FinTech disruption is in its early innings, particularly on the institutional side. But the number of exciting startups is growing. This growth is occurring due to the vast coverage of industries and asset classes that companies such as ChartIQ and OMEX Systems have been benefitting from clients that are looking to profit from the data they collect.

You’ve likely heard of companies such as Lending Club in the lending sector, Wealthfront for wealth management, and Square for payments. Companies such as these are reinventing very old processes in their respective sectors, and there are many more examples of technology firms like these that are gaining mainstream recognition. But there are thousands of startups reimagining much more niche functions in financial services, and many of them could be complementary or competitive to your own business.

Working with fledgling companies is a foreign concept to many FinServ professionals, particularly outside of the CTO’s office. But here are 3 reasons you should personally and professionally get involved with FinTech startups right away.

The benefits of being first are numerous. The early users of disruptive technologies will have the first opportunities to reap the benefits—especially profits. For those of you on the buy side, this is particularly true when a product can uncover new sources of alpha before your peers catch on to them.

Even if you are more risk adverse with technology adoption, discovering new products early can still have a meaningful benefit by making you a faster “fast follower.” Don’t start your due diligence on a product at the time it becomes mainstream, when the excess benefits are already being arbitraged away. If you start by putting small amounts of time into reviewing early stage products a year or two in advance, for example, you’ll be ready to immediately jump in once the early adopters have sufficiently validated it for you. And even more important, you’ll have the opportunity to help shape the product features as they are built, ensuring it will have maximum utility to you once you do start using it.

Many entrepreneurs are at the forefront of thought leadership, and since they are shaping the future of this industry, it follows that they are also a great source for understanding that future as early as possible. Don’t solely rely on industry publications or consulting firms to highlight key trends. You’ll gain a much deeper understanding by also interacting directly with the trendsetters themselves.

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August 7, 2014 –OMEX Systems, a provider of web-based, broker-neutral and FIX-compliant front, middle, and back office platforms for broker-dealers and buyside firms will craft a direct market access offering to aid broker-dealers in choosing algo providers, according to John Houlahan, chief operations officer.

New York City-based OMEX is creating functions for traders interested in setting up direct market access to allow brokerages to place and modify orders on a faster basis, noted Houlahan.

John Houlahan, OMEX Systems

“We are also building out functionality to facilitate direct market access clients via internal algorithmic parameter metrics,” said Houlahan. “We are building a DMA tool to allow broker-dealers to pick and choose various algo providers to place, modify, and monitor trades for intraday modification for cash desk, options, fixed income and futures.”

OMEX is also preparing to make its trading and execution functions available across the pond, so that global broker-dealers can have access to the offering, Houlahan said. The expansion comes on the heels of the firm being certified for use in the Mexican exchange network, he added.

“We are working with firms that want to offer our product to clients globally,” said Houlahan. “This type of global reach would not be aimed at retail, but more at the investment advisor and broker-dealer level.”

OMEX has also planned upgrades that will allow broker-dealers to process multiple basket orders at a single time when trading in the ETF space before the year’s end, Houlahan noted.

“We are also further refining our program trading desk module to better enable those broker-dealers who are seeing an influx of basket trading on the level of Russell Indexes baskets,” said Houlahan. “In an upcoming release, we’ll process multiple baskets with multi-routing capabilities for those orders.”

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