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Cristina McEachern
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Chartwell and Bessemer Choose MacGregor

Chartwell Investment Partners and the Bessemer Group are set to go live with the MacGregor Group's Predator trade order management (TOM) system.

Chartwell Investment Partners and the Bessemer Group are set to go live with the MacGregor Group's Predator trade order management (TOM) system. New York-based Bessemer, an institutional money management firm, is replacing a manual order management process, while Berwyn, Pa.-based Chartwell chose MacGregor's system to replace Advent Software's Moxy module. Both sites will also be interfacing the system with the MacGregor FIX Network (MFN) which provides buy-side institutions with connectivity to over 50 brokers for orders, executions and indications of interest.

According to Greg Hagar, vice president and controller of Chartwell, the firm is replacing Moxy because it "needed a more stable, user friendly system." Hagar says he was particularly impressed with Predator's enhanced real-time compliance checking and order flow management functionality. "We need a system to improve our compliance at the trading desk, as well as a trade blotter management, and overall order flow from the portfolio manager to the trading desk," Hagar explains.

Chartwell looked at several systems including LandMark from LongView and INDATA System's TOM, but as Hagar puts it, "our decision process hinged on the fact that we wanted a business partner that could provide consulting services. MacGregor could help us build our interfaces to other systems, rather than just give us a software package and say 'good luck.'" As a boutique firm with $3.5 billion under management, Chartwell does not have a large in-house technology staff, and instead will rely on MacGregor's consulting practice. One of the many interfaces the firm is looking to create will be one with Bridge Information Systems, which will feed Predator with real-time quotes. Hagar expects to go live with the new system on October 1st. Chartwell's system costs about $17,500 per month for the basic Predator module including the core trading system, blotter management and portfolio management. In addition, says Hagar, the price includes the compliance functionality, market data feed and FIX module.

Officials with Bessemer did not return phone calls by press time, but Rolando Rabines, chief operating office of MacGregor, says Bessemer's use of Predator differs from the typical installation because it is a trust company. As such, the order flow is smaller, with larger quantities and faster execution times. According to Rabines, Bessemer is replacing a manual order management process, because, "they wanted a system that could take orders from entry to settlement and communicate with brokers all electronically." Bessemer will also interface with Bridge. The firm manages over $23 billion in assets.

Both firms have begun the implementation and expect to go live within the next three months. The two will route orders entered into Predator over the MFN network, which allows access to over 50 brokers.

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