Platform Release Notes

Introducing KTX DirectBidding, a new trading protocol.

DirectBidding is a trading protocol where CLO buy-side investors negotiate directly and trade anonymously. Access CLO liquidity from broker-dealers and the buy-side simultaneously. Send a BWIC to 150+ buy side firms, 30+ broker-dealers, or both in one trading session.

Key functionality:

- Receive automated, live feedback (Best, Cover, Third, Not in Top 3); - Receive guaranteed post-trade color; - All bids are final and must be firm for 30 minutes beyond the Bidding Window; - All bids are private (settlement agent can see only executed trades);

Settlement:

All trades are settled by KopenTech Capital Markets LLC (KTCM), a FINRA-registered introducing broker-dealer and SEC-licensed Alternative Trading System (ATS); All trades are cleared by third party clearing firm(s): MIRAE Asset Securities (USA) Inc. (MIRA);

Primary Issuance Dashboard Gets Reimagined

All graphs are now available on a separate tab of ‘Issuance Monitor’. To see it, simply click the ‘Dashboard’ tab. All graphs are available with interactive setup and toggles

New Graphs are added to the Primary Issuance Dashboard

1. ESG Deals as a % of the US BSL New Issue shows monthly breakdown and users can specify timeframe US BSL ESG issuance broken down by months. 2. Static Deals table lists static deals. Users can select YTD or a specific year. 3. Debut Deals table lists new managers entering CLO space. Users can select YTD or a specific year.

Issuance Monitor

Syndicate contact information is moved to the top of the transaction details page. Click on Syndicate button to see details.

Manager and Arranger quick filters are added to the transaction details page. Just click on an icon next to the manager’s or arranger’s name and get redirected to all active & historical transactions.

Dashboard

Portfolio securities available in Dealer Inventory are added as a separate widget on Dashboard page. Turn on BWIC & Dealer Inventory alerts to stay tuned on activity in your portfolio.

Dealer Inventory

Currency column is added to the Dealer Inventory page.

Other

New 'Options' button is available in security panel. Quickly view whether security is on a BWIC or in a dealer’s inventory.

AAA Price Talk and Color Graph

This graph plots monthly average AAA post-trade color and monthly average Px talk, including the range of Px talk within each month. Wider ranges of Px talk show that broker-dealers had differing predictions of the traded price. Small differences imply high forecasting accuracy by broker dealers, while large differences indicate fast moving market conditions with less forecasting ability.

Portfolio Alerts on Dealer’s Inventory

Receive instantaneous portfolio alert once security in your portfolio is added, updated or traded from Dealer Inventory. This feature is turned on automatically. Users can manage Alerts from 2 places: Portfolio or Notifications section of the Account Settings.

Additional Filtering for Dashboard Widgets

Filters by currency and rating are now available for Biggest Movers and Most Traded Bonds widgets on Dashboard.  

Manager’s Debut CLO

Manager’s debut CLO are now marked with ‘Debut’ label on Issuance Monitor page. Find out new CLO Managers entering the CLO universe.

Introducing a new trading protocol - DirectBidding

DirectBidding is a trading protocol where CLO buy-side investors can negotiate directly and trade anonymously via a settlement agent. Sending a BWIC via DirectBidding enables access to buy-side and sell-side liquidity in a single trading session. Buyers benefit by negotiating directly instead of sifting through endless over-the-counter communications. The platform offers investors low-cost, flat settlement fees. The result is a larger liquidity base and reduced time spent on execution.

Saving filters on Issuance Monitor

Users can now save multiple custom filters on Issuance Monitor. Enter ranges or min/max values on Issuance Monitor’s fields to get a set of transactions that meet your parameters, then click save and name your filter. You can even set a default filter to see every time you log back into the system. Read more

Find ESG Deals

Issuance Monitor now contains information regarding CLOs with Environmental, Social and/or Governance (ESG) language in the Indenture. Filter by ESG eligibility or read ESG language on the transaction details page.

New Filter for X -tranches and Junior AAAs

Junior AAA and X tranches are now in separate from regular AAAs on Issuance Monitor. This allows users to have cleaner data when searching for AAA spreads and to include or exclude these tranches when creating a custom filter.

Admin Role

KopenTech subscribers now have 3 user types available: Administrator (Admin), Seller, Viewer. Companies may have multiple admin users but must have at least one. Admin role can be combined with Trader or Viewer role. Admin users can manage users and trading relationships, as well as set trading limits.

Customizable Columns

Within Issuance Monitor, users can add/remove columns with relevant information and to save these views for future use. Column customization is available for both Deal View (entire CLO capital structure) and Class View (tranche-specific information).

Issuance Data Visualized

Dashboard now includes data from the Issuance Monitor, including 1) Top 10 Arrangers, 2) Top 10 Issuers and 3) customizable volume/deal count graph for new issue, refi and reset transactions. Data goes back to 2016.

Last Updated field added

Issuance Monitor has a Last Updated field for active and priced transactions. Users can hover over the date to view timing of the most recent update.

Deals marked as NEW

Any transactions that have just posted to Issuance Monitor will be indicated as NEW for the first 24 hours.

