Quick trading snapshot

• How would you describe your primary trading audience and the clients you serve? Options: Self-directed retail investors, Financial advisors / RIAs, Wealth managers, Hedge funds / institutional traders, Bank or broker-dealer, Other
• Which asset classes do you actively trade or plan to offer to your clients? Options: Equities, Options, Futures, Fixed income, Foreign exchange, Fractional shares, Other
• What are your typical order volumes on a daily and monthly basis, split by retail and institutional flows if applicable? Options: Under 1,000 orders/day, 1,000-10,000 orders/day, 10,000-100,000 orders/day, Over 100,000 orders/day, I do not know
• Who currently owns trade execution, routing and settlement responsibilities inside your organization? Options: Head of Trading, CTO / Engineering, Operations / Middle Office, Outsourced provider, Shared responsibility, Other
• Walk me through a recent trading day that best represents your busiest moment, including where manual work or delays showed up.

Where your current setup lets you down

• If a single execution failure cost you a key client, what typically caused it in the past?
• How frequently do latency spikes, routing anomalies, or partial fills occur during your peak market hours? Options: Daily, Several times a week, Occasionally, Rarely, Not tracked
• Which parts of your routing or execution flow produce the most support tickets or manual interventions? Options: Order entry validation, Routing decisions, Exchange connectivity, Fill reconciliation, Clearing exceptions, Other
• Describe the downstream business impact when an order is misrouted or partially filled, for example revenue loss, client churn, or compliance exposure.
• What single operational or data gap would make you halt a platform migration today?

Execution quality and routing expectations

• Why would your trading desk walk away if routing did not show consistent price improvement?
• Rank the importance of these execution metrics for your stakeholders Options: Price improvement, Fill rate, Latency to first fill, Post-trade slippage, Order cancellation rate, Uptime
• Tell me about a recent trade or test where the routing logic behaved unexpectedly and what you learned from that incident.
• Please specify the target latency for API order entry and confirmations in milliseconds.
• If a pilot reproduced your worst-case trading scenario and met your metrics, what internal approval would still block a contract signature?

Compliance, reporting and accountability

• Imagine your compliance officer asks for a trade report that is missing key fields, what happens next and who owns the escalation?
• List the mandatory regulatory reports and oversight requirements you must deliver and their frequency Options: Trade reporting, Best execution records, Audit trail / order lifecycle, Transaction reporting to regulator, Customer confirmations, Other
• Provide the role in your organization that is accountable for regulatory sign-off on a new execution partner. Options: Chief Compliance Officer, Head of Trading, General Counsel, Head of Operations, Risk Officer, Other
• What single regulatory or compliance roadblock would stop integration before a single trade executes?

The technical constraints that make or break this

• If your engineering team cannot allocate a dedicated integration owner, how will that change the timeline or scope?
• List the external systems the integration must connect to, for example your OMS, custody, clearing, market data feeds, or risk systems.
• Do you already expose FIX or REST APIs for order entry and market status, and which team manages those endpoints? Options: FIX sessions available and managed by Trading, REST APIs available and managed by Engineering, Both FIX and REST available, No APIs available today, Unsure
• Describe the expected data formats, example protocol versions, field mappings, and any transformations we must support during onboarding.
• If access to your non-production environment cannot be granted within four weeks, would that stop a pilot from starting? Options: Yes, pilot would pause, No, we would provide alternatives, We would need to renegotiate timelines

Operational readiness, people and windows

• If clearing or settlement contacts are not named before integration, how do you plan to handle trade failovers and custody obligations?
• Provide the role or team responsible for clearing and the operational contact we will work with.
• List the preferred access windows and any blackout periods for integration, testing, and cutover. Options: US market hours only, Outside market hours only, Weekends, Specific daily windows (provide times), No restrictions known
• Do you have a named change control or incident response owner available for cutover and initial support? Options: Yes, available 24/7, Yes, business hours only, No dedicated owner yet, We rotate ownership
• Would missing signed connectivity agreements with your counterparties within the planned timeline stop integration from proceeding? Options: Yes, it would stop us, No, we can use interim agreements, It would require timeline change

Where your alternatives live

• If you stayed with your current execution provider, what evidence would have to change to make that the right choice for another year?
• List the external vendors, incumbent providers, and internal build options you are actively evaluating as alternatives. Options: Incumbent execution provider, Other third-party vendors, Internal build by engineering, Hybrid approach, Not evaluating alternatives
• Describe the specific performance, cost, or compliance outcomes that would justify staying with your current setup rather than switching.
• Has anyone on your team proposed solving this internally instead of working with a partner, and what timeline or headcount did they estimate? Options: Yes, short term 3-6 months, Yes, long term 6-18 months, No internal proposal, Unsure
• Name the one factor that would make you choose an internal build over a partner even if costs and timelines were similar.

