Sterling Trading Tech and Atlas Digital Markets announced on 14 October that Atlas’s transaction-cost-analysis engine will become available inside Sterling OMS 360 and Sterling Data Warehouse during the fourth quarter. The integration starts with equities and options, bringing execution measurement into systems that already hold clients’ order histories.[1]
Atlas’s engine will read orders and executions directly from the data warehouse and run within Sterling’s environment. The companies say client data stays there and each firm sees only its own results. That design brings analysis to the stored trading records, reducing the need for a separate external data-transfer workflow.[1]
Atlas’s published TCA product explains the measurements behind the proposition. It separates execution costs against an arrival benchmark into spread, market-impact, timing and opportunity components, and compares strategies and brokers on comparable order flow. Its validation reports identify rejected rows, missing coverage and convention problems, so the quality of the input data is visible alongside the performance figures.[2]
Different questions in an execution review
| Measure | What it helps assess |
|---|---|
| Cost decomposition | Which components account for the difference between the arrival benchmark and the execution outcome, including fees. |
| Venue attribution | How realised costs and prices after the fill vary across venues. Atlas publishes one-second, five-second and one-minute measurement horizons. |
| Comparable-flow analysis | Whether differences between strategies, algorithms or brokers persist when similar flow is compared. |
For FINRA member broker-dealers, the relevant duty already extends beyond choosing a single headline price. Rule 5310 requires reasonable diligence to find the best market and addresses transaction size, order terms and available quotations. Where firms rely on regular reviews rather than examining each order, the rule calls for reviews at least quarterly, by security and order type. Relevant comparisons include price improvement, limit-order execution likelihood, speed, size and transaction costs.[3]
Those requirements give the data integration a concrete use: a firm can investigate differences in its routing outcomes and retain evidence for its review. FINRA requires firms to change routing arrangements when material quality differences justify it, or explain why they have not. The review remains the broker’s responsibility.[3]
Sterling and Atlas also intend to work on smart routing, execution algorithms and request-for-quote systems. Those are later development plans. The announced first step is measurement, with digital assets and prediction markets identified as extensions to the initial equities-and-options coverage.[1]
Sources & further reading
- Sterling Trading Tech and Atlas Digital Markets Turn Order Data into Best Execution Evidence Sterling Trading Tech via GlobeNewswire · 14 Oct 2026 · Accessed 20 Oct 2026
- Atlas TCA: Standalone Execution Measurement Atlas Digital Markets · Accessed 20 Oct 2026
- 5310. Best Execution and Interpositioning FINRA · Accessed 20 Oct 2026