The Tradewatch data, provided to Pensions & Investments by Investment Technology Group Inc., New York, has a new look.
The focus of the quarterly report now analyzes trading costs and investment flows of different fund types. Previously, Tradewatch measured and listed broker performance.
The change was made to provide better insight into the global investment climate, according to Ian Domowitz, managing director responsible for networking and analytical and research products.
In the new approach, costs and flows are measured using MSCI indexes to determine model investment portfolios that serve as proxies for various fund types. Trading cost and investment flows are calculated for the portfolios using ITG's Peer Universe, which features a transaction cost database of nearly 11.6 million trades ($1.5 trillion) compiled solely from aggregated trade data. The data come directly from buy-side institutions.
In reading the data, the year-over-year percentage change compares the result of the most recent reported quarter to the same quarter in the prior year. A positive (negative) change in trade cost denotes an increase (decrease) in cost; a positive (negative) change denotes an increase (decrease) in trade flow. The basis points represent the average trade cost for the corresponding index during the first quarter.
