Order Management Systems (OMS) features explained
for Investment Management
Software that automates and streamlines the investment order lifecycle, from creation to execution and settlement. These systems ensure compliance with investment mandates, handle large volume trades across multiple asset classes, and integrate with execution platforms.
Every feature we track for Order Management Systems (OMS) products, with a description of what each one means.
Allocation and Settlement
Features that manage post-trade processes including allocation, confirmation, and settlement
- Allocation processing time
- Time required to complete allocation process for block trades
- Automated trade allocation
- Automatic allocation of executed trades to underlying portfolios
- Average pricing capability
- Support for average pricing across multiple executions
- Commission tracking
- Tracking of commissions and other transaction costs
- Customizable allocation algorithms
- Ability to define custom logic for trade allocations
- Failed trade management
- Tools for identifying and resolving failed trades
- Matching system integration
- Connection to trade matching utilities (e.g., DTCC CTM)
- Multi-currency settlement
- Support for settling trades in different currencies
- SSI database
- Management of Standard Settlement Instructions
- Settlement accuracy rate
- Percentage of trades that settle without manual intervention
- Settlement instruction management
- Central repository for settlement instructions
- Trade confirmation workflow
- Automated process for confirming trades with counterparties
Compliance and Risk Controls
Features that enforce investment policies, regulatory requirements, and risk management
- Audit trail
- Comprehensive logging of all system activities for audit purposes
- Compliance checking speed
- Time required to perform complete compliance check on an order
- Compliance rule customization
- Ability to create custom compliance rules without vendor intervention
- ESG screening
- Support for Environmental, Social, and Governance screening in the investment process
- Exposure monitoring
- Real-time tracking of portfolio exposures across various dimensions
- Investment policy enforcement
- Ability to implement and enforce client-specific investment policies
- Number of concurrent compliance rules
- Maximum number of compliance rules that can be active simultaneously
- Post-trade compliance monitoring
- Continuous monitoring of portfolios for compliance violations after trades
- Pre-trade compliance checking
- Ability to validate orders against investment rules before execution
- Regulatory reporting integration
- Built-in support for regulatory reporting requirements (MiFID II, Form PF, etc.)
- Restricted security lists
- Management of restricted securities and issuers
- Trade risk limits
- Ability to set and enforce trade-level risk limits
Integration and Connectivity
Features related to system interoperability and market connectivity
- API availability
- Comprehensive APIs for integration with other systems
- API response time
- Average response time for API calls
- Accounting system integration
- Seamless connection with back-office accounting systems
- Broker connectivity
- Pre-built connections to major brokers and trading venues
- CRM integration
- Connectivity with Customer Relationship Management systems
- Custodian connectivity
- Direct links to custodian banks for position and cash reconciliation
- Data warehouse integration
- Ability to feed data into enterprise data warehouses
- EMS integration
- Integration with Execution Management Systems
- FIX protocol support
- Support for Financial Information eXchange protocol for trading communication
- Market data integration
- Connections to market data providers for real-time pricing
- Number of supported brokers/venues
- Number of brokers and trading venues directly supported
- SWIFT messaging capability
- Support for SWIFT messaging standards
Order Entry and Execution
Features that enable the creation, routing, and execution of investment orders
- Algorithm-based execution
- Access to broker and proprietary trading algorithms
- Block order creation
- Ability to create block orders across multiple portfolios with similar investment objectives
- DMA (Direct Market Access)
- Direct connectivity to execution venues without intermediary routing
- Manual order entry
- Support for manual order entry with customizable order templates
- Market order types
- Support for various order types (market, limit, stop, etc.)
- Maximum order throughput
- Maximum number of orders the system can process simultaneously
- Multi-asset class support
- Ability to handle various asset classes including equities, fixed income, derivatives, alternatives, etc.
