Cartledge Invests in, Joins, Tradefeedr
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: July 11, 2022
Former Barclays e-FICC and EBS head Tim Cartledge, has invested in FX data analytics platform Tradefeedr and joined the firm as chief data officer.

“This is the frontier of FX data analytics because it’s never really been done before in this environment.”
Cartledge has invested $1 million in the firm through a family office, and joins the board – he was previously a member of Tradefeedr’s Client Advisory Group. “The investment is based upon what the very impressive founders of the firm have accomplished,” he says. “They have built an extraordinary platform over the past three years. Tradefeedr is a high-performance database, a communication network and analytics platform, it’s about so much more than just TCA.
“To build out the technology and sign so many major market participants, that’s really impressive and the hardest part of any business,” he continues. “That’s been done, so now it’s about putting the good ideas into the business and I’m very confident on that – it’s the easier bit than actually building the network.”
First up on Cartledge’s agenda is algo performance analysis. “This is an area where there are problems that still haven’t been solved,” he explains. “There is so much noise around an algo execution because it can take an hour or more, so you only really get a good picture of what’s going on from a broad set of data from the widest number of sources.
“We have pretty much all the major LPs, the bigger buy side players from the alternative and real money world and a wide group of platforms, so we can offer that access,” he continues. “This is the frontier of FX data analytics because it’s never really been done before in this environment.”
A big part of this work will be helping clients to decide which algo to use based upon a variety of factors, however Cartledge is keen to stress this is not an FX version of the Algo Wheel. “I prefer to think of it as pre-trade advisory, rather than ‘it’s provider B’s turn’. The analysis will help clients better understand the algos that are on offer to them and how they are likely to work over a longer window,” he explains. “The difference in actual algo performance between providers could be perhaps a basis point or two, but the noise over the course of the entire execution is tens of basis points.
“The challenge is to take the noise out and provide a picture of which strategy or provider does the best job over the course of the execution, and does not leak cash to the wider market,” he explains. “To provide that depth of analysis you need to take the noise out the algo and that requires the type of broad dataset that Tradefeedr has.”
The timing for both Cartledge joining the firm and Tradefeedr as it seeks to broaden its offering would appear to be good with more buy side firms especially looking closer at their FX execution quality. The type of analytics on offer are also being used more frequently as part of the relationship management process between buy and sell side.
For his part, Cartledge, as a pioneer in using data and analytics to support FX trading from his days at Dresdner Kleinwort as well as Barclays, is looking forward to further evolving the FX execution landscape. “By building a common access layer Tradefeedr has created the next logical step for FX markets, capturing and normalising data from multiple sources and providing a single analytic lens through which clients across the market can interrogate all their trading.”