Investment Technology Group, Inc. was a
United States-based
multinational agency
brokerage and
financial markets technology firm aimed at a
hedge fund and
asset management
Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings ...
clientele. One of the first suppliers of
electronic trading services, ITG launched the industry’s second
anonymous electronic trade matching system, POSIT, in 1987 (
Instinet Cross was launched in 1986). ITG has since expanded its business to include tools for portfolio management,
pre-trade analysis,
order management,
trade execution, and post-trade evaluation.
ITG is headquartered in
New York City and has offices in locations including
Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, London,
Dublin,
Tel Aviv,
Madrid,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Hong Kong and Singapore.
History
ITG was founded in 1987 as a division of
Jefferies Jefferies is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alan Jefferies (born 1957), Australian writer
* Annalee Jefferies (born 1954), American actress
* Chris Jefferies (born 1980), American basketball player
* Cindy Jefferies, Englis ...
to provide
automated equity trading to
institutional investor
An institutional investor is an entity which pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked co ...
s.
That year, the company introduced POSIT, an
anonymous electronic trade matching system, in conjunction with
Barra.
In 1990, ITG launched QuantEX, a trading system for institutional traders integrating analytics, routing, and trade management. ITG began to provide clients with pre- and post-trade tools and analytics in 1992.
ITG became a
publicly traded company in 1994, listed on
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
. The ITG Australia office opened in 1997, giving regional investors POSIT equity crossing. The firm expanded into Europe in 1998. In 1999, ITG completed its spin-off from Jefferies, giving it full independence.
In 2000, the company’s Canada office opened. In 2002, ITG moved into the
hedge fund market by acquiring Hoenig, a provider of
trade execution and
research services to alternative
investment funds. The firm then opened an office in Hong Kong.
ITG completed its purchase of Radical Corporation, a provider of
direct access trading
In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products c ...
to the institutional brokerage and hedge fund community, in 2004. The firm then opened a Japan office in 2005. The company moved to increase its
transaction cost analysis offering when it acquired Plexus Group from
JPMorgan Chase in 2006. That same year, ITG acquired Macgregor, a provider of trade
order management systems, for $230 million. In 2007, it acquired RedSky Financial, a developer of
futures
Futures may mean:
Finance
*Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract
*Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded
* ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine
Music
* ''Futures'' (album), a ...
and
options
Option or Options may refer to:
Computing
*Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards
*Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages
* Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command
*OPTIONS, an HTTP request method
...
trading technology.
In 2007 the company came under pressure from
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
hedge fund D. E. Shaw
D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. is a multinational investment management firm founded in 1988 by David E. Shaw and based in New York City. The company is known for developing complicated mathematical models and sophisticated computer programs to exploi ...
to either sell off some of its assets or initiate a
share buyback
Share repurchase, also known as share buyback or stock buyback, is the re-acquisition by a company of its own shares. It represents an alternate and more flexible way (relative to dividends) of returning money to shareholders. When used in coor ...
. By February 2008, Shaw had reduced its stake, citing satisfaction with ITG's RedSky purchase and an announced $50 million stock repurchase program.
In 2010, ITG spun off Plexus Plan Sponsor Group, the division which serviced institutional asset owners. This group became privately held and was renamed Zeno Consulting Group.
On 1 March 2019 Virtu Financial completed the acquisition of ITG.
Offerings
ITG's offerings span the following capabilities:
* Portfolio Management – tools to assist portfolio managers in optimizing investment performance as well as maintaining
compliance
Compliance can mean:
Healthcare
* Compliance (medicine), a patient's (or doctor's) adherence to a recommended course of treatment
* Compliance (physiology), the tendency of a hollow organ to resist recoil toward its original dimensions (this is a ...
with global regulatory, client and firm mandates.
* Pre-Trade – tools to manage trading
risk, increase efficiency, and improve performance.
* Trade – electronic trading services which include broker-neutral, multi-asset execution management systems (EMS) and
order management systems (OMS),
algorithms and routers, POSIT crossing, FIX connectivity, and traditional desk services for the trading of single stocks, lists and programs, international securities, and specialized
hedge fund services.
* Post-Trade – post-trade processing tools for trade matching, settlement notification and clearing and analysis tools for trading cost evaluation.
*Trading Research - Transaction cost analysis and consulting.
*Investment Research - Fundamental, data-driven equity research.
*Market Research - Healthcare and telecommunications primary research.
* POSIT Alert – tool that alerts traders to block crossing opportunities and delivers them directly to desktops from order flow in POSIT and ITG Algorithms.
References
External links
Official website{{Finance links historical
, name = Investment Technology Group
, sec_cik = 0000920424
Financial services companies established in 1987
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Brokerage firms
Financial services companies of the United States
Companies based in New York City
American corporate subsidiaries
2019 mergers and acquisitions