Trading: Penson FX Trading System Lands Orion Securities as First Client, and more.

Penson Financial Services Canada Inc. launched its online, hosted foreign exchange trading system, Penson FX, across Canada and the United States, the clearing firm will announce. The new foreign-exchange trading system is aimed at traders within brokerage and investment-management firms, says Penson, a provider of execution, clearing, custody and settlement services for the global market. Penson is also an independent clearing firm in Canada. Orion Securities., a Canadian independent investment dealer, is one of the first clients to go live with the system.

Orion's Professional and Arbitrage trading divisions are the first groups to use the new foreign-exchange functionality, following Penson's announcement of its broker/agreement with Orion in the third quarter of 2004.

Penson FX gives users real-time access to competitive live prices on the global foreign exchange markets from their desktops as well as the ability to execute a trade instantaneously on the given prices via Penson.

In a statement in the release, Chris Salapoutis, chief operating officer at Orion Securities, cited "reliable access to consistently competitive FX prices and the ability to act upon those prices quickly directly from the desktop, as attributes of the system, along with flexibility, technology superiority and a competitive price for the service.

Traders can plot graphs and watch news headlines as they develop and monitor prices and execute trades. All major currency pairs and crosses are available for trading and cash settlement is available for spot or against equities.

Pension FX includes an instant-messaging feature for real-time contact with Penson's trading desk, allowing traders to manage and execute currency deals and place orders from their desktop. This is made possible using a Financial Information Exchange FIX interface through Penson's gateway, so that clients can send currency orders directly from their existing front-office systems to Penson.

Bloomberg Launches Morgan Stanley Calculator for Credit Derivatives

Bloomberg launched the Morgan Stanley Basket Default Pricer on the Bloomberg terminal, the company announced on Tuesday.

The calculator enables Bloomberg users to price large and small baskets of credit derivatives and structured finance products in a simple and transparent way, says Bloomberg. The additional functionality is available to all Bloomberg users.

This is the first CDO/Large Basket Default Swap Calculator to be integrated to a platform with the power to price large baskets in seconds, according to Bloomberg.

The tool allows users to price up to a 150-name reference portfolio in the basket default swaps market, incorporating Morgan Stanley's credit correlation model.

This gives hedge funds, dealers, portfolio managers and other users in the credit derivatives market access to what historically has been a complex calculation on advanced structured products.

In a statement in the release, Morgan Stanley Executive Director Lisa Watkinson said: "The Morgan Stanley pricing model on the Bloomberg terminal will help clients manage tranched credit risk and open up the burgeoning credit derivatives market to new investors."

Robert Van Securities Goes Live With Tradeware for Direct-Market Access and MarketCenter for Global Order Routing

Robert Van Securities (RVS) has gone live with the Tradeware Global Broker-to-Broker (B2B) network for direct-access trading and with the Market Center order-management system (OMS), the company announced on Monday. The OMS is a complete order-routing platform for international market access.

In a statement in the release, Russell Ware, senior vice president of institutional sales at RVS, said the firm needed pure agency-based direct-market access for its international clients, and Tradeware provided the best execution and lowered the firm's overall cost of trade.

He also stated MarketCenter provided a solution for clients that require access to local markets in Europe, Asia, South America and elsewhere.

Tradeware's Global B2B network provides investors with FIX-enabled direct-market access to the central limit-order books at 22 stock exchanges in 16 European securities markets, as well as settlement management services.

RVS is a minority-owned full-service financial services firm that has utilized Tradeware's technology for its domestic clients since 2002.

Lehman Brothers Completes FIX for Fixed Income Certification via TransactTools' Testing Service

Lehman Brothers completed the FIX for Fixed Income Certification process using TransactTools' OpenFix.net FIX testing service on Jan. 31, according to the vendor. Certification covered pre- and post-trade processing of treasury, agency and corporate bonds using the industry-standard FIX protocol.

TransactTools was one of the four original vendors selected by FIX Protocol Limited as an authorized certifier in conjunction with the Global Fixed Income Committee's Certification Program. The other vendors are Aegis Software, B2BITS, NYFIX/Javelin Technologies.

TransactTools is providing the certification capabilities as an extension of its free OpenFIX testing service, which was introduced in late 2001 and is used by 500 firms around the globe.

The fixed-income certification functionality complements existing capabilities for session-level tests and equity application-level tests already offered via OpenFIX. TransactTools will add additional coverage in coordination with FPL and based on feedback from the user community, the company says.