TCA Readies for Next Stage in Evolution
Data and analytics is an important part of the TT strategy–TT acquired Abel Noser Solutions, the leader in multi-asset transaction cost analysis (TCA) solutions, in 2023. As other TCA providers exit the space, we are doubling down and increasing innovation while expanding our technology platform.
Innovation is in our DNA. Through the years, we have pursued a vision to modernize trading infrastructure. Today, the TT platform serves top global banks with integrated trading, surveillance, order management and algo tools. Soon to be backed by a recently announced strategic partnership with Thoma Bravo, we are accelerating technology investments to lead capital markets innovation.
Transparency and Automation
It’s no coincidence that our product roadmap aligns with many of the major evolving themes in the TCA space.
The biggest trend shaping the future of TCA is a shift toward multi-asset capabilities, alongside a growing focus on opaque asset classes like private credit. We are already offering a comprehensive, multi-asset trading view that captures the unique nuances of each market. This transparency, especially in traditionally opaque areas, started with equities, is advancing rapidly in fixed income, and continues to improve as price discovery grows—enabling deeper, data-driven insights.
Another key theme is artificial intelligence. We’re on the leading edge of AI for TCA. For example, we’re pioneering chatbots that answer complex trading queries—beyond static manuals—enabling instant, automated reporting that replaces tedious manual processes.
This means traders will be able to quickly get answers to questions about trading volume, costs, expensive trades or broker usage—tasks that typically require time-consuming monthly or quarterly reports.
A Unique Contribution to TCA
From our early days as Abel Noser, we have been pioneers in TCA. We co-created VWAP, or Volume-Weighted Average Price trading indicator, which is now standard across the industry, and built the first PC-based TCA platform around 2000–transforming what had been a paper-heavy process.
Since then, we’ve continued to lead through partnerships with major institutions like Fidelity, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and most other large, prestigious global asset management companies co-developing tools and frameworks that are now industry norms.
More recently, we’ve been focused on bringing transparency to private credit, working with top-tier firms to apply advanced analytics to a space that historically had almost none. It’s a trillion-dollar market today and could be north of $10 trillion in the next decade.
What sets our TCA solution apart is that trade analytics is a core business, not a side offering. Unlike firms where TCA is just an add-on, this is what we do—deeply, consistently, and with purpose. And as the space evolves, we expect others to step back, while we continue to lead.
Adapting to Each Unique Client
The transition to TCA can be long and complex for many clients. We have put a lot of work into simplifying and de-risking that process on a number of fronts.
When it comes to onboarding, one of the most important things, especially now with a competitor exiting the space, is the ability to bring clients on quickly and efficiently. We’ve built the technology to do exactly that. We already have established integrations with all the major order and execution management systems (OEMSs), so when a client sends us a dataset, we can often run it as soon as the next day, and have them onboarded within a week if necessary.
What typically slows things down isn’t the tech—it’s alignment on how the client thinks about their workflow. For instance, something as simple as “what is an order?” can vary. If two portfolio managers buy the same stock an hour apart, is that considered one order or two? That definition matters for how we recreate workflows and run accurate analysis.
To streamline this, we’ve built a proprietary implementation portal that gives us flexibility. It’s a major differentiator, especially compared to competitors who can take months to onboard clients. We’ve never received two identical data specs, but we’ve designed our system to handle a wide range of formats. Of course, there are essential fields—like executing broker, trade date, time, symbol and side—but beyond that, we can work with what’s available and still deliver robust analysis.
Keeping Up With Real Time
Flexibility will always be key, as client needs change and markets speed up. A major theme in recent years has been increasing demand for real-time data and analytics. We have approached this development with the same multi-asset philosophy that guides our overall strategy.
We have five other lines of business, and we operate as a platform company—that’s central to how we think about growth and integration. The goal from the beginning was to become the leading platform in the capital markets space by unifying trading, analytics and data.
Integrating Abel Noser’s products into the TT platform almost two years ago was the first step. But the broader opportunity is in connecting the entire ecosystem—across fixed income, equities, FX, futures and options—and embedding analytics directly into the trading workflow.
Take futures, for example. With the exception of TT Futures TCA, which we launched last year, there’s virtually no meaningful pre-trade cost analysis available today. Traders often place orders without knowing what they’ll actually cost. We’re solving that by bringing our data and analytics to the point of execution.
On any given day, we can account for a material amount of volume traded in a given futures contract, which gives us a rich dataset to work from. That allows us to offer pre-trade, real-time and post-trade analytics—all in one place—giving users insight across the entire trade life cycle.
Across the TT and Abel Noser platforms, we now support around 12,000 unique users, mostly institutional. Bringing all of this together—across products, asset classes and analytics—is what makes our platform truly powerful.
Pushing TCA Forward
Our work on pre-trade cost analysis for futures is just one example of our ambitions in TCA. Looking forward, we have a strong focus on expanding use cases for our tools. In the past, TCA was mostly a box-ticking exercise, but now, thanks to the tremendous computing power we have, we can process massive amounts of data incredibly quickly.
As markets become more transparent and price discovery improves, TCA evolves into a much more valuable tool. It goes far beyond compliance and reporting, helping with order selection, venue choice and broker selection.
For example, in fixed income, RFQs and portfolio trades are becoming increasingly important. A trader might ask: Should I trade this name with a broker who consistently comes in second but is reliable, or try someone who occasionally offers a better bid? Or should I open the trade to a broader group—maybe 15 participants on a platform like MarketAxess or Tradeweb—to create a more competitive auction?
By enabling these kinds of decisions, TCA transforms from a compliance checkbox into a strategic tool that enhances trading outcomes. With the huge tailwinds of demand for multi-asset trading protocols and AI, we expect possibilities in the next stage of TCA’s evolution to multiply rapidly.
To learn more about our multi-asset TCA solutions, contact us by completing our online inquiry form.