Zelengora licenses Javelin’s FixBox

London-based hedge fund Zelengora Capital Management is due to roll out Javelin Technologies’ FixBox product this month, which will allow the convertible arbitrage fund to send and receive trade instructions and confirmations via an Excel spreadsheet.

Vladimir Zdrale, Zelengora’s chief executive, said the implementation is due to start in mid-January and is expected to take about three to four weeks. “We’re going to be doing quite extensive work on our side, which will make the implementation longer than usual.” Paul Kelly, Javelin’s European regional manager, said a typical implementation usually takes about half that time. FixBox is a micro-order management system offering users the electronic trading infrastructure required to benefit from direct market access. Clients access the product via a log-in and a password sent to them by Javelin. They then visit Javelin’s website and download the FixBox applet to their environment. Once the final contract is signed, Javelin delivers a FixBox to the client’s site, which is typically live in about two weeks.

Zdrale said the due-diligence process prior to signing with Javelin led the fund to evaluate a number of systems in the market, including Trading Screen, APT Computer Systems, Cameron Systems and Flextrade. “We have a global convertible arbitrage strategy and we looked for about six months for an electronic system that could support all our equity re-hedging directly to the exchanges using direct market access. There were quite a few differences between the systems,” Zdrale said.

“Trading Screen is a complete solution where you buy an order management system and route orders through Excel,” he added. “It also provides users with the ability to communicate with their brokers. APT and Cameron require a lot of input from end-users and we felt we couldn’t build a whole system around them.”

Zdrale said price was another reason Zelengora decided to sign with Javelin. “Trading Screen costs about $30,000 per user per year – if you want to license three users, you’re looking at $90,000, plus if you want to use all their features and options you’re looking at over $150,000 annually,” he said. “With Javelin, we’re expecting to pay about $30,000 a year regardless of the number of traders using the product.”