs)
- Additional regulatory reporting requirements (FCA, ESMA, SFC, MAS, etc.)
- New execution venues
- 24/5 operating hours
- A 5x increase in system load
Rather than creating separate platform copies for each region and maintaining them independently, the engineering team preserved a single global platform.
This approach ensured:
- Simultaneous delivery of core functional improvements and security patches across all regions
- Flexibility to introduce region-specific features based on local business, reg&compliance needs
The enhanced platform supported up to 100,000 orders/day globally while maintaining compliance and performance standards operating 24/5 (follow-the-sun business model).