EU compliance filter

Issuance Monitor now has a filter for transactions that are EU Compliant.

Issuance Monitor filters now have an improved layout. Most frequently used filters are available on the main screen. Additional, more advanced filters are available by clicking the +MORE button.

On Dashboard, the Daily Trade Analytics table now has definitions for Color%, Color and Px Talk. Additionally, users can click on Rules to see how KopenTech normalizes industry ranges of Color and Px Talk (e.g. 99LM) to a numerical value (e.g. 99.35).

Overbidding alert

Once a BWIC Seller has pressed the “trade” button and proceeded to the selling screen, they will receive a pop-up notification when broker-dealers bid over themselves. A drop-down with both prices will be displayed along with a notification suggesting the Seller can trade at the lower price.

Tied for best alert

Once a BWIC Seller has pressed the “trade” button and proceeded to a selling screen, they will receive a pop-up notification when there are multiple bidders who are tied for the best bid. The names of tied broker-dealers are displayed, then BWIC Sellers are given a choice to pick with whom they want to trade from the drop-down window. Canceling out of this screen and returning to the bidding window provides the option to proceed with bidding.

What’s New pop-up

Upon login to the platform, all users will receive a pop-up notification detailing the newly released features.

Dealer Inventory

Users are now able to view inventory from multiple broker-dealers, all organized in a consistent format and updated in real-time. Also included are historical Px talk and color information on dealer inventory, located in one platform and sharable between team members. This also allows users to sort, search and filter dealer inventory, as well as add bonds from dealer’s inventory to their portfolio. In a future release, users can toggle on email alerts to receive a notification when bonds in their Portfolio are sold by dealers.

The BWIC Monitor now has 3 tabs for sellers and 2 tabs for dealers for easier navigation:

For Sellers: My BWICs page moved to BWIC Monitor and 3 tabs shown: All, Buy and Sell. For Broker-Dealers: My BWICs page moved to BWIC Monitor and 2 tabs shown: All and My.

Ability to add security to My Portfolio from Security panel across the system

Users can now add a security to their Portfolio through the “Add to Portfolio” button. This allows users to add individual bonds to their portfolio throughout the entire platform without the need to type in tickers or unique identifiers.

With one click, Sellers can view Dealers who have submitted bids.

During a BWIC, Sellers can search the Dealer's panel to easily view bids from specific broker-dealers.

When the Seller clicks on a ticker during a BWIC, all bids tab is shown by default.

Standardized Blast Messages to bidders

Save time by sending Blast Messages to all bidders. BWIC Reminder: “Please submit your bid or indicate that you pass”. Send this message as a reminder to those invited who did not submit a bid. Final Improvement Request: “Please submit your final level”. Choose to send to Top 3, Top 5 or All. Depending on the protocol, send this message to the appropriate number of bidders to conclude your BWIC.

Bank salespeople have a dedicated Viewer role/tools

KopenTech has features that are helpful for salespeople to manage orders and track market data:

• AMR Refinancings
• Electronic BWIC 
Trading
• Issuance Monitor
• CLO Inventory
• Market Monitoring

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Improved auto-feedback functionality automating BWIC status updates and significantly reducing communication efforts.

The improved bidding screen layout allows customization, faster data entry, autosaving and ability to mark dealers as Favorites.

Improved flow of Bid Of Behalf and Live Bidding for Sellers.

Ability to see favorite Broker-dealers on New BWIC: Step 3/Dealers/Individual BWIC pages for Sellers.

Add roles for Broker-Dealer and Seller companies

New Table: Biggest Movers

The Biggest Movers table shows the largest price changes from prior traded levels over the last 30 days. This table is updated daily at 6:00 PM EST and excludes all DNT’d securities.

CLO Issuance Monitor

It’s a centralized portal for all primary activity: new issues, refis and resets.
 With this portal, our objective is to have a centralized location and standardized approach to collecting deal information. When you arrive on the Issuance Monitor page, you’ll immediately see similar filters to the BWIC monitor. Advanced filtering tools are available to allow focus on specific transaction types, ratings, reinvestment, or non-call periods along with 15 other portfolio characteristics. Investors will be able to access granular deal details in five intuitive sections.

New Graph: Px Talk Deviation from Color - Px Talk Accuracy Barometer

Average Px Talk Deviation from Color (PTDC) is a measure of aggregate broker-dealer Px Talk accuracy. For each trade where color is provided, we find the absolute error between the actual color price and the average Px Talk value across dealers. The higher the value, the less accurate dealers are in predicting actual prices at that point in time. The higher the error value, the less liquid the market.

New Graph: Security Lookup: Px Talk & Color Dispersion

This interactive security look-up feature allows investors to look at pricing data over a customized length of time. Over six years of historical data are available for analysis, visualization and download.

New Graph: DNT % - Barometer of Demand

The Did Not Trade (DNT) rate is a widely-used measure of demand. It is the percentage of bonds that were sent out on BWICs and tagged DNT, meaning "did not trade," or no trade agreement was reached. The higher the value, the less implied liquidity exists in the market.

