Velocity Trade readies API connectivity

The dealer is also connecting to a number of equity trading platforms for equity traders who are generating algorithms that trade equities and generate FX components of the trades automatically. "The API will capture those trades and we'll do the FX trades for them," said Ledesma, who expects to have the integration task completed by the end of the month.

Velocity Trade is using SunGard's Sierra Client Portal API from the vendor's Sierra FX trading platform, which it installed at the beginning of the year for middle- and back-office support. The dealer looked at a number of platforms that would provide risk management, position keeping and a trade blotter. These were key features for developing the client base that the dealer wanted to develop, said Ledesma. "We looked at different back-office, middle-office risk and ticketing systems that would be quick and easy to deploy," says Ledesma. "That's why we went with SunGard's ASP-based Sierra," he added.

Ledesma said there are no plans presently to deploy Sierra's trading front end. The dealer currently uses a white-labeled version of the request-for-streaming (RFS) I-Tex Intra Group Trading System from 360T as its trading front end, which is offered as its Accelerator platform.

In July, FX Week reported that SunGard added a number of new features to Sierra to respond to the credit concerns in the market. The release includes more than 30 new margining and netting rules, which include variable or volume margining rules and netting via single currency or currency pair. "Sierra offers the margining process in real time, which allows for greater accuracy," said Jim Dennelly, senior vice-president at SunGard's Sierra business unit, at the time.

Rob Daly