UBS executes Bloomberg futures trades

Starting this month, users of the Bloomberg Professional service whose firms are not currently members of these exchanges can now trade using UBS' membership, said Steve Sparke, global head of exchange-traded derivatives at UBS Investment Bank.

Orders travel over the pre-existing Bloomberg links to exchanges; current exchange members use Bloomberg to trade directly with the electronic facilities of these exchanges, says Andrew Hausman, global manager, futures trading at Bloomberg.

Bloomberg has also agreed to market UBS' clearing services to its customers; reciprocally, UBS is marketing Tradebook as its preferred direct-market-access solution. Bloomberg maintains the software and exchange connections, and a link has been built between Tradebook's data centres and UBS' SwisKey Clearing system. In the event that the trader uses another party for clearing, the give-up process is fully automated, and UBS will see a post-trade report from the exchange, Sparke says.

There is no additional fee for the service to Bloomberg users, who pay monthly for their terminals, but users of the UBS-Bloomberg joint service will pay for any brokerage fees incurred.