Moment’s team has extensive experience building institutional-quality execution infrastructure, having led the development of fixed income trading systems for institutions such as Citadel Securities, Jane Street Capital, Virtu Financial, the Chicago Trading Company, and Tradeweb Markets. The sections below outline how Moment ensures best execution for its clients, as well as the unique importance of total connectivity and smart order routing in fixed income.
The diagram below shows the typical lifecycle of a fixed income trade placed through Moment. This diagram should serve as a template — the exact mechanics can differ by client, primarily as a function of platform’s Executing Broker-Dealer and Custodian.
<aside> <img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Typical Order Lifecycle
Moment also provides continuous order events and status updates via the Real-Time Orders API. These updates are consumed by the Partner Platform and the Trade Blotter to track the current state of an order. For more information on the Trade Blotter, see the Trade Blotter Spec.
Moment integrates with and aggregates liquidity across all major US fixed income trading venues, allowing Moment’s Smart Order Router to optimize client execution across every available source of liquidity. Moment’s complete connectivity provides partner platforms with an unmatched depth of liquidity — Moment’s partners can access every instrument available, on every fixed income trading venue, at the best available price.
Unlike equities, the fixed income market has several common trading protocols — including firm limit order books, indicative limit order books, request for quotes, and volume matching sessions. Moment provides a simple, unified interface for clients to submit orders, but optimizes execution of those orders across all available trading protocols. For instance, when a bond has dealer runs at a price better than the best available CLOB price, Moment may automatically send an RFQ and trade against the better of the best RFQ price and the best limit order book price.
Moment provides clients with the option to permit gradual execution throughout the day, allowing Moment to take advantage of temporary mispricings, aggregate orders across clients, and reduce transaction costs by executing fewer, larger-quantity trades with the street. The optimal execution strategy depends on the liquidity profile of the underlying bonds, the size of the requested portfolio, and the currently executable quotes in the market.
<aside> 👉 Moment is registering as a Broker-Dealer with principal trading authority. Moment’s trading desk will allow clients to share in the benefits of gradual, aggregated execution, while also receiving immediate liquidity for their orders.
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By accessing every major fixed income trading venue, partner platforms can ensure their clients only execute every order against the best available price in the market — this includes not only limit order books, but also protocols like RFQ. By leveraging Moment’s order routing technology, partner platforms can minimize transaction costs for their users and ensure that they remain compliant with increased SEC scrutiny of best execution the fixed income market.