Barchart Targets Futures Brokers with Combined Data-Trading Platform

Chicago-based data and analytics provider Barchart is preparing to enhance its market data terminals with trading capabilities as part of a modular suite of white-label components, collectively dubbed Barchart Platform, to provide a full-service data and trading workstation that will broaden usage of the vendor’s products among futures brokers.

Data and charting modules of the platform are already available and in use at clients, including Quodd Financial Information, which uses Barchart’s charting package (IMD, Aug. 15), and the trading module—which initially covers futures markets, though the vendor hopes to extend it to equities in later releases—is currently in internal testing, with a production release scheduled for around the start of November, says Barchart managing director Mark Haraburda.

“In the B2B space, we have three focus areas: datafeeds, content for third-party websites, and front-end data applications—and that third area is where we see big growth potential going forward, so having trading is critical,” Haraburda says. “People have merged their [data and trading] platforms because they want to do everything through a single platform, while CME waives exchange data fees if clients have a trading account linked to that data… and we have lost business over the years because we haven’t been able to offer that.”

Now, Haraburda says, the addition of trading both opens up the potential to work directly with futures brokers—who will be able to choose their desired content from Barchart, as well as integrate proprietary data, news or analytics—and their client bases, but also allows the vendor to compete against rivals that already have trading capabilities. The vendor will focus on North American futures brokers in Chicago and New York that want to white-label the solution to offer their customers a branded trading and data platform, beginning with Barchart’s existing base of data clients.

Haraburda says the vendor will continue to provide data to third-party trading software vendors that integrate its feeds, but that clients had been pushing Barchart to do more with its content and add trading.

The order-routing, risk management and clearing components of the trading platform are being provided by Denver, Colo.-based data, charting and trading software vendor CQG, though other features of the new trading interface—such as market depth, profit-loss and position management displays—were developed in-house by Barchart.

Barchart originally planned to introduce trading capabilities two years ago (IMD, Sept 10, 2010), but delayed the move in order to prioritize other projects, such as the vendor’s purchase of Canadian vendor Stockgroup’s hosted data services business (IMD, Aug 30, Sept. 6, 2011).

In a second phase of the trading platform planned for release at the end of the first quarter of next year, Barchart plans to add other features, such as the ability to trade from charts, plot trades overlaid on charts, and perform custom studies.