Data, security and vendor due diligence

• If a security or data gap appears during vendor reviews, what is the minimum evidence your risk team requires to proceed?
• Select the data classifications this project will touch Options: Client personal data, Account and balance data, Order history, Positions, Market data, Trade confirmations, Other
• Does your security review require SOC reports, penetration test results, or vendor security questionnaires before granting access? Options: SOC 2 Type II, Penetration test report, Completed vendor security questionnaire, ISO certification, None required
• If your security team rejects remote access for testing, can you provide a secure alternative environment or would that block the pilot? Options: We can provide an alternative secure environment, It would block the pilot, We would need to negotiate controls

How success will be measured and signed off

• If the integration met all technical SLAs but failed to move net new revenue, would your leadership call the initiative a success or demand further changes? Options: Call it a success, Demand further changes, Depends on gap size, Undecided
• List the top three metrics you will use to accept the pilot, choose from the list below Options: Execution speed/latency, Price improvement, Fill rate, Uptime/availability, Operational errors per 1,000 orders, Reconciliation time
• For each metric you selected, specify the numeric acceptance threshold, for example 99.9% uptime or sub-10ms acknowledgement.
• Provide the roles required to sign off on pilot acceptance and contractual go-live, and identify any role that could block approval.
• If a single missed SLA could delay contract signing by months, which SLA is most likely to cause that delay? Options: Uptime / availability, Latency / order acknowledgement, Execution quality (price improvement), Settlement and clearing reliability, Data integrity

Timing, budget and decision rhythm

• If you had to pick a single internal deadline that cannot move, what is it and why?
• Choose the current budget band for this initiative Options: Under $50k, $50k to $250k, $250k to $1M, Over $1M, Not yet budgeted
• List decision makers and the role that controls procurement approvals for this engagement.
• Realistically, if a pilot shows the promised results, how quickly can your organization move to contract? Options: Immediately, Within 2 weeks, Within 1 month, 2 to 3 months, Longer than 3 months
• Identify the single internal blocker that would prevent you from signing even if the pilot met all acceptance criteria.

• Solution Experience Session — Execution Mapping

• Confirm the current state and its cost to your team
• You confirm the demonstrated end-to-end mapping addresses the operational gaps and the most costly failure modes you described.
• Provide two representative trade scenarios with target success metrics for latency, price improvement, and fill rates to be used in the next test run.
• You agree on the specific success metrics and acceptance criteria that will be used to validate routing, execution quality, and clearing behavior.
• Walk through a live mapping of a representative trade
• Produce a customized execution mapping document that shows order entry fields, routing logic, expected execution outcomes, clearing flows, and failure handling for the validated scenarios.
• You and the seller agree on the remaining evidence and tests required before commercial evaluation, including a timeline for API reliability and execution-quality tests.
• Demonstrate routing behavior and execution quality for the scenario
• Schedule a live API reliability and execution-quality test window and deliver a test plan with pass/fail criteria.
• Review failure modes, SLAs, and recovery for the mapped flow
• Identify the individuals who will validate regulatory and clearing acceptance and provide their contact details.
• Validate the mapping and acceptance criteria

• Solution Experience Session — Execution Mapping
• Solution Experience Deck — Execution Mapping
• Solution Brief — Execution Mapping

• meeting
• slides
• document

• decision_readiness
• desired_state
• current_state
• stakeholders
• gaps
• success_criteria
• desired_state
• decision_readiness
• current_state
• success_criteria
• gaps
• stakeholders
• desired_state
• success_criteria
• stakeholders
• gaps
• current_state
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness
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• decision_readiness

