The markets have become ever more sophisticated for professional traders, and yet, many times traders take an unsophisticated approach to measuring their performance. While a trader will spend countless hours studying markets, developing trading strategies, and successfully deploying those same strategies into production, little or no time is spent in examining the factors that contribute to an underperforming strategy or, worse, a once winning strategy that fails to be profitable at all. Based on our experience we believe a thorough and robust performance measurement program that includes a comprehensive set of inputs can have profound results for professional traders.
Three steps in the process
At the outset, establishing a performance measurement framework can seem daunting. While it’s true that rigor and dedication is required to produce results, the essential bones of a successful program boil down to three facets:
determining what data to capture
creating the processes to obtain the data and generate performance reports
establishing a process to analyze and act on the reports
It all starts with the data
The first step in establishing a performance management framework is to figure out what data is crucial for your analysis. While this may seem obvious, there’s more to the question than meets the eye. While it’s critical to capture tick data, P&L, and risk parameters, there are other areas that should be examined as well. For example:
We've talked a lot about our superior speed, and smart logic, but what we’re most proud of is our support. Support teams are the unsung heroes of the trading industry. The fastest, smartest systems in the world are worthless if you don’t have a team of experts supporting you. Watch the video below to learn more about Rival Systems support.
Expand your market coverage and respond faster to RFQs with edge formulas based on multiple variables and if/then logic to automatically set edge across products, strategies and expirations. To learn more about Rival Trader's Dynamic Edge Formulas and other smart features, request a demo.
Rival Trader's Quick Spread Calculator allows traders to quickly price up and trade custom options spreads. Traders can create spreads with an unlimited number of legs, submit RFQs, trade with the exchange spread book, monitor theoretical values of spreads over time, and share custom spreads with other traders in the same trading group. To learn more about Rival Trader's Quickspread Calculator and other smart features request a demo today.
With Rival Trader you can view real-time implied volatility and drag and drop, click to fit, or automatically fit your vol surface to implied volatilities in the market. Use Rival's vol surface and fitting algorithms to better manage your volatility today. Request a demo to see more.
CHICAGO, June 6, 2017 – Rival Systems (Rival), an award-winning provider of trading and risk management software, today announced the introduction of a secure mobile app for the firm’s Rival Risk platform. The app, available for iOS and Android-based phones, is designed to optimize the functionality of the risk management platform for users who need access to their data from anywhere at any time.
FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) technology has impacted and enabled the current era of low latency trading solutions. To gain a deeper understanding of FPGA technology, as well as what it means for the future of low latency trading we held a Q&A session with Rival Systems CEO, Rob D’Arco, and Algo-Logic Systems CEO, John Lockwood.
Questions by Sara Goodman, Director of Marketing, Rival Systems
Further Expanding its Equities Offering and Global Reach
CHICAGO, May 9, 2017 – Rival Systems (Rival), an award-winning provider of trading and risk management software, today announced that it has integrated into its trading platform QuantHouse’s end-to-end ultra-low latency market data feed. The integration of QuantFEED into the Rival Trader and Rival API platforms further strengthens Rival’s multi-asset class offering with one of the fastest, most comprehensive global market data offerings available.
CHICAGO, May 3, 2017 – Rival Systems (Rival), an award-winning provider of trading and risk management software, and Lime Brokerage (Lime), a Wedbush Company, today announced an integrated solution combining Rival’s front-end trading and algorithmic strategy development software with Lime’s low latency execution services. The new offering, available immediately, enables Rival’s clients to access all U.S. equity markets and a wide range of dark pools via Lime’s exchange gateways and extensive equity memberships. The integrated solution further enhances Rival’s capability to provide clients with a comprehensive platform for trading futures, equities and options.
A Risk Manager’s Account and Lessons Learned From the Brexit Vote
On Thursday June 23, 2016, I woke up two hours ahead of my usual 5am alarm with a knot in my stomach. Normally I would have gone for a morning workout but not today, I took 15 minutes to meditate and attempt to alleviate the queasy feeling my gut before getting ready, grabbing a cup of coffee and driving to the office. I hardly sipped my coffee on the way in, my heart rate was already elevated and my mind was racing. Every possible scenario of what could happen today ran through my mind over and over.
From hedge funds to CTAs and proprietary trading firms one of the great questions in derivatives trading is whether to build out custom software or buy a readily available solution from an ISV (independent software vendor). Finding the right answer requires careful consideration of multiple points which we will explore below and range from cost consideration to time and unique functionality needs. Ultimately, making the right decision requires a thorough understanding of your plans for growth and the potential ramifications of building or buying.
CHICAGO, March 23, 2017 – Rival Systems (Rival), an award-winning provider of trading and risk management software, today announced that Lupo Holdings has selected the Rival Risk platform to manage its futures, equities and options trading business. Lupo, which manages multiple trading groups, is using Rival Risk extensively for real-time enterprise risk management, advanced market scenario analysis and optimization of its cross-margining capabilities.
