TOMS

Overview

GBST TOMS™ streamlines order and trade management of derivatives, providing efficient order entry and monitoring for advisers and operators and reducing workload for back office staff.

Submit orders with minimal keystrokes

CLICK operators can claim and submit orders efficiently in just a few keystrokes. Orders can be submitted in whole or any number of parts and TOMS™ prevents an operator from submitting quantities or prices outside the constraints set by the adviser.

User-friendly interface for front and back office

TOMS™ user-friendly interface allows advisers to quickly enter orders, remain automatically up-to-date with the progress and changing status of the order, amend/cancel orders and send notes to operators or back office staff relating to the order.

Efficiency measurement and audit capabilities

TOMS™ provides management information to support the quantitative measurement of the efficiency and capacity of trading operations. TOMS™ also maintains a comprehensive audit trail containing details of all activities relating to orders. Using this audit trail, responding to queries from clients and regulators becomes more straightforward.

At a Glance:

TOMS™ Advisers users can:

• create orders quickly
• amend and cancel orders easily and automatically alert Operators of the change
• receive timely updates on the status of their orders

TOMS™ CLICK operators can:

• quickly submit orders into CLICK with a few keystrokes and importantly without entering the full order details
• spend less time speaking to advisers on the telephone
• allow TOMS™ to update Advisers on the status of orders

TOMS™ back-office staff:

• do not have to enter allocation details into DCA™

Benefits to the broking business:

• easier entry and monitoring of orders by Advisers
• reduced workload for CLICK Operators
• reduced workload for back-office staff
• reduced errors, due to less transcription and greater automation
• more timely completion of a processing cycle (particularly important on expiry days)
• reduced costs as a consequence of the above
• improved management control and compliance capability
• higher level of service provided to clients

 

Adviser Functionality

Order Entry

While TOMS™ is not dependent upon DCA™ it has a strong interface to DCA™. This interface assists with the quick and accurate generation of orders. For example, from DCA™ Account Explorer an Adviser is able to click on an established open position and choose ‘New’, ‘Roll’ or ‘Close’. An order form is then opened with the order details largely completed.

The TOMS™ order forms cater for most order types including combination orders that consist of up to four legs. Additionally, the order form contains a section to enter ‘Notes for Operator’. It is therefore always possible for very complex, non-standard orders to be communicated to an Operator.

When an order is entered into TOMS™ it may be accompanied by details of the account(s) for whom the order was placed and also a request for multiple fills to be ‘price averaged’. Where there are multiple accounts, the quantity split can be provided.

Additionally, details of non-standard commissions can be supplied as well as reference details. For combination orders, commission details can be provided on a per leg basis. In summary, against each order the Adviser is able to supply details of the account(s), the number of contracts for each account (where there are multiple accounts) and any non-standard commissions to be charged.

Alternatively, when an order is entered into TOMS™ it may be accompanied by details of the Clearing Participant that the trades are to be given-up to, together with the commission charge.

Order Amendments

At any time an Adviser can amend or cancel an order that is still to be filled. Similarly, Advisers have the opportunity to alter allocation details after the order has been created.

Quote Requests

Advisers are provided with the ability to submit quote requests to the Operator for onward submission to the market.

Order Status

Each Adviser is automatically informed of the status of those orders they have entered. As such they can see whether an order is yet to be submitted to the market, at what price it has been submitted, the quantity that has been filled, etc.

Order Notes

Advisers are able to enter notes against individual orders. These notes are time stamped and protected from subsequent revision. They are intended to provide a record of matters an Adviser considers important and relevant to the order, for example details of any advice that may have been given to a client or of key information received from a client. Additionally, an Adviser can send notes to the Operators and/or to back-office staff to communicate other information relating to the order.

Enquiry Function

TOMS™ allows Advisers to enquire upon orders placed. The response to such enquiries shows details of the actions associated with the order such as time of order placement, submission to market, amendment, fill, withdrawal from market, etc.

Security

By default, TOMS™ ensures that orders submitted by one Adviser cannot be viewed or changed by other Advisers. However, using functionality made available in DCA™ Account Explorer, an Adviser can create a group of associated Advisers. The group of associated Advisers are able to view all orders created by the particular Adviser. As such, Advisers can be structured so that they are able to ‘share clients’.

 

Operator Functionality

Order Entry

CLICK Operators can see orders immediately after Advisers have submitted them. TOMS™ only permits one Operator to claim an order (i.e. TOMS prevents two Operators from claiming and submitting the same order to market).

In the action of claiming an order (by doubleclicking the ‘unclaimed’ order), full details of the order are made available to the Operator so that the quantity and/or the price can be adjusted.

TOMS™ prevents the Operator from submitting a quantity that exceeds the quantity specified by the Adviser; similarly the price is validated to ensure that it is within the constraints set by the Adviser. The Operator is then able to submit the order by simply clicking a ‘Submit’ button.

Importantly, order amendments and cancellations are actioned immediately and the Operator is automatically alerted to any action that needs to be taken.

