MarketAxess Holdings has entered into an agreement to acquire Pragma, a quantitative trading technology provider specialising in algorithmic and analytical services in equities, FX and fixed-income. The acquisition is expected to close in Q4 2023.
MarketAxess chose Pragma’s algorithmic platform to help it develop execution algorithms and data-driven analytics across all fixed-income products.
Last year, Pragma handled over US$2 trillion of algorithmic order flow in multiple asset classes on behalf of clients across more than 50 venues.
MarketAxess recently announced its first client algorithmic trade executed across multiple protocols in US credit using Adaptive Auto-X, the company’s execution solution currently in pilot.
Commenting on the planned acquisition, Chris Concannon, CEO of MarketAxess, comments: “Our acquisition of Pragma underscores MarketAxess’ commitment to innovating, integrating and providing our clients with quantitative, AI-powered technology solutions powered by proprietary data designed to simplify and enhance their workflows.
“In addition to accelerating our leadership in the fixed-income automation and algo space, Pragma’s years of expertise with FX algos provides a unique opportunity for FX hedging solutions for our emerging market clients.”
David Mechner, Pragma’s founder and CEO, says: “MarketAxess’ scale and resources will amplify the results we can deliver for clients with the cutting edge technologies we’ve built – both for our existing clients in equities and FX, and for MarketAxess’ large client network as we continue developing new solutions in fixed-income.”