• Provision Trading Accounts and Clearing Profiles
• Provision Market Center Connectivity
• Activate Smart Order Routing Engine
• Deploy Execution Algorithms for Algo Routing
• Execute Equity Trades with Price Improvement
• Execute Multi-Leg Options Orders
• Execute Futures and FX Trades
• Execute Fractional Share Orders
• Automated Clearing and Settlement Processing
• REST and WebSocket Execution APIs
• Deliver Real-Time Order Status and Analytics Feed
• Provide Best-Execution Reporting and Trade Surveillance

Provision Trading Accounts and Clearing Profiles

• Accounts: Do you require the platform to create clearing-linked trading accounts on your behalf or will you supply account mappings (clearing account IDs and account types)? Options: We need account creation and mappings, We will supply mapped clearing account IDs, Hybrid — create some, supply others
• KYC and onboarding: Which client onboarding artifacts will be provided for each account (e.g., signed account agreement, tax form, KYC documents, authorized trader list)? Options: Signed account agreement, Tax form (W-9/W-8), KYC documents (ID, proof of address), Authorized trader list, Other
• Clearing profile details: How many distinct clearing profiles (by clearing firm and margin/cash designation) must be provisioned at go-live? Options: 1, 2-5, 6-20, More than 20
• Account mappings: Provide the identifier format you will supply for each account (example: firmAcct-XXXX or clearingId:acct), and confirm if IBAN/SWIFT or domestic account numbers are needed for settlement.
• Permissions and limits: What per-account trading limits or permissions must be configured at provisioning (e.g., margin-enabled, option-level approval codes, day-trade flags, max notional per order)? Options: Standard limits only, Custom per account — we will provide list, Require templated role-based profiles
• Reconciliation dependency: Which clearing reconciliation artifact must match before accounts are flagged ready (e.g., successful initial trial balance from clearing firm, inbound account mapping confirmation)? Options: Trial balance match required, Inbound mapping confirmation only, Other — describe

Provision Market Center Connectivity

• Connectivity scope: Which market centers or venue types do you require by go-live (exchange matching engines, dark pools, ATS venues, ECNs)? Options: Primary exchanges, Alternative trading systems (ATS), Dark pools, All of the above
• Session details: How many FIX sessions or API endpoints will you request to be provisioned for your trading desk (provide expected session IDs or desired connection names)? Options: 1-2, 3-5, 6-20, More than 20
• Latency requirement: What one-way latency SLO (in milliseconds) do you require between the platform and each market center for your low-latency order flow? Options: <1 ms, <5 ms, <20 ms, Not low-latency
• Market data feeds: Which market data artifacts must be available alongside connectivity (NBBO consolidated feed, depth-of-book, proprietary venue feeds)? Options: NBBO only, NBBO + top-of-book venue feeds, Depth-of-book (level 2) required, Proprietary venue feeds required
• Backup routing: Describe your failover requirement for market center outages (e.g., automatic reroute to alternate ECN, manual cutover window, max reconnection time)
• Certificate and network: Which transport and security artifacts will you supply or need (TLS certificate, IP allowlist, VPN details, peering ASN)? Options: TLS cert + IP allowlist, VPN + IP allowlist, Peering ASN details required, Other — specify

Activate Smart Order Routing Engine

• Inclusion question: Do you want the platform's smart order routing (SOR) engine activated for your account flows at go-live? Options: Activate SOR for all equities, Activate SOR for select asset classes only, Do not activate SOR
• Routing rules: Which explicit routing constraints should the SOR use (price-first, fee-aware, venue preference list, minimum displayed liquidity thresholds)? Options: Price-first (NBBO), Fee-aware routing, Venue preference list supplied, Minimum displayed liquidity threshold
• Order types: Which order types must be supported by SOR for your strategy (limit, market, IOC, FOK, midpoint peg, hidden/iceberg)? Options: Limit, Market, IOC/FOK, Pegged (midpoint), Hidden/iceberg
• Latency tolerance: What maximum decision latency (ms) can the SOR introduce for your order flow before you consider it unacceptable? Options: <1 ms, <5 ms, <20 ms, No strict requirement
• Reporting footprint: Which SOR decision artifacts must be preserved for audit (execution venue selection log, timestamped decision tree, order-level routing rationale)? Options: Venue selection log, Decision timestamps, Routing rationale per order, All of the above
• Integration dependency: Which downstream systems must receive SOR routing decisions (your OMS, trade blotter, compliance engine)? Options: Order Management System (OMS), Trade blotter, Compliance/trade surveillance, All listed

