Insights A collection of buy-side thought leadership articles Platforms and Partnerships: Helping Investment Managers Keep Pace with Growing Complexity Data Management, ESG, Partner Ecosystem, Portfolio Analytics, Private Markets, Trading By Spiros Giannaros, President and CEO, Charles River. A number of forces are injecting new complexities into capital markets. Growing investor demand for access to private markets, the search for diversification and differentiation in a crowded world of low-cost... read more Meet Mercatus: The Latest Addition to the Charles River Development Family Corporate, Private Markets By Spiros Giannaros, CEO, Charles River. We are excited to welcome the Mercatus team to Charles River Development in an acquisition that was finalized by State Street earlier this month. We’ll have lots more to share about Mercatus, its technology, and our end-to-end,... read more Leveraging MSCI Fixed Income Models & Analytics in Charles River IMS Fixed Income, Partner Ecosystem, Portfolio Analytics Factor-based modeling and analytics play a central role in helping portfolio managers decompose risk, facilitate stress testing, generate risk forecasts and attribute performance. Open architecture platforms such as the Charles River Investment Management Solution ... read more The Evolving Fixed Income Trading Landscape: Leveraging Connectivity, Interoperability and Automation Fixed Income, Partner Ecosystem, Trading By: Alun Cutler, Director, Product Management, EMEA. Charles River has recently been honored as the recipient of “Best Fixed Income OEMS” in the inaugural European Markets Choice Awards. We’d like to share some thoughts on where we see the near-term future of fixed... read more Reimagining Buy-Side Data Management Data Management, State Street Alpha State Street report reveals how cloud-based data management is giving firms a competitive advantage, reducing costs and driving innovation Margin compression driven by investor’s growing adoption of low-fee index funds increasingly forces buy-side firms to do more... read more A Platform for Change, A Platform for Now Corporate, Diversity By: Melissa Monahan, Campus Recruiting Lead. Last year marked State Street’s 14th year as the presenting sponsor of the Annual Massachusetts Conference for Women, which celebrates, supports, and encourages women and their contributions to the workplace. Traditionally,... read more “Anecdata” – What Traders Know, and How to Make Trade Automation Intelligent Fixed Income, FX, OTC Derivatives, Trading Charles River Investment Management Solution is helping traders to systematize their accumulated knowledge and leverage it to increase efficiency, improve execution quality and better quantify the “whys” of trade decisions. by Kyle Pedrotty and Jay Hinton. In... read more Supporting ESG Investing for APAC Asset Owners APAC, Data Management, ESG, Portfolio Analytics, Trading By Peter Sherriff , Director, Product Strategy, Asia PacificCharles River Development Across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, asset owners in both developed and emerging markets are keen to adopt Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment practices. Whilst... read more Helping APAC Asset Owners Navigate Regulatory Change APAC, Compliance & Regulatory, Fixed Income, FX, OTC Derivatives, Portfolio Analytics, Trading In our second Insight discussing the challenges and opportunities facing APAC asset owners, we examine regulatory headwinds and their impact on asset owner operating models and growing reporting obligations. By Peter Sherriff , Director, Product Strategy, Asia... read more Maintaining Business as Usual in the Most Unusual of Times Corporate by Spiros Giannaros President, Charles River Development In the months since mass quarantines swept the globe, the topic of resilience has surfaced repeatedly in my daily conversations with customers. Portfolio management and trading has traditionally been a... read more Delivering a High Quality User Experience to the Front Office: The Importance of Themes, and Why the Dark Matters UX by Jay Hinton and Sean Jacobs Summary: While user interface (UI) color choices may seem arbitrary or tied to individual preferences, an emerging trend seems to reveal that color does matter for a number of cognitive and physiological reasons. The end result is an... read more How Asset Manager M&A Impacts FX Trading Technology Choices, Part 1 FX, TABB Forum Mergers and acquisitions between asset management firms are at a historical high, driven by margin compression, the ascendance of passive management, and growing regulatory compliance costs. A thorny FX management challenge facing asset management firms is the need to... read more Moving from Electronification to Automation in Fixed Income Markets Fixed Income, Trading Charles River Development has been an active participant in the annual Fixed Income Leaders Summit (FILS) since the inaugural event in 2014. The