- Order amendment capability
- Ability to modify orders before execution
- Order cancellation tracking
- Capability to track and audit order cancellations
- Order entry speed
- Time required to process and route an order
- Order splitting functionality
- Ability to split orders across multiple brokers or execution venues
- Order staging
- Capability to stage orders before sending them to market
Pension Fund Specific Features
Features specifically designed for pension fund management needs
- Asset-liability matching
- Functionality for matching assets to pension liabilities
- Beneficiary payment scheduling
- Management of scheduled benefit payments
- Cash flow forecasting
- Tools for projecting future pension cash flows
- Currency hedging programs
- Support for implementing and monitoring currency hedging
- Funding forecast horizon
- Maximum time horizon for funding forecasts
- Funding ratio tracking
- Monitoring of pension funding ratios over time
- Inflation risk management
- Tools for managing exposure to inflation risk
- Liability-driven investment (LDI) support
- Tools for implementing and managing LDI strategies
- Longevity risk tracking
- Ability to monitor and manage longevity risk exposure
- Multi-manager oversight
- Ability to monitor and aggregate positions across external managers
- Regulatory compliance for pensions
- Built-in compliance with pension-specific regulations
- Transition management tools
- Features to support efficient manager transitions
Portfolio Management Integration
Features that connect the OMS with portfolio management and investment decision-making processes
- Asset allocation monitoring
- Real-time tracking of asset allocation relative to targets
- Cash management functionality
- Tools for monitoring and managing cash positions across portfolios
- Look-through capability
- Ability to analyze underlying holdings in funds-of-funds structures
- Maximum number of portfolios
- Maximum number of portfolios the system can effectively manage
- Multi-portfolio management
- Ability to manage and trade across multiple portfolios simultaneously
- Performance attribution integration
- Connection with performance measurement and attribution systems
- Portfolio analytics
- Built-in portfolio analytics and risk metrics
- Portfolio modeling integration
- Seamless integration with portfolio modeling tools
- Rebalancing calculation speed
- Time required to complete rebalancing calculations across portfolios
- Rebalancing tools
- Automated portfolio rebalancing capabilities
- Target position management
- Ability to set and track target portfolio positions
- What-if analysis
- Ability to model potential trades and their impact before execution
Reporting and Analytics
Features for generating insights, reports and analysis from trading and portfolio data
- Benchmark comparison reporting
- Ability to compare performance against benchmarks
- Custom report builder
- Self-service tools for creating custom reports
- Data retention period
- Length of time historical data is retained and available for reporting
- Data visualization tools
- Interactive charts and graphs for visualizing portfolio data
- Export capabilities
- Support for exporting reports to various formats (PDF, Excel, etc.)
- Historical performance reporting
- Access to historical performance data and trends
- Real-time portfolio dashboards
- Customizable dashboards showing portfolio status in real-time
- Regulatory reporting templates
- Pre-built templates for common regulatory reports
- Report generation time
- Average time to generate complex reports
- Risk analytics reporting
- Comprehensive reporting on portfolio risk metrics
- Scheduled reporting
- Ability to schedule automated report generation and distribution
- Transaction cost analysis (TCA)
- Tools for analyzing execution quality and trading costs
Service and Support
Features related to vendor support, training, and ongoing service
- 24/7 technical support
- Around-the-clock technical support availability
- Change management assistance
- Support for organizational change management during implementation
- Custom development services
- Availability of custom development services for specific needs
- Dedicated account manager
- Assignment of a dedicated relationship manager
- Frequency of system updates
- Number of system updates and enhancements per year
- Implementation support
- Professional services for system implementation
- Online knowledge base
- Self-service repository of documentation and solutions
- Regular system updates
- Scheduled release of new features and improvements
- SLA guarantees
- Service Level Agreement with performance guarantees
- Support response time
- Guaranteed response time for support requests
- User community/forum
- Platform for users to share insights and solutions
- User training program
- Comprehensive training for system users
Technology Infrastructure
Features related to the technical foundation and operational aspects of the OMS
- Automated backup procedures
- Regular automated system backups
- Cloud-based deployment option
- Availability of cloud hosting option
- Data encryption
- Encryption of data both at rest and in transit
- Disaster recovery capabilities
- Comprehensive disaster recovery protocols and infrastructure
- High availability architecture
- System design ensuring minimal downtime
- Mobile device compatibility
- Access to system functionality via mobile devices
- Multi-factor authentication
- Advanced authentication methods for system security
- On-premises deployment option
- Ability to deploy the system on-premises
- Performance monitoring tools
- Tools to monitor system performance metrics
- Recovery time objective (RTO)
- Target time for system recovery after failure
- Role-based access control
- Granular user permissions based on roles
- System uptime
- Guaranteed system availability
User Experience and Interface
Features related to system usability and user interaction
- Blotter customization
- Ability to customize trading blotters and order views
- Context-sensitive help
- Built-in help documentation relevant to current task
- Customizable user interface
- Ability for users to customize their view and workspace
- Dark mode option
- Dark color scheme for reduced eye strain
- Drag-and-drop functionality
- Intuitive drag-and-drop for order placement and management
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Configurable keyboard shortcuts for frequent actions
- Maximum concurrent users
- Maximum number of simultaneous users supported
- Multi-screen support
- Support for spreading the application across multiple monitors
- Real-time alerts
- Customizable alerts for critical events
- Saved views/templates
- Ability to save and recall workspace configurations
- Screen refresh rate
- Frequency of real-time data updates on screen
- User activity tracking
- Monitoring of user actions for productivity analysis