Deploy Execution Algorithms for Algo Routing

• Algorithm selection: Which execution algorithms do you intend to use (TWAP, VWAP, arrival-price, implementation shortfall, liquidity-seeking)? Options: TWAP, VWAP, Arrival-price, Implementation shortfall, Liquidity-seeking
• Parameters: For each selected algorithm, what parameter ranges must be supported (slice size, participation rate %, start/end time windows)?
• Risk controls: Which pre-trade risk checks must be enforced on algorithmic orders (max participation rate, price band limits relative to NBBO, kill-switch per algo ID)? Options: Max participation rate, Price band limits, Algo kill-switch, All listed
• Execution validation: How will you validate algorithm behavior in test (example test cases: passive VWAP fill schedule, liquidity-seeking reaction to midpoint sweep)?
• Ownership and ops: Who will be the named owner for algorithm configuration changes and who has authority to pause an algorithm in production (role or team name)?
• Monitoring needs: Which runtime telemetry must be exposed per algo (realized participation rate, slippage vs benchmark in cents per share, fill-through rate)? Options: Participation rate, Slippage vs benchmark, Fill-through rate, All of the above

Execute Equity Trades with Price Improvement

• Inclusion: Will you route retail-sized equity orders, institutional-sized blocks, or both through the execution path requiring price improvement reporting? Options: Retail-sized only, Institutional blocks only, Both retail and institutional
• Target metric: What minimum price improvement target do you expect to measure (e.g., average cents per share or percent of trades with price improvement)? Options: Cents per share (specify), Percent of trades with improvement (specify), No target specified
• Order attributes: Which equity order attributes do you require preserved and returned in execution reports (client order ID, customer order tag, original order type, routing decision ID)? Options: Client order ID, Customer order tag, Routing decision ID, All listed
• Test coverage: Describe test cases you will require for price improvement validation (midpoint sweep, NBBO lock, inter-venue restatement).
• Acceptable slippage: What per-order slippage threshold (in cents per share or basis points) will you accept before a trade is considered failed for price-quality SLAs? Options: Specify cents per share, Specify basis points, No predefined threshold
• Reporting cadence: How frequently do you require price improvement and execution quality reports (real-time stream, hourly, daily, monthly)? Options: Real-time stream, Hourly, Daily, Monthly

Execute Multi-Leg Options Orders

• Strategy support: Which multi-leg strategies must be supported at go-live (vertical spreads, iron condors, butterflies, calendar spreads, ratio spreads)? Options: Vertical spreads, Iron condors, Butterflies, Calendar spreads, Ratio spreads
• Order entry: Do you require combined multi-leg order entry (single ticket) and leg-level visibility in execution reports? Options: Combined single-ticket entry with leg visibility, Separate leg orders only, Both options
• Leg handling: What behavior should be enforced if a single leg fails during fill (cancel remaining legs, continue, or convert to single-leg fills)? Options: Cancel remaining legs, Continue and report partial fill, Custom per strategy
• Complex routing: Which venue allocation rules do you require for legs (netting across exchanges, route-to-exchange-for-best-leg, synthetic leg construction)? Options: Netting across exchanges, Route-for-best-leg, Synthetic construction required, Other — describe
• Risk and approvals: Which option-level approvals or clearing-level pre-approvals must be validated before accepting multi-leg orders (approval codes, margin checks, strategy limits)? Options: Approval codes required, Margin checks required, Strategy limits required, All listed
• Execution reporting: Which multi-leg execution artifacts must appear in trade confirmations and T+ reporting (leg-level fill prices, net strategy price, clearing instruction)? Options: Leg-level fills, Net strategy price, Clearing instructions, All listed

