One of the most highly valued and frequently used measures by our clients within the OTAS suite is the Insider Transactions analysis. Delivered through multiple OTAS applications, users can assess the potential impact on a share by a single well timed trade, placed by a company director or major shareholder.

Live Insider Transactions via the Alerts feed
The introduction of live Insider trade notifications in our Alerts app allows users to view transactions for an order-pad, portfolio or watchlist as they happen in real-time, meaning they need never miss a potentially significant price sensitive trade. Proof of this was evidenced in the trading session immediately after the BREXIT vote when we noted an unprecedented number of senior management in UK Top 100 companies buying their own stock. 

The Insider alerts feed can be custom filtered to identify just significant discretionary transactions or include all trade types, such as exercise of employee stock options and share awards. Our star rating attached to each insider immediately reveals the prescience of the transactor.

        Live Alerts App.                                                  Alert Customisation Filter

Insider Transactions in the Core Summary
Once a new Insider transaction is received from our provider, it will display in the Alerts panel(as above) and will be available in the Core Summary detail table the following minute.  The Insiders Stamp will populate with new Buy/Sell flags shortly after and will be visible for the next month.

Insider transactions get registered on the accompanying chart and can be filtered to show Priority discretionary transactions or All trade types just like the live Alerts panel. We keep a history of every trade going back as far as 2006, these can be viewed by clicking the ‘Max’ zoom button. To single out an individuals previous trading history over the selected time-frame….simply click on their name and the chart will filter accordingly.

Here’s a reminder of some of the ‘self-help’ functionality within OTAS which is available at your finger tips should you ever require additional assistance.

Password Reset
Users can now manage their own OTAS password (including manual password resets) from the initial login page. A direct Help link to OTAS support is also available.

Simply follow the instructions on screen:

Help Pages
Every component in OTAS has a dedicated Help Page which explains what each application does, documents what we are analysing and how it can be used. Just look for the ‘?’ icon at the top of each application.

Example Help Page – Core Summary

Dedicated Help Button
If you are still experiencing issues or have a question that the help pages cannot answer, the Help button (found on the Launcher bar) will direct your query via email to our dedicated support team who will be on hand to assist you further.

The pricing of risk for large blocks of stock can be very much an arbitrary process, with Portfolio and Risk Managers applying their own techniques and models to establish what they deem the fair transaction price is for a block of shares.

Typical starting points can include; indentifying what percentage of the historic ADV the block is, use of generic historical return screens to provide percentage discount estimates and analysing recent performance or price levels. Whilst informative, such basic inputs may not always provide the whole picture.

Before a level can be truly established a multitude of current market variables need to be analysed and understood as to their potential influence on the final price . Within the OTAS suite, two components bring together a complete range of pricing and factor analysis providing money managers with tools to effectively do this.

Price Formation –
The Schedule provides an optimised estimate(‘Utility’) establishing an indicative cost framework from which an initial risk priced can be derived. It considers the total size of the block and then models the total expected trading costs* of executing in the market based on our proprietary impact and risk forecasts. The live Microstructure charts can also be referenced to analyse the current market characteristics of the stock to further assist in establishing a price level.

*assuming low/moderate risk aversion

Applying Risk Factors –
Core Summary for single stocks lets you independently evaluate the current state of a company by analysing a complete range of market factors whilst highlighting extremes and outliers across the data set. Based on the evidence, users can evaluate their potential effect on pricing and how/if this should translate in terms of discounting from the Utility.

• Performance benchmarking including current chart technicals and compare with trading volume analytics.
• Evaluation of fundamental factors such as recent earnings momentum, relative valuation extremes, dividend expectations and growth assumptions.
• Gauge current internal/external company sentiment via insider transactions, news intensity or unusual behaviour in the derivative and credit markets.
• Establish the extent of event pre-positioning and demand from short covering via Alpha Capture trade ideas monitor and Short Interest indicators.
• Monitoring upcoming event risk.

How do you currently demonstrate best execution, monitor in-trade benchmarking and analyse post trade performance ? Within its suite of applications, OTAS offers a number of components which assist traders in synchronising their execution capabilities from strategy implementation to trade efficiency measurements from receipt of order through to trade completion.

Trade Schedule –
Used for pre-trade strategy selection : Calculates optimal trading schedule to minimize liquidity impact, market risk and information dissemination and displays suggested participation and expected trading costs. Also offers cost sensitivities for standardised POV rates. Schedule dynamically adjusts intra-day using forecasting models that monitor liquidity, volume and spread to account for changing market conditions.

In-Trade Performance
Monitors trader performance with real-time benchmarking of live orders including actual and expected PnL, slippage, order completion calculations and POV estimates.

Post Trade analysis
OTAS Microstructure offers the unique ability to visualise the historic intra-day market conditions of an order, providing a record of what happened and offers supporting evidence for why trading decisions were made in a way that compliance will also recognise and approve.