caliber of presentations, panel discussions, and networking opportunities ranks FILS as a key event for investment... read more The New OTC Challenge: Optimizing Collateral Management in the Front and Middle Office bobsguide, Industry Publications, OTC Derivatives Collateralized OTC derivatives transactions help firms reduce credit risk when dealing with smaller, less capitalized counterparties, during periods of market shocks, and when holding long-dated positions. However, managing, monitoring and optimizing collateral places... read more Rethinking the Middle Office: Solving Buy-side Challenges with Financial Technology bobsguide, Industry Publications, Middle Office The buy-side middle office is undergoing significant change, as new regulations, increased use of OTC derivatives and fee compression force firms to reevaluate their existing staffing, workflows and technology. This Insight explores those changes, and discusses how a... read more Designing Smart Beta Portfolios (PART 1): Challenges and Considerations bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics Increasingly popular Smart Beta products provide investment managers and asset owners with conveniently packaged exposure to a number of factors. Risk factors are granular attributes of one or more asset classes that explain risk and return. Read Part 2 - Designing... read more How Fund Look-through Improves Buy-side Risk Monitoring & Performance Evaluation bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics Asset managers and owners increasingly implement their investment strategy by buying funds from a number of providers. These funds can represent a significant portion of the firm’s portfolio, and complicate their ability to manage risk, measure performance and comply... read more Understanding Mortgage Prepayment Models bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics U.S. agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) are the largest and most liquid securitized asset class in the world. Pooling thousands of individual mortgages into a standardized security lets investors easily gain exposure to this important asset... read more Minimizing Performance Dispersion between Models and SMAs Wealth Management A recent FundFire article found that “performance of portfolios in models-based managed account programs can sometimes diverge from the separately managed account (SMA) strategies they aim to track. Some performance differences can be expected, due to the timing of... read more Turning the DoL Fiduciary Rule into Opportunities for Wealth Managers Wealth Management The Department of Labor (DoL) Fiduciary Rule requires financial advisors to meet a fiduciary, rather than a suitability, standard when recommending investment products for their clients’ retirement accounts. This will significantly impact asset managers, wirehouses,... read more How an OEMS Helps Buy-Side Firms Achieve Best Execution Fixed Income, Industry Publications, TABB Forum Learn how an Order and Execution Management System (OEMS) can help traders better serve the needs of their fixed income clients by providing extensive execution analysis capabilities and ensure compliance with emerging regulatory requirements. read more Enhancing Portfolio Construction with Factor Models Portfolio Analytics Factor models and factor-based investing are changing the way institutional investment managers construct portfolios and analyze risk. This Insight discusses how factor models enable better portfolio risk assessments and how they are implemented in Charles River’s... read more Simplifying Buy-Side Operations with SaaS SaaS Tom Driscoll, Global Managing Director, on the benefits of combining software, data, infrastructure, FIX Network and other services with Charles River’s SaaS-based deployment. Visit our SaaS Overview page and read the press release on Charles River's Global ISO... read more IBOR: Improving Buy-Side Decision Support with Position-Level Transparency bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics Ensuring that firms are utilising consistent and high quality position data is essential to improving decision support, lowering operational risks and dealing with growing product complexity. Learn More About This Topic The Middle Office Solution Investment... read more How an OEMS Bridges the Gap Between Traditional and Electronic Fixed Income Market Structure Fixed Income, Industry Publications, TABB Forum An OEMS helps buy-side firms by centralizing connectivity to dealers and trading systems on a single desktop and providing critical trade decision support via a comprehensive database of trade, order and market history. < Order and Execution... read more The Evolution of ESG from Funds to Custom Portfolios ESG, MMI Journal, Wealth Management This article addresses the limitations and risks of negative screening within separately managed accounts and the opportunities that technology and newer portfolio