Execute Futures and FX Trades

• Product scope: Which futures and FX instruments must be tradable through your integration (listed futures contracts, OTC FX pairs, micro futures)? Options: Listed futures only, FX spot and forwards, OTC FX required, All listed
• Execution protocol: Which protocol will you use to send futures/FX orders (FIX Market Data/Trading session, REST orders, proprietary session)? Options: FIX trading session, REST order API, Proprietary session
• Margin and clearing: What margin model must be applied to these trades (exchange margin, bilateral margin, collateral type), and which clearing firm will be used (provide clearing firm ID if known)?
• Settlement artifacts: For FX forwards and futures, which settlement artifacts must be produced (value date, settlement instructions, special settlement netting)? Options: Value date, Settlement instructions, Settlement netting
• Market hours and sessions: Which market sessions must be supported including pre-open and after-hours settlement cutoffs for the instruments listed? Options: Standard exchange hours, Extended/pre-open sessions, 24/5 FX windows, All listed
• Risk limits: What per-instrument or per-account limits should be enforced for futures and FX orders (notional cap, leverage cap, position limits)? Options: Notional cap, Leverage cap, Position limits, Custom per account

Execute Fractional Share Orders

• Fractional support: Will you accept fractional share orders for equities at the client level and/or at the household level? Options: Client-level only, Household-level aggregation, Both
• Minimum increment: What minimum tradable fractional increment must be enforced (e.g., 0.001 shares, 0.01 shares)? Options: 0.001 shares, 0.01 shares, 0.1 shares, Specify other
• Order lifecycle: How should fractional orders be handled on partial fills and corporate actions (auto-round, pro-rata allocation, cash-in-lieu policy)? Options: Pro-rata allocation, Auto-round to nearest increment, Cash-in-lieu for corporate actions, Other — specify
• Aggregation rules: Describe whether fractional orders should be aggregated to whole-share orders on the exchange and which aggregation window you require (immediate batch, end-of-day batch). Options: Immediate aggregation, Scheduled batch (specify window), No aggregation — internal ledger only
• Fees and reporting: Which fee artifacts and confirmations must show fractional executions (per-share equivalent, total notional, per-client allocation statement)? Options: Per-share equivalent, Total notional, Per-client allocation statement, All listed
• Rounding tolerance: What rounding tolerance in cents or basis points are acceptable when converting fractional fills to billing and tax artifacts? Options: Specify cents tolerance, Specify basis points, No tolerance specified

Automated Clearing and Settlement Processing

• Clearing scope: Which clearing modalities must be supported at go-live (direct clearing via a clearing firm, sponsored clearing, third-party omnibus accounts)? Options: Direct clearing, Sponsored clearing, Omnibus accounts, Combination
• Instruction artifacts: Which settlement instructions and matching artifacts must the platform produce for the clearing firm (affirmation messages, settlement instruction file format, trade date/T+ settlement date)? Options: Affirmation messages, Settlement instruction files, Trade date/T+ fields, All listed
• Reconciliation cadence: What reconciliation cadence do you require with the clearing firm (end-of-day, intraday, T+1 automated reports)? Options: Intraday (specify times), End-of-day, T+1 automated
• Exception handling: How should mismatched clearing events be handled (automated exception queue with owner, automatic retry, immediate escalation to ops contact)? Options: Automated exception queue, Automatic retry, Immediate escalation
• Ownership: Who will be the named owner for clearing cutover and ongoing settlement operations (role and contact), including the person authorized to sign settlement variance requests?
• Acceptance criteria: What specific, measurable acceptance criteria will confirm automated clearing and settlement processing is complete (examples: 100% trial balance match with clearing firm for three consecutive days; zero unreconciled trades older than 24 hours)?

REST and WebSocket Execution APIs

• API surface: Which API surfaces do you require at go-live (REST order entry, WebSocket market data/event stream, FIX gateway for execution reports)? Options: REST order entry, WebSocket events, FIX gateway, All listed
• Authentication: Which authentication method will you use for API access (API key, OAuth 2.0 client credentials, mutual TLS)? Options: API key, OAuth 2.0, Mutual TLS, Other — specify
• Rate limits: What per-second or per-minute rate limits are required for order submission and market data streams to support your expected throughput? Options: Low (<=10 req/s), Medium (10-100 req/s), High (100-1000 req/s), Custom — specify
• API testing: Which acceptance tests must pass for API certification (order lifecycle test cases: new, replace, cancel, partial fill, full fill; replay of execution reports)?
• SLA objectives: What API uptime and response-time SLAs do you require for REST order ack and WebSocket event delivery (e.g., 99.9% uptime, median 50 ms response)? Options: 99.9% uptime, 99.95% uptime, 99.99% uptime, Specify response-time tiers
• Acceptance evidence: How will you validate API reliability and correctness prior to go-live (example evidence: passing end-to-end test suite, signed API conformance report, latency histogram for 1M test orders)?

