Anything That Can be Measured, Can be Improved: Abel Noser Solutions, a Specialist in Trading Analytics, Continues to Expand its Best Execution Analysis, Compliance and Regulatory Reporting Services

Our main TCA platform, which provides multi-asset trade analytics for pre-trade, real-time and post-trade analysis for institutional clients, is incredibly robust with hundreds of different measures and a wide variety of reporting options. -Peter Weiler

Financial markets have undergone a dramatic transformation over the last few decades, especially since the financial crisis in 2008. With oversight and control being among the major themes of global financial market regulation, financial services companies need to remain in a constant state of innovation in response to changing market requirements and anticipated future needs.

With an ever changing financial and technological landscape, the necessity for effective and up-to-date trade surveillance systems has also become more pressing. For many years, the default position for financial institutions was to use trade monitoring processes designed primarily to meet the requirements of regulators. Now, with intense competition emanating from both a truly global marketplace and the increase in trading venue options, institutional firms who manage and deploy capital for themselves or their clients need ever more efficient and compliant systems to oversee their investments. 

In light of the need for regulatory compliance while optimizing trading efficiency, we are thrilled to present Abel Noser Solutions – the industry leader in multi-asset trade analytics and trade surveillance – as one of 2018’s 50 Innovative Companies to Watch.

Abel Noser Solutions has spent decades developing cutting-edge systems that utilize real trade data benchmarking and complex analysis to help their clients clearly see where they can trade more efficiently while staying compliant with a variety of regulatory regimes.

The company operates as a financial technology firm that provides trade analytics solutions to institutional asset owners, investment managers, and brokers worldwide. Abel Noser Solutions’ web-based trade analytics platform includes Trade Compass, a pre-trade tool that allows institutions to determine the liquidity of their investment holdings; Trade Pulse, a real-time tool that combines intra-day and real-time measurement functionality; and Trade-Zoom, a post-trade measurement product that lets users drill down from expansive views of trading to the appropriate level of detail on a single trade. The company also provides compliance and trade surveillance products and services that allow asset owners, broker-dealers, investment advisors, and exchanges comply with various data-driven regulations while ensuring ongoing monitoring capabilities.

Interview Excerpt: Peter Weiler, President

Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years? 

Stanley Abel and Gene Noser co-founded the company in 1975 with the goal of becoming a leader in conflict-free, low-cost trading. At the time, it was a radical proposition which upset the status-quo of the traditional brokerage firm model. In their words: “we created a better mouse trap, developing effective trading cost analysis to show we were delivering value.” Four decades later, Abel Noser Solutions has continued to deliver the same value proposition. When Gene and Stanley sold the company to existing management in the fall of 2016, the company entered a new era of expansion and growth.

The parent company, Abel Noser Holdings, includes Abel Noser LLC, an agency-only institutional brokerage and Abel Noser Solutions, a fintech company that focuses on innovative and market-leading transaction cost analysis (TCA) and trade compliance solutions for institutional clients.

What challenges did you face in your initial years? What can your peers learn from it?

In the early years, the challenge was to prove to customers that trade cost analysis (TCA) was a cost savings exercise and that superior execution was an integral part of the portfolio performance process. When people back then said we couldn’t measure trading costs, we knew that if something exists with the right data points, it can be measured. Today, the TCA process that we pioneered is used throughout the marketplace.

About adaptability, how do you stay relevant to the consumer interests and needs in this high volatile market?

We stay relevant by investing in our technology and people to produce a wider and greater product line-up for the benefit of our clients. Some examples include analysing multi-asset securities, incorporating trade surveillance tools and measuring trading down to the millisecond and microsecond level, of which the marketplace is demanding more and more.

How often do you innovate? Is it only when there is a need in the market? 

With the global trading industry in a constant state of innovation and change, we have been known, for decades, as the company that is able to provide TCA and trade surveillance solutions that meet these challenges. In other words, we are constantly innovating in response to current client needs and anticipated future requirements.

What are the factors that make your brand most ‘innovative,’ and why? 

Our main TCA platform, which provides multi-asset trade analytics for pre-trade, real-time and post-trade analysis for institutional clients, is incredibly robust with hundreds of different measures and a wide variety of reporting options. Additionally, our main benchmarking trade measurement universe is the largest of its kind, providing our clients with incredibly detailed peer analysis. We also provide a wide variety of trading oversight and compliance solutions, so clients can comply with the latest US and European regulatory regimes.

Customer service varies, but companies can still be successful. How do you maintain your customers’ trust and loyalty? 

Abel Noser continues to be the ultimate client advocate, leveraging our expertise and analytic services to help our clients receive measurably superior executions and game-changing analytics data. Our highly-trained client services team possesses deep technical skills, intimately understands each Abel Noser tool, and are experts at explaining data sets or transaction benchmarks. We will work closely with our clients every step-of-the-way to make sure they are getting the assistance they need.

How does your company contribute to the competitive global IT platform at large?

As a leader in our industry, we’ve been at the forefront of the competitive edge in our sector, thus providing thought leadership, both directly and indirectly, through our partners and clients. Our innovative use of empirical, multi-asset global trading data so clients can compare their trades against those of their peers, has allowed us to provide unparalleled data extracts for use in analyzing best execution, trading efficiency and compliance risk for firms around the world. 

Do you have any new products ready to be launched?

We just acquired a company who we used to compete within the asset owner TCA space. With this fusion between their solutions/expertise and ours, we can now offer the industry’s most comprehensive trade analytics services for global asset owners.

As a question on sustainability, where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

One of our mottos is ‘anything that can be measured, can be improved.’ It is our feeling that as our industry becomes more and more reliant on electronic trading, in its many and changing forms, our measurement, analytics, best execution and trade surveillance services will become even more in demand, not just from traders and asset owners/managers, but also by regulators and exchanges.

The Man Behind The Operation: A Brief Background

Peter Weiler: As President of Abel Noser Solutions, Peter leads the firm’s TCA and trade surveillance efforts and related products. Prior to this, he was Abel Noser’s EVP responsible for global sales. Peter has provided trade consulting to some of the world’s leading investment advisors, asset owners, brokers and hedge funds. Before his tenure at ANS, he was a partner at The Equinox Fund, a trader at The Broad Street Fund, and worked at Abelow Ihasz; all N.Y. based hedge funds. Additionally, he has served as an adjunct professor at the Pension Institute at George Washington University. Mr Weiler holds a B.A. from Villanova University.

“As a leader in our industry, we’ve been at the forefront of the competitive edge in our sector, thus providing thought leadership, both directly and indirectly, through our partners and clients.”