Brokers Now Get Access to Instinct Trading Platform

The sellside now has access to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s multi-functional trading platform, Trader Instinct.

Instinct for the brokers is a multi-asset platform that provides sellside firms and their clients access to many of the same electronic trading tools that BofA Merrill’s internal trading desks use, as well as the state-of-the-art infrastructure that the firm has built and continues to expand and invest in. Instinct covers trading, clearing and order management platforms.

With broker’s commission spent falling in recent years and a subsequent increase in technology costs, Jonathan Werts, head of broker-dealer execution, told Traders that the sellside needed to outsource and defray some of its costs, such as white-labeling algos and exchange connectivity. Instinct, he added, helps service the multitude of differing sellside needs, as agency-only, prop shops and market makers all have different technological requirements that can eat up a technology budget.

“Technology and regulatory expenses continue to go up and many broker-dealers want to deploy capital in areas other than building a new algo or connecting to yet another exchange,” Werts told Traders. “Broker-dealers can more efficiently use capital by outsourcing some of these functions. It’s much easier for them to outsource their trading technology needs and leverage industry leading platforms which frees up resources to focus on other critical areas.”

By connecting to Instinct, brokers save time and money by tapping into BoA Merrill’s liquidity, trading strategies, technology and service through a single point-of-service platform, he added. Brokers who use Instinct get access to liquidity via BofA Merrill’s proprietary suite of algos and order routing management solutions that can be easily configured and “white labeled.”

Benefits, Werts said, include global market access and liquidity sourcing via Instinct X, BofA Merrill’s ATS.
Instinct also enables brokers to clearing via Merrill Pro or Broadcort. Both platforms provide end-to-end clearing, financing and trade processing solutions that can save the brokers money and time, allowing them again to re-focus resources on their own clients and trading.

Instinct was originally rolled out in early 2013 and first to the buyside.