FINCAD, the leading provider of sophisticated analytics for multi-asset derivatives and fixed income portfolios, today announced major enhancements to FINCAD F3, transforming it into a comprehensive portfolio and risk management solution for buy side firms.
FINCAD F3 helps firms improve returns by enabling diversification into a wider range of instruments and asset-classes, by rapidly generating more accurate intra-day pre- and post-trade risk, and by synchronizing the front and middle-office on the same data. This was achieved by combining powerful portfolio and risk management capabilities and an intuitive web interface, on top of a high-performance enterprise platform with FINCADs industry-leading analytics engine at its core.
These latest enhancements are exciting in that they provide firms like ours with even greater capabilities to accelerate performance and quickly respond to changing market conditions.
FINCAD F3 was built for the buy side, specifically for hedge funds with global macro, absolute return or relative value strategies; and for asset managers, pensions and life insurers with large portfolios and their derivative overlays. For over 70 firms like these, FINCAD F3 delivers the modeling flexibility and control needed by the most demanding quantitative teams, the speed and accuracy needed by portfolio managers and traders, the comprehensive reporting and analysis needed by risk managers, and the fast integration, implementation and performance needed by IT and developers.
FINCADs best-in-class analytics, along with the remarkable speed and accuracy of pricing, valuation and risk calculations were key factors in our decision to use FINCAD F3, said a Senior Portfolio Manager at a Global Investment Firm with over $30BN in AUM.
A proven solution to the build versus buy technology dilemma, FINCAD F3 provides out-of-the-box functionality for modeling standard instruments, and unlimited flexibility to customize models and curves for more complex instruments, and can be implemented within a matter of weeks. It also provides comprehensive developer services allowing clients to integrate with their existing applications and workflow, and to customize for any future requirements.
Kevin McPartland, Managing Director, Market Structure and Technology at Greenwich Associates, said, The buy side continues the move to multi-asset trading to manage increasingly diversified portfolios, find liquidity, and reduce volatility. Furthermore, this requires systems that are easy to integrate, allow a high degree of customization, and can support a wide range of asset classes and products.
Key features and benefits of FINCAD F3:
Portfolio Management
Make better portfolio management and hedging decisions with accurate on-demand valuation and risk reports in the intuitive F3 WorkStation application. Reports include: What-if analysis, Greeks and sensitivities, Mark-to-market, P&L attribution, Cash flows and Scenario analysis.
Risk Management
Improve risk management with on-demand and intra-day risk reports including: Value at Risk (VaR), Marginal VaR (MVaR), Incremental VaR (IVaR), Conditional VaR/Expected Shortfall, Cash flow forecasts, Stress tests, regulatory reporting and a complete audit trail.
Quantitative Modeling
Take advantage of more trading opportunities and rapidly model virtually any instrument with a comprehensive library of industry standard tools and models, unmatched flexibility for creating custom curves and the ability to integrate proprietary models. Standard out-of-the-box models have broad coverage and include cross currency models for G20 and pre-defined curves for many other emerging markets.
Enterprise Platform
Improve implementation times, developer productivity and achieve rapid ROI with scalable, high-performance enterprise technology that can be deployed on premise or in the cloud. Integration tools easily enable connections to trades, market data, and security master. Powerful APIs, including Python, support unlimited customization to meet current and future requirements. A centralized data warehouse ensures consistent data across the front and middle office. Configure reports and customize F3 WorkStation (GUI), or connect to F3 with Microsoft Excel, Matlab, or an in-house application.
Leading buy side firms know the importance of using multi-asset strategies to generate better returns in a difficult climate, said Bob Park, FINCAD CEO. However, many are challenged by inflexible systems that make entry into new asset classes difficult to impossible. What makes F3 so powerful is that it offers the built-in functionality and ease of use of off-the-shelf software, combined with remarkable flexibility for customization that one would typically only see with in-house solutions. Using F3s advanced tools and analytics, firms are empowered to move into new arenas and improve returns. They have the utmost freedom to trade what they want, when they want and where they want.
