Heartline Investments Takes On Moxy

Heartline Investment Corp., a Chicago-based portfolio manager, has just installed Moxy, Advent Software’s trading and modeling system. As a longtime user of Advent’s portfolio accounting system, Axys, and its reconciliation module, Rex, Heartline did not consider any other trading systems. The firm is a low turnover shop, says Tim Greive, portfolio manager, and after speaking with other Moxy users, he decided the system was functional enough to meet the firm’s needs.

As with many smaller money managers—Heartline manages $325 million in individual account assets—the firm will not be using Moxy to communicate electronically with its brokers. Instead, Heartline’s managers and traders are relying on Moxy’s trade modeling capabilities to better manage their portfolios according to pre-determined risk tolerances. If five clients, for example, are only supposed to have 20% of their accounts weighted in insurance stocks, Moxy will alert Heartline’s portfolio managers if that level is accidentally surmounted.

“We’re not using it to trade with brokers,” Grieve explains. “We’re a low-volume shop so we’re mostly using it to make sure all of our clients have optimal portfolios according to risk tolerances.”

Grieve adds that with about 150 separate accounts and growing, Heartline’s portfolio managers needed a tool that would allow them to better communicate with one another. Pointing out that Heartline is a “team effort,” he explains that Moxy will provide all the managers with consistent real-time portfolio data.

The system, which was installed only a week ago, will automatically generate trade tickets, something that Grieve believes will be a “labor-saving device.”