Barclays Global Investors Deploys FlexTRADER Worldwide; BGI Cites FlexTRADER's Broker Neutrality, Customizable Analytics and Robust Technology.

Business Editors

GREAT NECK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 2002

FlexTrade Systems today announced that Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has licensed FlexTRADER for use in the institutional asset manager's San Francisco, Toronto, London and Tokyo offices.

A quantitatively enriched equity trading and order management system, FlexTRADER has a significant client base of institutional users on the buy-side and sell-side, including hedge funds, investment managers and broker/dealers.

"It is imperative we have a software application that is not broker owned, because we trade with more than 100 counterparties globally," said Barclays Global Investors Managing Director and Global Head of Equity and Currency Trading, Minder Cheng. "We also require very solid technology, and the flexibility to easily customize our index and active trading strategies into the system. FlexTRADER handily meets all three criteria." FlexTRADER has been live in San Francisco for five months. The system is installed in the other BGI offices, and will go live over the coming weeks and months upon completion of testing in each location.

FlexTRADER is a fully customizable system with pre-defined trading strategies and tactics for lists as well as single stocks. The ability to easily write and revise customized analytics and quantitative trading strategies within the system is what makes FlexTRADER a preferred choice among those engaged in agency trading, index arbitrage and other proprietary and standard strategies such as VWAP, transition trading, pairs and long/short trading. This flexibility, for example, gives statistical arbitrage and program traders the ability to act swiftly and with ease in mercurial market conditions, particularly as they look to minimize market impact, transaction costs and risk exposure when trading large, multi-sided portfolios.

"The Barclays implementation clearly demonstrates a buy-side institution taking complete control of its portfolios, trading strategies and transaction costs," said FlexTrade Systems President, Vijay Kedia. "BGI is leveraging FlexTRADER's capabilities to trade domestically and globally with over 100 leading brokers, and manage numerous funds and strategies with real time allocations and cash constraints."

Mr. Cheng indicated that all BGI's traders will use FlexTRADER as part of their trading strategies. He also noted that FlexTRADER is helping BGI minimize its overall transaction costs, by enabling the firm to obtain real time feedback from its P&L, automate trading strategies with little input, and tap into liquidity the second it becomes available. "FlexTRADER fits squarely into our investment process and quantitative philosophy, and we intend to take the system to the limit," said Mr. Cheng. "It gives us a weapon to quantify our P&L, easily automate our trading strategies, and make modifications in real time, in relation to intra-day market conditions. We are also satisfied with FlexTrade's technical expertise, responsiveness and support."

A trade order management system, FlexTRADER also flexibly integrates with a firm's existing OMS. The system operates in real time, enabling those trading from a master list to more efficiently manage cash constraints and allocations, particularly across multiple brokers. Other factors contributing to FlexTRADER's high install base, is its automation of every aspect of the trading process, and its coverage of global equity securities, including Japanese instruments.

With FIX on both ends of the system, FlexTRADER complements a firm's straight-through processing (STP) requirements, because buy-side firms and sell-side firms can receive orders and send back executions electronically. The buy-side may receive orders into FlexTRADER from numerous portfolio managers, and sell-side firms can view orders from multiple institutions. Sell-side and buy-side firms can trade orders instantaneously, within the confines of a pre-determined, rules-based setting. From a single and neutral platform, orders are routed automatically to various points of execution including approximately 50 broker/dealers, all leading ECNs and primary exchanges.

FlexTRADER's open architecture is configurable for multiple traders over a network, and runs on Sun Solaris, Linux and Windows NT operating systems.

Barclays Global Investors is one of the world's largest asset managers, and the world's largest provider of structured investment strategies such as indexing, tactical asset allocation, and quantitative active strategies. BGI managed more than $761 billion in assets as of 6/30/02, and over 2,000 funds, for nearly 2,000 clients in 41 countries around the world. As the creator of the first index strategy 30 years ago, BGI is an innovator in investment management, applying science and technology to the investment process. BGI has over 2,000 employees worldwide and is owned by Barclays PLC, one of the UK's largest companies, and one of the world's leading global financial services providers, with operations in over 60 countries worldwide.

Founded in 1996, privately held FlexTrade Systems Inc. has a global client base of approximately 75 buy- and sell-side firms, including many large program trading desks at major investment banks, hedge funds and investment management firms. Headquartered in Great Neck, NY (U.S.A.), FlexTrade also operates an office in London. Clients include Barclays Global Investors, JP Morgan Chase, Jefferies & Company, Inc., HSBC Investment Bank and SAC Capital Management LLC. For more information, visit FlexTrade Systems on the Internet at www.flextrade.com.