NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Palley-Needelman Asset Management is installing electronic trading software at its Newport Beach office that could save clients an estimated $1 million a year or more.
Chet Needelman, chief executive officer, said his firm is installing Los Angeles-based Jefferies & Co. Inc.'s OrderPATH trading system.
OrderPATH "will allow us to trade simultaneously with about 25 different brokerage firms, and it will give us instant access to the floor, bypassing the brokerage firms," Mr. Needelman said. "Then we will be able to (automatically) fax (the brokerages) after the fact as to what is happening and how to settle up with Jefferies," he added.
The trade orders are sent - through one electronic link - with special codes that designate which brokerage firms are to be credited with trades. Palley-Needelman specializes in large-capitalization value equity portfolios. The firm manages more than $2.3 billion in tax-exempt assets.
"Between everybody's time and phone calls and costs and better execution, I figure that we will probably save our clients something in excess of $1 million a year," he said.
OrderPATH enables traders to direct orders from their personal computers to the New York and American stock exchanges. Money managers can bundle single-stock orders into lists of stocks and send 20 orders at once.
By directing commissions through the use of OrderPATH, money managers can meet research and soft-dollar commitments. The system also guides and monitors trades through each step of the process, from order entry to execution allocation. OrderPATH also can be linked to the traders' back office.
Besides installing OrderPATH, Palley-Needelman is having Financial Information Network, Van Nuys, Calif., a provider of investment management and accounting portfolio management software, "beef up" Palley-Needelman's portfolio management systems.
The changes to the portfolio management and accounting systems will be proprietary to the money management firm, said Mr. Needelman.
Palley-Needelman also has upgraded its PCs with the faster Pentium processors, bought additional document scanners, expanded its computer network and purchased a Xerox color printer.
With these and previous electronic upgrades, said Mr. Needelman, his firm can tell its investment clients within about a minute all that has happened in their accounts.
"We can send them hard copy in probably eight to 10 minutes. If they want a brochure for a board meeting, we can produce everything in a couple of hours," he said. Typically, the report would be about 15 pages, and it would be in color.
PRINCETON, N.J. - INVESCO Funds Group, a mutual fund company with $12 billion under management, has licensed the fund accounting and portfolio management system PAM for Mutual Funds.
Glenn Martellucci, vice president of mutual fund systems at Princeton Financial System Inc., Princeton, N.J., which offers PAM, said INVESCO selected PAM after an 18-month evaluation of several different systems.
The client/server based PAM will replace an in-house mainframe-based system.
"The decision to select PAM was based on its ability to provide substantial benefits in functionality, efficiency and flexibility relative to our current environment," said Judy Wiese, an INVESCO vice president involved in the selection process.
"We invest in many different fixed-income securities, and felt that PAM provided comprehensive fixed-income processing. We also were impressed with its extensive reporting capabilities," said Ms. Wiese.
More information can be obtained by contacting Gordon Gacek at (609) 987-2400.
BOSTON - First Call Corp.'s BondCall is available on Bridge Information Systems Inc.
BondCall delivers credit research notes direct from analysts at more than 20 major sell-side bond firms such as Bear Stearns & Co.; Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities; J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.; and Salomon Brothers Inc. All the firms are based in New York.
Bridge Information Systems provides real-time and historical online market information and analytics for quick interpretation. Bridge offers timely data from both primary and emerging markets through a consolidated feed on information from 92 equities and future exchanges around the world, and 53 other economic and market data sources.
First Call is located in Boston. For information, call (617) 345-2990 or (314) 567-8100.
BERKELEY, Calif. - A real-time version of Riskcaster, which is used to predict equity volatilities over a period of one day to two weeks, is planned, according to BARRA Inc., Berkeley, Calif., and Market Vision Corp., New York.
A real-time version of Riskcaster will permit dealers and market-makers to manage intraday inventory risk and implement optimal hedging strategies using index futures.
According to Harish Lakhani, senior product manager equity trading services at BARRA, said, portfolio managers and buy-side traders will be able to determine the order in which to execute trades based on the risk contribution to the overall strategy. The BARRA system will integrate into existing trade entry systems and immediately reflect the impact of confirmed trades. Users will get to choose any combination of real-time data vendors to update their portfolios. Market Vision provides software for more than 30 information services, including equity feeds from S&P ComStock, Telekurs and Bridge Information Systems.
For more information, contact Harish Lakhani at (510) 649-4507.
MALVERN, Pa. - The Asset Services Group of Fidelity Investments will use GLOBAL PLUS asset management software in its global custody operations.
GLOBAL PLUS is an integrated, multicurrency, accrual-based system that operates online and in real time. GLOBAL PLUS is offered by Premier Solutions Ltd., Malvern. GLOBAL PLUS is now offered on the UNIX as well as Digital platform. It also supports the ORACLE relational database.
For more information, contact Douglas S. Clauson at (610) 251-6622.
