Thomas Weisel Partners Deploys FlexPTS

FlexTrades New Portfolio Trade Scheduler Optimizes Arrival Price Strategies While
Balancing Portfolio Risk and Market Impact
June 27, 2007 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
GREAT NECK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FlexTrade Systems, a leader in multi-asset
algorithmic execution management systems, today announced that Thomas Weisel
Partners will deploy its new FlexPTS (portfolio trade scheduler) trading solution, which
enables users to determine the best trading trajectory for their portfolios while
minimizing market-impact cost and the risk of underperforming benchmarks.
Many of the schedulers available today have pre-set risk and cost models, and primarily
handle pre-trading strategies on a single stock basis
Utilizing state of the art optimization technology, FlexPTS establishes the optimal
portfolio trading schedule weighing all the available data, such as user inputs, risk factor
correlations, implied volatility, the estimated market impact cost, and the traders shortterm alpha goals. While the system initially employs its own cost model, as well as the
highly regarded short-term equity risk models from Northfield Information Services,
FlexPTS is adaptable to any cost and risk models in use today.
According to Robert Redfield, Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Trading at Thomas
Weisel Partners, FlexPTS couldnt have come at a better time. Many of the schedulers
available today have pre-set risk and cost models, and primarily handle pre-trading
strategies on a single stock basis, said Redfield. With FlexPTS, however, we now have
the ability to develop the optimal pre-trade schedule for whole portfolios while using our
own risk and cost models.
Pre-trade planning on the portfolio level has always been a challenge in the industry,
said Vijay Kedia, president and CEO of FlexTrade Systems. FlexPTS not only enables
users to optimize their pre-trade schedules, but also allows real-time schedule
adjustments due to its extremely fast computation. This is another example of advanced
capabilities bundled with our FlexTRADER EMS, the leading broker-neutral trading
platform in the world.
Other features available through FlexPTS include:

Optimization for Implementation Short Fall or Market on Close

Determining the ideal start and end time for the trade
Generation of trading schedules for part of a day or multiple days
Support for portfolio and industry cash constraints as well as general linear
constraints
Maximum trading participation within specified time frames

About Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc.

Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. is an investment bank, founded in 1998, focused
principally on the growth sectors of the economy. Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc.
generates revenues from three principal sources: investment banking, brokerage and asset
management. The investment banking group is comprised of two disciplines: corporate
finance and strategic advisory. The brokerage group provides equity and convertible debt
securities sales and trading services to institutional investors, and offers brokerage,
advisory and cash management services to high-net-worth individuals and corporate
clients. The asset management group consists of private equity, public equity and
distribution management. Thomas Weisel Partners is headquartered in San Francisco,
California with additional offices in New York City, Boston, Silicon Valley, Portland,
Chicago and Mumbai, India.
About FlexTrade Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1996, FlexTrade Systems Inc. is the industry pioneer and global leader in
broker-neutral algorithmic trading platforms and rules-based order-management and
execution systems for equities, foreign exchange and listed derivatives. FlexTRADER,
our flagship platform for algorithmic trading and order management, is widely viewed as
unique in the industry for its high performance and multi-asset capability. With offices in
North America and Europe, Flextrade has a worldwide client base spanning more than a
hundred buy- and sell-side firms, including many of the largest investment banks, hedge
funds, asset managers, commodity trading advisors and institutional brokers. Clients
include Barclays Global Investors, Jefferies & Company, Inc., HSBC Investment Bank,
Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, Pulse Trading, Rosenblatt Securities Inc., and Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co., LLC. For more information, visit FlexTrade Systems at
www.flextrade.com.
Contacts
Flextrade
James Tolve, 516-627-8993, ext. 222
james.tolve@flextrade.com
or
Thomas Weisel Partners
Deborah Lightfoot, 415-364-2500
dlightfoot@tweisel.com
Thom Weisel