Understanding how LUSID's order management system works

You can use LUSID to action and/or record the order lifecycle, from order inception to execution and allocation. In LUSID, the order lifecycle consists of the following stages:

1. Order creation
2. Running pre-trade compliance
3. Blocking
4. Order placement
5. Executions (fills)
6. Allocation to portfolios and transaction booking
7. Generating holdings, performing valuations and rebalancing

Once allocated to portfolios, LUSID can automatically book transactions for orders, from which holdings and valuations can be calculated. If you decide to rebalance your portfolios from the valuation metrics, the order lifecycle can begin again automatically, with LUSID creating new orders for you.

LUSID's innate flexibility allows you to manage your placements and executions with EMSs and brokers in the way that works for you. You can leverage LUSID's array of integrations with brokers and execution management systems (EMSs), such as FINBOURNE's partnership with FlexTrade's Spark, to place and receive executions. 

You can currently use three kinds of integration to manage your orders with a variety of EMSs and brokers: 

• Using LUSID to stage orders in an EMS such as Spark
• Using LUSID to place orders directly with a broker
• Creating orders externally and storing a record in LUSID via drop copy

You always have the option to use the order management system without any integrations if you'd rather use LUSID to manually record your order activity.

Using LUSID to stage orders in an EMS such as Spark

LUSID has an array of EMS integrations to allow you to seamlessly create, run compliance on, place and receive fills for your orders. After rebalancing a portfolio, you can select which broker to place with via the EMS. 

EMS integrations are available for:

• Spark (formerly FlexNow)
• EMSX
• TORA
• TradeWeb (coming soon)

Using LUSID to place orders directly with a broker

You can hook LUSID up to and place orders directly with a broker of your choice and watch executions populate as your order is filled. When you use this method, LUSID can place the order with a broker for you and record executions as they happen. 

Creating orders externally and storing a record in LUSID via drop copy

If you prefer, you can create, place and receive executions for orders entirely outside of LUSID, but ensure a secure record is automatically generated and stored within LUSID whenever order activity occurs. LUSID simply takes in a passive feed of Financial Information eXchange (FIX) messages and creates a copy of the activity. The execution information can then be used to allocate fills to portfolios, book transactions and generate holdings as usual.

Using LUSID to manually record your order activity

You always have the option to use LUSID to manually record your orders. For example, you might use LUSID to record orders you've placed over the phone, or set up a schedule to load in orders, placements and executions from an Excel spreadsheet each day.