Just weeks after its official debut, IntelligentCross’ JumpStart has already begun to reshape how institutional traders source liquidity. Built in collaboration with Jefferies, FactSet’s Portware EMS, and long-term value investor Harris | Oakmark, JumpStart offers a fundamentally new way for buy-side traders to access agency algo flow – without exposing their intentions or disrupting their workflow.
Traders Magazine spoke with Roman Ginis, CEO of Imperative Execution, the parent company of IntelligentCross, to explore how JumpStart is reshaping the way institutional investors access liquidity.
How does JumpStart fundamentally shift the balance of power between the buy-side and the traditional tools available to them?
IntelligentCross created JumpStart to provide investors with more direct control, and access to more of the liquidity they want, while minimizing their risks of market impact and adverse selection.
These are the very things that differentiate JumpStart from the traditional tools available to the buy-side: more control, access to their choice of liquidity, and lower risks of information leakage.
What makes JumpStart’s approach to information control different from legacy tools like conditional orders or blotter scraping?
Blotter scraping means that they must expose their blotter to a platform or a broker and allow it to search their interest and seek matches, and frequently with a bi-lateral notice, which means the contra-side is also notified. That means sharing information that the trader may not actually wish to share in the hope that some of it will get filled.
With JumpStart, there is no order to expose. No one will have access to the buy-side trader’s blotter. The traders use their OMS/EMS to send an IOI and seek potential matches in a bespoke Hosted Pool inside IntelligentCross ATS. Not even the broker that created the pool will know about the institutional trader’s IOIs unless and until the trader confirms a match. This puts the control into the hands of institutional investors.
What role did collaboration play in building JumpStart—and how did each party (ATS, EMS, broker, buy-side) shape its functionality?
The concept of JumpStart came about as a direct result of ongoing collaboration between IntelligentCross and Jefferies, which evolved to include direct user insights and input from Harris | Oakmark, who then brought FactSet’s Portware into the process as the first buyside EMS. This gave the project a 360-degree perspective. It was not a “solution in search of a problem;” it was an organic, integrated solution to a real inefficiency faced by the buy-side.
Can JumpStart truly deliver both better outcomes and lower signaling risk—or is there a tradeoff?
There was traditionally a tradeoff for the buy-side trader: they had to choose between seeking liquidity or protecting their intentions. But JumpStart, combined with IntelligentCross Hosted Pools, can help minimize pre-trade information leakage, while still providing access to a broker’s unique liquidity. So, this tradeoff is no longer necessary. Jefferies buy-side clients can access Jefferies agency algo flow in an anonymous environment. The agency algo clients will have priority access to the interest of other buy-side investors if they happen to have contra liquidity. It’s a win/win.
What’s the long-term vision for expanding JumpStart’s ecosystem—and how might it influence broader market structure trends?
As new brokers onboard with JumpStart, they can bring their specific “flavors” of flow to the process, and give their buy-side clients a unique experience, accessible with the same kind of control and minimized footprint. We expect a wide array of use cases that institutional investors can choose from. Likewise, as additional buy-side traders access JumpStart liquidity, their specific natural flow, once firmed up, will be unique liquidity accessible to other brokers’ clients. As new EMS/OMS platforms certify for JumpStart, this workflow becomes available to more buy-side traders. So, the efficiencies should grow in a ripple effect, which will hopefully meaningfully improve outcomes for a widening circle of investors.
