Guzman & Company
Legacy of Innovation in Equity Business

The institutional equity investment management business today has evolved, especially as it pertains to technology, data, transparency, and regulatory laws such as Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). With the enormous surge in data around the equity business-be it news, market or transactional data, analysis of that data, and housing management-remains a prime impediment for institutional money managers. These managers are faced with challenges in establishing, enhancing, and maintaining an investment management infrastructure that is more demanding from a regulatory and technology perspective. Additionally, the use of automated trading and operational processes within investment management has intensified the demand for broker offerings and services. Guzman & Company spearheads a robust infrastructure that leverages best-of-breed products and cutting-edge technology to address these growing demands, with a sharp focus on efficient product delivery and client services. With a powerful combination of expertise in quantitative finance, trading, market microstructure and trading technology, the company is committed to enhancing trading performance and efficiency on its Global Program Trading desk as well as the trading desks of their clients.

With over 30 years of experience and a strong reputation for unparalleled performance in the global equity trading arena, Guzman & Company offers unique, performance-driven electronic trading solutions to its institutional asset management client base. The company positions these clients to utilize its trading platform in a self-directed manner. “Over the course of four years, we partnered with numerous small to mid-sized technology firms with specific areas of expertise to build the foundation of our platform. It accommodates all the demands of the business in today’s marketplace,” states Leopoldo Guzman, President and CEO of Guzman & Company. Being an agency-only company with decades worth of industry performance rankings, Guzman & Company is void of proprietary trading and dark pools/ATS, thus eliminating internal conflicts with its partners and achieving optimal results for its clients.

Currently, the company’s client base comprises the largest global asset managers. Rather than growing the number of clients simply for the sake of statistics, Guzman & Company focuses on establishing trust and true partnership with a select number of clients. The company’s trading platform often serves as an extension of the client trading desk by delivering a quality, performance-driven service and extensive support to its client roster. “Our platform centers around complete control and transparency, allowing us to work closely with our clients to establish customized solutions,” Guzman adds.

Guzman & Company’s performance driven approach is liquidity-sourcing agnostic, with an extended reach for liquidity through a robust reach for desired dark venues. “We have improved our clients’ trade implementation workflow due to our extensive reach for liquidity, especially as it pertains to dark pools. Clients who did not have an appropriate tool to reach their desired number of ATS’s through a single strategy had to break up the parent order across multiple algorithms, which of course is not ideal. We were able to deliver a solution (Dark Aggregator strategy) that allows them to source their desired ATS venue roster in their preferred manner with a single parent order,” explains Guzman.

Guzman & Company leverages a robust data analytics infrastructure to analyze client execution data on a T+1 (as well as historical) basis. Additionally, Guzman & Company can simultaneously analyze order placement data that may not have led to an execution. This allows for customized enhancements to the trading strategies with continuously modified order placement logic which leads to improved overall performance.

Guzman & Company’s Electronic Trading Solutions has improved efficiencies on its Program Trading desk, as well as opened another revenue stream for their business when utilized by clients who self-direct their trading. This enables them to be an even better value-added partner with their clients. With an electronic footprint in the US, Canada, and Brazil, Guzman & Company aims to drive its trading solutions across the rest of Latin America (Mexico, Chile and Columbia), Europe and Asia-Pacific markets by the end of 2018.