What’s new – coming soon is our Lingo for Microstructure – which provides intra-day narrative on single stock behaviour to overlay with order TCA metrics. Here is a early preview of what’s to come …all feedback welcome

If you require further information on our integrated solutions including channel partner’s, or navigating any other aspect of OTAS, please contact support@otastech.com or your Account Director.

OTAS content and analytics can be accessed via a variety of proprietary and third party channels, allowing users to benefit from an integrated solution whilst saving on invaluable desktop real estate.

• OTAS Base

An API and visualisation toolkit that allows one to build OTAS content and analytics into a proprietary application such as a dashboard or an internal OMS/PMS e.g. Flags and Stamps.

• Fidessa

OTAS Core Summary and Microstructure analytics integrated into Fidessa’s equity trading platform, empowering traders with unique insight into the live market conditions of the instruments in their order blotter.

• Thomson Reuters Eikon

Our Apps available through the Eikon App Studio. They can be easily integrated into workflow by linking to single stock object or a quote list.

• Portware

Core Summary, Alerts and Microstructure analytics seamlessly integrated into Portware’s EMS, Portware Enterprise.

• Flextrade

Core Summary, Microstructure, Stacked Graph, Lingo Reports, Express and News fully embedded into FlexTRADER EMS. OTAS Alerts also available alongside order details in their transaction cost analysis tool FlexTCA.

• RSRCHX

Lingo and Core Summary content available on a stock by stock basis to compliment broker research content available on the portal.

The latest customisation enhancement to the OTAS Lingo report writing tool allows you to control exactly what what form your report takes and what content you see within it, making sure you are only told about the stand-out activity in the factors you consider most important.

For example:

• Create a comprehensive forward Events calendar for your Portfolio or Watchlist
• Gauge positional risk by only screening for activity in sentiment indicators such as Short Interest, Insider Transactions, Options and Credit Default markets.
• Produce fundamentally driven reports analysing extremes in Valuation, Earnings and Dividend yield.

Create your bespoke Lingo report by using the ‘New Template’ in the drop-down and simply tick to select/un-select the content you want. Change the factor hierarchy in the report by using the directional arrows.

If you require assistance in accessing or creating new Lingo reports, or navigating any other aspect of OTAS, please contactsupport@otastech.com or your Account Director.

The latest release of OTAS has seen significant improvements to our Core Summary application. The additional detail now accompanying each Stamp provides comprehensive analysis and data across a range of market factors for single stocks at the click of a button.

Example – New Insiders Screen

New Stamp detail features –

• Performance : Table now displays price trend analysis on an absolute, market & sector relative basis
• Signals: Ability to view frequency and backtest statistics on all studied OTAS technical signals, including the most recently fired.
• EPS Mmt : Displays broader historic EPS momentum change analysis and comprehensive analyst consensus information
• Insiders : Detailed table of most recent insider transactions including identity, importance and historic backtested ranking
• Valuation : Additional charts displaying comparative absolute and market relative valuations and historic range analysis.
• Implied Volatility : Absolute & relative implied volatility statistics table.
• Short Interest : Comprehensive short interest screen including percentage change in loan data, days to cover and upcoming dividend date.
• CDS : Additional historic CDS spread trend statistics.
• Divergence : Individual scatter plots displaying sector dispersion and most diverged stocks for each referenced factor.
• Events : Extensive upcoming events calendar for the referenced company.
• Dividend : Includes additional projections on yield, growth and dividend cover and displays most recent and upcoming dividend payment data.

If you require assistance or have further suggestions on the Core Summary or navigating any other aspect of OTAS, please contact support@otastech.com or your Account Director.

The OTAS Help pages are a comprehensive guide to navigating each and every aspect of the product.

Whether you are looking to create a watchlist, or simply understand what a particular stamp is showing, there are individual pages detailing all relevant steps, definitions and methodologies.

To access the relevant Help section, simply click on the question mark icon in the top right hand corner of your OTAS App, window or frame.

If you require assistance with locating or understanding the relevant Help pages, or navigating any other aspect of OTAS, please contact support@otastech.com or your Account Director.

The News App within OTAS provides access to worldwide news stories on a specific Stock, Index, Region or a custom Portfolio/Watchlist.

This comprehensive service receives over 150+ direct RSS feeds every 2-3 minutes. These are then processed by our in house news classification engine using topic tags such as:

• Results Announcement
• Forecasts
• Estimate Changes
• Regulatory, Interviews
• IPO’s
• Upgrades/Downgrade
• M&A
• Analyst Commentary.

Further to that, stocks that are highlighted in the story or that may be impacted by the headline will be tagged to the individual news item.

To access the News App, simply go to the OTAS Launcher and click on ‘News’ under the ‘Apps’ dropdown.

Then type the name or ticker into the Search box

In addition to the App, the news feature can be accessed via the single stock page on the Core Dashboard or available through a tab on the Express App (compatible with mobile or tablet for when you are on the move).

If you require assistance the News service or navigating any other aspect of OTAS, please contact support@otastech.com or your Account Director.

Coming Soon…..

A News Stamp for single stocks within the Core Summary App, highlighting increased coverage based on a historical moving average.