• Order Form / Subscription Agreement
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Regulatory Compliance Addendum (Best Execution & Trade Reporting)
• Clearing & Settlement Addendum
• Security & Audit Attestation Addendum
• Change Order Agreement
• Mutual Commitment & Go-Live Plan

• Go-live Health Check (weeks 1-4)
• First Measurement Review (weeks 4-10)
• Acceptance Gate Decision (around day 90)
• Operational Review, Monthly
• Quarterly Executive Performance Review

• Escalate any SLA breaches with a remediation plan and target resolution timeline.
• Publish the acceptance decision and supporting evidence to the shared customer workspace within 24 hours.
• Create remediation tickets for each unmet criterion with owners and closure dates, and link them to the acceptance record.
• Schedule a re-verification window for any conditional items after fixes are implemented.
• SLA compliance and incident summary
• Ensure API error rate (%) and price improvement rate (%) remain within tolerated variance of the targets recorded in the Solution Evaluation stage.
• Keep the open incident and enhancement backlog under agreed thresholds and confirm next remediation steps.
• Maintain an active shared channel for bugs and enhancement requests with clear triage rules.
• Re-confirm deployment scope and owners
• Prioritize the enhancement requests in the shared backlog and publish the next review window for planned items.
• Update incident playbooks and notification lists based on recent incidents and lessons learned.
• Quarterly performance vs targets
• Confirm whether median API latency (ms) and on-time settlement success rate (%) meet contractual expectations recorded in the Solution Evaluation stage.
• Ensure major incidents are closed or have a time-boxed remediation plan and that regulatory items have ownership and dates.
• Agree any operational adjustments required to manage capacity or regulatory risk for the next quarter.
• Publish the quarterly performance summary and incident RCA documents to the shared workspace.
• Update capacity plans and monitoring thresholds where quarterly trends indicate risk.
• Assign owners and timelines for any outstanding regulatory or audit items requiring action.
• Confirm the integration environments, credentials, and connectivity are functioning for live order flows.
• Produce a prioritized list of open defects with owners and target resolution dates.
• Validate that the buyer's users have access and basic workflows can be executed end-to-end.
• Document all open defects in the shared issue tracker and assign a target resolution date for each.
• Grant dashboard access to the buyer's operational leads and confirm data feed visibility.
• Schedule short verification windows to re-run smoke tests after fixes are applied.
• Present initial metric data
• Determine whether API uptime (%) and median order acknowledgement latency (ms) meet the targets recorded in the Solution Evaluation stage or require remediation.
• Document root causes for any metric shortfalls and agree a remediation plan with owners and dates.
• Confirm a clear timeline and acceptance criteria for the upcoming acceptance gate meeting.
• Log the root cause analysis for each failing metric and publish a remediation plan with owner and target date.
• Schedule a controlled test window to validate fixes and capture post-fix metric snapshots.
• Update the acceptance readiness checklist referenced for the acceptance gate meeting.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Produce a documented acceptance decision for the deliverable with the buyer's named acceptance owner recorded.
• For any unmet criteria, agree remediation items with owners and firm resolution dates to close the acceptance loop.
• Store the acceptance outcome and associated evidence in the shared workspace for audit and billing purposes.
• Performance trend review
• Major incidents and remediation outcomes
• Present outcome data against each criterion
• Diagnose gaps and root causes
• Deployment and migration validation
• Open issues and enhancement backlog
• Document pass or fail per criterion
• Regulatory, audit, and reporting items
• Agree corrective actions and owners
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Operational capacity and risk outlook
• Open defects and operational blockers
• Confirm timeline to acceptance gate
• Operational housekeeping and upcoming windows
• Formal acceptance decision and documentation
• Agree immediate remediation actions
• Agree remediation items and closure timeline