construction approaches offer to wealth and asset managers seeking to offer these products at scale and... read more Speaking of Alpha: Shaping the Future of Data Management Data Management, State Street Alpha Data is at the heart of every investment firm’s operations. An effective data management strategy can help institutional investment and wealth managers uncover new insights, operate more efficiently, better serve their clients and raise more assets But firms face many... read more Speaking of Alpha: Evolution of Outsourced Data Management Data Management, State Street Alpha The growing sophistication and complexity of institutional portfolios create new demands on in-house data management teams. Outsourcing presents firms with an opportunity to rethink and refine their operating models and focus more resources on their core... read more “Rightsourcing” APAC Asset Owner Operating Models APAC, Data Management, FX, Trading By Peter Sherriff, Director of Product Strategy, APAC. Asset owners globally are evaluating their operating model to determine what assets and investment activities should be managed internally and which make sense to outsource. Many asset owners with over USD30... read more Direct Indexing: 2020’s Surge is Just the Beginning Wealth Management By: Randy Bullard, Global Director of Wealth Management. Direct or personalized index portfolios have been utilized by high net worth investors for over 20 years. Firms like Parametric Portfolio Associates and Aperio have promoted them through separate account... read more Platforms, Ecosystems and Interoperability: A New Paradigm for Investment Managers Partner Ecosystem, State Street Alpha A technology ecosystem is key to helping deliver fit-for-purpose solutions and services while reducing operational cost and complexity. Read how State Street Alpha enables connectivity and interoperability with a vibrant ecosystem of third-party providers. All... read more Building Trust in Trade Automation Fixed Income, FX, OTC Derivatives, Trading by Kyle Pedrotty and Jay Hinton. Trade automation is the topic we get asked about most often lately. Firms want to know how we can help them address the fact that they have fewer traders handling more orders. But when we speak with traders, we hear their desire to... read more Traders with Machines: Why Trade Automation is Cooperative Game Theory and not a Zero-Sum Game Fixed Income, FX, OTC Derivatives, Trading by Kyle Pedrotty and Jay Hinton. One of the hottest topics for institutional traders in 2020 has been the impact of automation on trading workflows. Charles River has been actively working in this area as well, and we recently launched a new product development team... read more Helping APAC Asset Owners Address Liquidity Challenges APAC, Fixed Income, FX, OTC Derivatives, Portfolio Analytics, Trading In part one of this series exploring the challenges and opportunities facing APAC asset owners, we discuss recent pandemic-driven liquidity issues and the tools that organizations are using to measure and manage this form of risk. By Peter Sherriff , Director, Product... read more UX Insights Article: The Grid is Dead. Long Live the Grid. UX by Jay Hinton and Sean Jacobs Look at any marketing material for a trading application, and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that the trading applications of the future will have no grids—it will be all graphs, blinking lights and price tiles. At the same time,... read more How Asset Manager M&A Impacts FX Trading Technology Choices, Part 2 FX, TABB Forum In Part 1 of this two-part series, we discussed some of the challenges around order generation in FX management that confront asset managers undergoing a merger or acquisition. Specifically, we looked at issues that arise when firms seek to combine and rationalize... read more The Future of Fixed Income is Adaptive Fixed Income, Portfolio Analytics, Trading In our previous Insight covering the key themes at the 2019 Fixed Income Leaders Summit (FILS), we highlighted how electronic trading has grown in sophistication, and how trade automation is now a requirement for asset managers needing to construct, de-risk or... read more Liquidity, Execution and Collaboration: Old Problems, New Solutions Fixed Income, Trading Now in its fourth year, the 2018 Fixed Income Leaders Summit (FILS) drew record attendance from buy-side firms, trading venues and technology vendors. Charles River has participated in this event since the start, and we’ve worked with our buy-side clients and... read more Creating Efficiencies and Reducing Operational Risk with an Investment Book of Record (IBOR) bobsguide, Industry Publications, Middle Office An increasingly critical middle office function is delivering accurate and timely position data to the front office and ensuring redundancy with outsourced back-office services. This article discusses the operational, regulatory and competitive drivers for automated... read