Watershed Technologies provides a financial services platform featuring liquidity sourcing tools and an alternative trading system (ATS) to enhance trading operations. The platform enables users to access reliable liquidity in financial markets, optimizing trading strategies and improving execution quality.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Institutional option traders often face challenges in accessing sufficient liquidity, leading to suboptimal execution prices and potential market impact. Existing trading systems may lack transparency and expose orders to preferential routing practices.
Solution
Watershed Technologies offers an alternative trading system (ATS) designed to provide access to real liquidity in the options market. The platform routes orders into a private auction with a select pool of liquidity providers, minimizing market impact and ensuring discreet order handling. Matched orders are then sent to an exchange as a cross ticket, providing an additional opportunity for price improvement. The entire process is completed rapidly, offering a faster solution compared to high-touch methods, while maintaining compliance with MiFID II and CAT reporting requirements.
Target Audience
The primary target audience includes option market participants such as banks, hedge funds, asset managers, interdealer brokers, and outsourced trading desks seeking broker-neutral solutions.
Features
- Private auction mechanism for order routing to a curated pool of liquidity providers.
- Execution on national exchanges, eliminating the need for additional clearing arrangements.
- Compliance with MiFID II and CAT reporting standards.
- Control over order information and routing paths to listed markets.
- Third-party surveillance systems to prevent market manipulation and ensure fair order execution.
- Minimization of market impact through discreet order handling.