JP Morgan Develops ‘Bot’ to Optimize Equities Trading Workflow

As automation continues to permeate buy-side technology and trading operations, the use of automated bots within trading technology workflows is also beginning to show signs of value for asset managers. According to a story in The Trade news, JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) developed and rolled out its own bot, referred to internally as BETSI (Bot for Equity Trading Symphony Integration), earlier this year to automate and optimize certain trading desk workflow processes such as notifications, indications of interest for block liquidity and enhancing request for quotes (RFQ). The three key areas of operational functionality the BETSI bot offers are an intelligent notification service, block indications of interest, and RFQ enhancements; all of which align with the guiding principles for JPMAM’s equity trading desk. The BETSI News function generates alerts for the systematic distribution of stock, market or liquidity news to portfolio managers, whereby traders instruct the bot to notify portfolio managers of relevant developments which are delivered via the Symphony messaging application to either mobile or desktop. BETSI Indications works to identify automate and improve the communication of block liquidity signals, which enables brokers to post targeted indications that are fed directly into JPMAM’s proprietary order management system. The third functional area of the bot is BETSI Bids, which directs the flow of communication around RFQs through the Symphony platform, with the bot monitoring, reading, recording and responding to quotes automatically.