Addition of Equities and Equity Options Completes Global Multi-Asset Stack Amid Unprecedented Market Velocity
CHICAGO, IL (JLN) — September 30, 2026: The world of capital markets is moving faster than ever before, with new products and asset classes coming in rapid-fire and 24/7 trading becoming the norm. The other norm is multi-asset trading on one platform. Trading Technologies took another step forward to meet the needs of this demanding environment by adding a crucial asset class that was missing from its multi-asset technology platform: equities and equity options. It is doing this by acquiring TRAFiX, a provider of equities and equity options order and execution management systems.
The acquisition will also create “a single, end-to-end global multi-asset trading platform offering best-in-class execution management system (EMS) and order management system (OMS) tools; comprehensive FIX and market connectivity; multi-asset risk management, analytics and regulatory reporting; multi-asset trade surveillance and compliance workflows; and multi-asset pre-trade and intra-day margin analytics,” according to a Trading Technologies press release.
Clients of both TT and TRAFiX have been clamoring for access to cross-asset and cross-region exposure without juggling disparate software, the firms said. It’s not just about reducing the number of screens on a desk, however – it is about capital efficiency. Building these missing asset classes from scratch would be too slow, the firms recognized, so they are combining forces, allowing them to bypass the scaling, cybersecurity, and audit-compliance overhead required for new market entrants.
TRAFiX brings to TT the ability to route high-touch (agency desk), low-touch, and no-touch (DMA) flow through the same pipes, giving desks an integrated view of their total risk and counterparty exposure. “The high-touch model is what we specialize in,” said Walter Fitzgerald, the CEO of TRAFiX, in an interview with JLN. “We also do a lot of DMA activity … but we were originally designed for high-touch traders.”
There are many aging legacy systems out there which no longer meet traders’ needs. “If you look at what that capital market landscape is today, it’s a series of very fragmented solutions,” TT CEO Justin Llewellyn-Jones said in that same interview. “That fragmentation just causes a tremendous amount of friction.”
TT and TRAFiX say their combination is the antidote to that. Both the firms are built on architecture that was developed within the past decade, so they can handle emerging industry trends like 24/7 trading and shortened settlement cycles.
“Years ago, when these original systems were designed, they never even dreamt about 24/7 trading,” Fitzgerald said. “When we designed TRAFiX…. we wanted to be able to support round-the-clock global trading. So it’s designed inherently into our architecture.”
TT has been adding workflow tools like order management systems, clearing systems, and middle office systems, Llewellyn-Jones said, “but we’ve also been adding asset classes. So we’ve added fixed income, we’ve added FX, we’ve added crypto, we’re in the process of adding prediction markets….obviously, our pedigree is very much futures and options.”
“The big hole that we’ve had when we’ve been going to market is really equities and equity options,” he said. “And that’s what TRAFiX brings to the table.”
“But the overall market trends have really evolved over the last decade or so, where those cross-asset, multi-asset solutions are becoming far more prevalent and far more in demand. And that’s not just because people are looking for a trading view, right? Yes, trading is important. But I think it’s also because they’re looking to be able to do things like cross asset risk, cross asset margining.”
It’s also crucial that the combined companies serve markets in multiple regions on one platform. According to Fitzgerald, “The key [part of the combined platform] is that it’s global, one platform, and allows multinational firms to do their business on a global basis very easily and streamlined. That’s really why we’re coming together to supply our customers with a solution that works for them.”
“All of our clients trade on a global basis,” Llewellyn-Jones added. “If you can’t offer a global solution, it’s very difficult to gain traction in the market.”
Another benefit is “the value of time,” Fitzgerald said. “By doing this, we’re bringing that solution to our customers much more quickly than if we wanted to do it ourselves.”
At the beginning, TRAFiX will continue to be sold as a standalone product. In the next 6-12 months, TT said, product and engineering teams will work on integrating TRAFiX into their system without disrupting trader workflows. They plan to offer equities directly within the TT platform by this time next year.
(John Lothian contributed to this story.)