To assist the Operator, when an order is opened for submission into the market the Operator is also able to view live market prices for the particular series. Real-time order depth and price depth information are also available. Furthermore, Operators can submit quote requests on their own behalf as well as submit quote requests on behalf of Advisers.

Additionally, Operators can enter and amend orders on behalf of Advisers. This functionality is primarily intended to deal with emergency situations (e.g. an Adviser’s workstation ceases to function) but it also allows telephone orders to be taken from Advisers; thereafter such orders follow the standard order flow and control mechanisms provided by TOMS™.

Order Status

TOMS™ constantly monitors messages received from CLICK. These messages include acceptance of an order, execution of an order (in whole or part), amendment to an order and cancellation of an order. The information received from CLICK is recorded in the TOMS™ database and is used to update the Operator ‘Order Status’ screen (as well as the Adviser ‘Order Status’ screen).

The Operator Order Status screen shows details of all orders. Each Operator is able to filter the information shown on the Order Status screen, for example, it can be filtered so that the displayed information only relates to those orders the particular Operator has claimed. Furthermore, each Operator is able to filter the information shown on the Order Status screen so that the displayed information only relates to those orders that remain to be filled or those orders where the maximum unfilled quantity is not in the market at the maximum limit price.

Crossings

TOMS™ detects potential crossings before orders are submitted to market and fully caters for both ‘cross with book’ and ‘crossing’ functionality.

Order Notes

Operators are able to enter notes against individual orders to send to the Adviser. These notes are time stamped and protected from subsequent revision.

Back Office Functionality

Enquiry Functionality

TOMS™ provides back-office personnel with enquiry functions to monitor the allocation of trades. They are able to see any discrepancies between executions within CLICK and trade details received from the ASX clearing system (DCS).

TOMS™ allows Advisers to send special instructions, relating to an order, to the back-office. These instructions can then be retrieved and acted upon.

Furthermore, details of equity trades executed via TOMS™ are available to assist with the equity bookings function.

The back-office can use powerful enquiry functionality covering past trading days to assist them in promptly and efficiently dealing with queries from clients and Advisers. The response to such enquiries shows details of the actions associated with each order such as time of order placement, submission to market, amendment, fill, withdrawal from market, etc. Additionally, it is possible to search for orders with particular characteristics, for example orders relating to a specified underlying product, expiry date, etc.

DCA Interface

DCA has access to all TOMS™ orders and attempts to match completed orders (i.e. orders that have full allocation details) to execution details received from the ASX clearing system (DCS). Where a match is found then the ‘allocation details’ are processed automatically. As such, the appropriate ‘DCS messages’ are automatically generated and transmitted to ASX. TOMS™ also allows Advisers to request that multiple fills for an order be price averaged. Where appropriate, a request to DCS for price averaging is automatically generated and the resultant ‘price averaged’ trade is then automatically allocated without user intervention.

An interface between the DCA™ Account Explorer application and TOMS™ is provided to simplify the task of creating an order. In addition, to minimise administrative tasks and ensure data consistency, TOMS™ extracts the following data from DCA™:

• Derivative products traded by ASX and all related traded entities
• Client account details
• Adviser details together with the relationship between Advisers and accounts and the relationship between two or more Advisers.

The above data is extracted once daily, as part of the TOMS™ end-of-day processing.

Changes to DCA™ users (i.e. add, amend, delete, change password) are automatically reflected in TOMS™.

Management Functionality

TOMS™ measures the efficiency of the trading operations in several respects, e.g. time taken to submit orders to market, time taken to fill orders and peak flow of orders. These measurements are recorded by business day and analysed by month-to-date, year-to-date, etc. Using this analysis it is possible to assess the overall capacity and efficiency of the trading operations. The ability to export this information to Excel is also provided.

TOMS™ creates an audit record for all changes and actions to orders. This information is stored in the database and is available together with powerful enquiry facilities to assist in dealing with any investigations or queries.

Administration Functions

TOMS™ uses parameter information maintained by other systems, e.g. DCA™. There is however a requirement to maintain a small number of parameters within TOMS™ such as an indicator to determine whether full allocation details must accompany an order and values held at the Adviser level indicating whether an Adviser is Level One or Level Two Accredited.

TOMS™ is able to accommodate organisational relationships between Advisers and Operators, for example where particular Operators have primary responsibility for dealing with orders raised by particular Advisers and between Advisers and Adviser Assistants (an Adviser Assistant has access to limited functionality (view and allocation edit functionality but not order creation, amendment and cancellation). Importantly, at any time Operators may override default responsibilities and claim orders raised by any Adviser. TOMS™ allows an Operator to temporarily transfer orders they have claimed to another Operator. Similarly, an Adviser has the ability to temporarily transfer their order book to another Adviser. This caters for situations where the user is temporarily unavailable; i.e. in a meeting or out of the office. Advisers are also able to give another Adviser responsibility for orders that they have created.