Front Office
Support to the investment management & execution
The Front Office suite is an integrated part of Sofia that helps portfolio managers to improve their daily investment process through:
- guided and rapid insertion of orders and executions, automating the registration procedures
- automatic sending of orders to the execution management system
- real-time control of investment limits and trading mandates
- analysis of the performance for portfolios managed to a benchmark.
Sofia modules:
The module allows real-time recording of investments, offering a complete and transparent workflow for all asset types.
Compliant with Consob regulations, the Orders Register helps users optimize the investment process:
- Real-time and multi-asset investments that improve efficiency through process automation and reduction of operational risks
- Secure management of the trading process, ensuring order registration consistent with the authorization levels assigned to each user
- Auditing and tracking through the automatic recording of every order entry and modification event
The user interface for order entry is designed to support the trader's decisions, providing all potentially relevant information associated with the security and thus improving investment decisions.
It is possible to integrate Sofia's Order and Execution Register with third-party Execution Management Systems, featuring order routing via FIX, which allows users to automate and accelerate the order and execution exchange process with counterparties and trading platforms.
Execution Management Systems already integrated with Sofia include, for example, Bloomberg, BondVision, TradeWeb, FFastFill, Charles River Development, Allfunds, Clearstream, Vestima.
It is also possible to formalize the separation of roles between users responsible for order entry and execution through Trading Desk functionalities.
The module allows you to immediate control with respect to the limits of investment that weigh upon the management of the portfolio. Checks are in real time and can be outlined at the level of:
- Pre-trade compliance for the benefit of the Front Office: the Limits Monitor can be integrated with the Orders Register and allows for simulations of the effects of the possible execution of the order being entered on the portfolio limits. It also provides real-time updates on available liquidity based on the current and prospective balances of the portfolio's current accounts, as well as the potential execution of pending orders.
- Real-time analysis of the portfolio limits status: this analysis can be carried out at any moment during the day and considers the instantaneous situation of portfolios and pending orders.
- Ex-post analysis for compliance or auditing: in Sofia, all events linked to the registration of orders that cause overrun limits are stored to allow for statistical analysis (frequency and duration of the overruns).
Limits can be defined with maximum flexibility with respect to both the definition of the portfolio segments subject to control and the choice of figures to which they refer.
The Limits Monitor is a timely and flexible tool for the control – ex-ante and ex-post – of adherence to legal, regulatory, or managerial requirements with respect to:
- The minimum and/or maximum incidence of an investment or class of investments
- The maximum amount invested for a single issue
- The minimum and/or maximum number of financial instruments in a portfolio for a class of investments
- Stop gain and stop loss.
The module allows for the control, during the order entry phase, of the mandate classes assigned to each manager.
The mandate classes are customizable and can be distinguished by individual asset class, with different limit values for each portfolio and manager.
It is possible to formalize an authorization process when the mandates are exceeded, with the activation of a tracked authorization workflow.