Tourmaline Partners’ fastest growth silo and largest total addressable market is supplementing the trading reach of multi-billion-dollar investment firms to liquidity and market intelligence.
As we scale with this cohort and as the industry embraces outside trading expertise, the demand for transparency and sound corporate governance has risen. This is evidenced by the detailed RFPs and DDQs in which we are asked to participate.
Outlined below are some key questions to ask any provider of outsourced or supplemental trading before making a decision:
- Is this your core business?
- Are you positioned as a buy-side player, or would I be engaging a sell-side trading desk?
- Are you independent or is your outsourced trading offering a part of a larger organization? If the latter, what conflicts of interest exist?
- What is the scale of your outsourced trading business? How many clients do you have and of what type? How many BD’s cover you and in what manner? What is your global footprint?
- Can you seamlessly pay the sell-side on our behalf? Via both bundled trading, CSAs and aggregation? Can you provide anonymity?
- What is the experience and expertise of your team?
Investment managers and fiduciaries are demanding that best execution and access to sell-side market intelligence should not be compromised in a broader effort to package solutions or reduce expenses. Here is a complete playbook on what to ask when engaging outside trading expertise.
To learn more about Tourmaline Partners’ industry leading solutions, please reach out to us at info@tourmalinellc.com.
Tim O’Halloran is a Managing Director at Tourmaline Partners.