more Designing Smart Beta Portfolios (PART 2): The Role of Factor Models and Technology Considerations bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics Charles River recently discussed how Smart Beta products can improve portfolio diversification, minimise undesirable correlation risk, and deliver better risk-adjusted performance. This article continues the discussion, focusing on the pivotal role of factor models in... read more MiFID II Transaction Reporting Challenges for the Buy-Side Industry Publications, MiFID ll, TABB Forum We discuss the key role that technology plays in helping buy-side firms achieve compliance with the regulation’s extensive trade and transaction reporting requirements. Technology solutions must integrate dozens of reporting fields from disparate OMS/EMS, legal... read more Two Approaches to Buy-Side Scenario Analysis bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics Buy-side firms increasingly offer a diverse set of funds and products to meet the risk appetites and investment objectives of their institutional clients. Multi-asset, long-only, and leveraged portfolios all have very different characteristics that require front and... read more A Buy-Side Framework for Managing OTC Derivatives Industry Publications, OTC Derivatives, TABB Forum Learn how several regulatory and structural drivers are affecting buy-side usage of OTC derivatives, leading to higher trading costs and a fundamental reshaping of technology infrastructure for managing derivatives. Charles River Development discusses those challenges... read more Scaling SMAs to Improve Investment Performance Wealth Management Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) are a widely used investment vehicle for endowments, retirement plans, foundations, and wealth managers. The popularity of SMAs is underscored by broad global institutional sponsorship and investor acceptance. As of 2015, more than... read more TABB Forum Fixed Income 2017 – Liquidity, Price Transparency and Regulations Fixed Income, Industry Publications, TABB Forum, Trading Charles River discusses The Future of Fixed Income Market Structure and Trading Analytics with TABB Forum. Topics include MiFID regulatory reporting obligations, execution analysis and efficiently sourcing liquidity from the growing number of fixed income trading... read more Building Smarter Portfolios with Factor Models Portfolio Analytics In a recent Insights article, we discussed how factor models are changing the way institutional investment managers analyze and measure portfolio risk. In this Insight, we’ll examine factor-based investment methods and challenges, and discuss how managers use Charles... read more Maximizing the Value of Multi-Leg Orders with an OEMS bobsguide, Industry Publications, Trading As multi-leg strategies garner increased attention from institutional asset managers, the ability to manage these orders in an efficient manner grows in importance. This Insight discusses how a multi-asset Order and Execution Management System delivers... read more Re-thinking Buy-Side Portfolio Decision Support bobsguide, Industry Publications, Portfolio Analytics Portfolio decision support solutions provide integrated multi-asset risk management and scenario analysis, performance measurement and attribution, and portfolio analysis and construction capabilities on a single platform, with managed security and benchmark data,... read more An EDM Reality Check for the Buy-Side bobsguide, Data Management, Industry Publications Enterprise Data Management underpins a firm’s ability to offer differentiated products, centralise firm-wide data, manage complex fixed income and derivative instruments, and maintain real-time visibility into risk factors and counterparty exposures. ... read more Valuing Interest Rate Swaps: The Importance of Dual Curve Stripping Portfolio Analytics An Interest Rate Swap (IRS) is a versatile and widely used derivative that helps firms manage interest rate exposures, reduce borrowing costs, and restructure cash flows in a cost-effective manner. A vanilla IRS allows two parties, each with an identical notional... read more Sign Up for Charles River News & Updates Follow Us Recent Posts Platforms and Partnerships: Helping Investment Managers Keep Pace with Growing Complexity The Evolution of ESG from Funds to Custom Portfolios Meet Mercatus: The Latest Addition to the Charles River Development Family Speaking of Alpha: Shaping the Future of Data Management Categories APAC bobsguide Compliance & Regulatory Corporate Data Management Diversity ESG Fixed Income FX Industry Publications Middle Office MiFID ll MMI Journal OTC Derivatives Partner Ecosystem Portfolio Analytics Private Markets SaaS State Street Alpha TABB Forum Trading UX Wealth Management Sitemap Careers About Us Contact Us © 2003 - 2021 Charles River Systems, Inc. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Statement and Terms & Conditions.