S3 Enhances Buy-Side Execution Quality Suite

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - Aug 20, 2015) - S3 ("the Company"), a financial services software company that provides customized solutions to monitor and analyze trade execution, today announced improved capabilities for its Buy-Side Execution Quality Suite (the "Suite"). The augmented market structure analytics platform now includes both point-in-time and order summary statistics for each trade composing larger orders, offering greater insight into those factors impacting best execution.

S3's Suite leverages the Company's proprietary, industry-leading software, which provides among many other functions extensive Rule 605 and 606 reporting, to facilitate detailed analysis on execution quality for both parent orders and the child orders that compose them. The enhanced platform was specifically designed to allow institutions and funds of any size to better determine execution quality in order to source liquidity through large block trades with minimal market impact. The Suite allows clients to view and analyze data for larger orders, as well as for individual executions that make up each order, providing a complete analysis of execution quality for every trade. This depth of detail compares the price of each trade against a number of benchmark prices and market conditions, including an innovative Take analysis. Given the amount of trading necessary to fill large orders in today's fragmented market, this level of transparency is critical for buy-side institutions to comply with reporting requirements and to achieve best execution.

Mark Davies, CEO of S3, commented on today's news, "Our upgraded Buy-Side Execution Quality Suite provides a level of analytical granularity that enables institutions to measure execution on a per fill, as well as a per order basis. With this added functionality, our clients are able to distinguish the execution quality of their orders from overall market conditions in order to better determine which venue, and with what timing best execution occurs. Additionally, the Suite now allows for analysis of trade prices against a wider and more detailed set of metrics, affording even greater market insight and easy to manage regulatory reporting, as well as simplifying the search for price improvement."

S3's enhanced Buy-Side Execution Quality Suite provides traders with the option to conduct an advanced Take analysis. For each point in time at which an order is executed, The Take metric determines the price that an order would have received had it executed at the price across the spread. This cutting-edge analytical tool allows traders to understand how much their orders improve relative to the weakest possible trade at each point in time during execution. Beyond the Take analysis, S3's Suite compares orders against a variety of benchmarks, including:

• Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) - Compares each trade, and the average trade price of the parent order, to the VWAP at a specific time window (Live Time) or over the full trading day (All Day).
• Time Weighted Average Midpoint (TWAM) - Compares each trade, and the average trade price of the parent order, to the TWAM between the allowed start time and the required completion time.
• Open - Compares each trade, and the average trade price of the parent order, to the opening quote.
• Previous Close - Compares each trade, and the average trade price of the parent order, to the previous day's close.
• Arrival Price - Compares each trade, and the average trade price of the parent order, against the quote that was live immediately preceding the order receipt time.

In addition to the above metrics, the Suite receives data for a variety of other factors impacting matching for the buy-side, including:

• Participation Rate - Compares each trade, and the total volume of the parent order, to the percentage of publicly displayed volume in the symbol represented by the order.
• Algo ID - Compares and ranks the execution quality of different algorithmic strategies.
• Trader ID - Compares and ranks the execution quality of different traders active in an order.

Mr. Davies continued, "For the past several years we have increased participation in our market structure analytics platform from the sell-side, retail brokers and exchange operators by offering a variety of customized trade monitoring tools that streamline the search for best execution. As many of our clients are global financial institutions trading various asset classes, we have expanded our offering with the augmented Buy-Side Execution Quality Suite to support these institutions' needs for data analysis and regulatory reporting, as well as the pursuit of price improvement and execution quality. We are currently developing new products and enhancements to our existing offerings, which will be integrated into our platform this year. We look forward to continually improving our market data analysis tools, and the enhanced Buy-Side Suite, which serves one of S3's fastest-growing customer bases, is an integral aspect of this process."

For more information please visit: www.S3.com.

About S3
S3 is a financial services software company that provides customized solutions to monitor and analyze trade execution, facilitate transparency, and simplify regulatory compliance. The Company's products are used today by many of the world's largest financial institutions, broker-dealers and exchanges to deliver market structure analytics and best execution reporting. With over 30% of U.S. listed options volume and a growing equities business, S3 leverages its proprietary software to provide 3rd party verification and optimize trade execution.