New Graph: BWICs as % of TRACE

The graph shows BWICs as a percentage of the TRACE reported volume broken down by IG and HY.

New Graph: Trading Volume Barometers

FINRA’s TRACE data are comprised of daily BWIC trades as well as bilateral activity broken down between IG and HY.

New Graph: TRACE Broker-Dealer Net Flow

TRACE reports the daily volumes of how much customers buy and sell from broker-dealers in terms of positive or negative dealer net flow. When dealers have a positive net flow, they purchase more bonds from customers vs. what they sell and vice versa.

E-bidding Multi-Dealer Functionality

Complete CLO secondary marketplace: access dealer price talk and color. Export, search or filter data for your own analysis. Historical data: explore data for the last six years. See security information, up-to-date rating and graphical representation of historical px talk & color.

New Graph: Price Ranges by Rating

The Price Levels graph shows price dispersion by rating. Hover for full quartile statistics.

New table: Dealers Stats

The new Dealers Stats table is shown for Sellers on the My BWICs page.

Evaluate dealer bidding across BWIC history

Get dealer performance stats at your fingertips: participation rate, px talk frequency and accuracy, trading/winning stats.

New Graph: Daily Trade Analysis

See statistics from today’s BWIC trading session, including posted and traded volume, security count, DNT rates and Color rates. Quickly compare Px Talk and Color across ratings.

New Graph: Same-day BWIC % - Stability Barometer

The Same-day BWIC Rate is the percentage of bonds that were announced for sale to investors and traded on the same day via BWIC. Most BWICs are announced 48 hours in advance to allow bidders enough time to research the bonds in question. It can be used as more of an abstract measure of market sentiment, with a higher value indicating more stress.

Bidding auto Feedback

Improve BWIC efficiently: automate feedback to dealers. Toggle on/off any time during BWIC. Notify platform dealers via system messages; off-platform dealers via email.

New Graph: Color % - Transparency Barometer

The Color Rate graph represents the percentage of BWIC trades where price information is provided in the post-trade color. It can be used as a measure of market transparency, with higher values indicating more transparency.

Security details combined in a side panel

Open security panel from portfolio or individual BWIC page. See Fitch/S&P rating. Export historical trades. Download deal docs.

Bank salespeople have a dedicated Viewer role/tools

KopenTech has features that are helpful for salespeople to manage orders and track market data: - AMR Refinancings - Electronic BWIC 
Trading - Issuance Monitor - CLO Inventory - Market Monitoring KopenTech AMR has a built-in order management system that helps salespeople collect client bids in preparation for bidding in AMR auctions. KopenTech BWIC has helpful market monitoring features including online BWIC bidding monitoring as well as primary and secondary market surveillance features.

Send feedback to off-platform dealers

Enable a wide range of email alerts in Account Settings. Daily market recap and alerts by ratings are now available.

Email alerts

Enable a wide range of email alerts in Account Settings. Daily market recap and alerts by ratings are now available.

New BWIC Selling Protocol - LiveBidding

LiveBidding - an innovative way to sell CLOs. Historically, CLO BWICs have been conducted in a first-price sealed-bid auction format: -> Bidders submit sealed bids directly to the seller -> None of the - participants know one another‘s bids -> The top bidder pays the submitted price

Export data on Blotter page

Invite buy-side for Broker-dealer

New Graph: Scheduled BWICs

The scheduled BWICS bar graph displays upcoming BWICs, broken out by ratings and updated in real-time. Filtering by currency is available.

New Graph: Scheduled BWICs Heatmap

Our heatmap enables investors to visualize upcoming BWICs through colored tiles. The tiles are colored more intensely when larger notional is scheduled and the number of securities is displayed next to volume. The heatmap helps both buyers and sellers to schedule their participation. Sellers can avoid busy periods to get better participation from broker-dealers.

Historical Data for Your Securities

Simplify your month-end pricing with historical data stored in one centralized place.

Portfolio Alerts

Get notified when securities from your portfolio are on an upcoming BWIC. Toggle on an alert for all portfolios or for a specific portfolio.

Invite Broker-Dealers

Invite Broker-Dealers with whom you trade to join the KopenTech BWIC platform.

New Table: My Scheduled BWICs

My BWICS shows any BWICs you scheduled as a seller. My Bids shows any bids you placed on the upcoming
BWICs via KopenTech’s multi-dealer bidding platform.

Add Additional Traders

Add additional traders from your firm instantly.

Add Company Contacts

Add your ops, compliance, billing, and other company contacts for streamlined communication.

Visual historical prices

View combined Price Talk, Trade Color and Implied Levels from DNT trades in one price graph.

Zoom in on the details

Hover over plots to see specific data points.

Off-Platform Dealers

The Bid-on-behalf feature allows you to add bids for off-platform dealers. Add off-platform bids in 3 steps: -> Step 1: Select Broker-Dealer -> Step 2: Enter bid(s) -> Step 3: Confirm bid(s)

New BWIC: Step 1 - Add Securities

Copy & paste your securities or drag & drop a spreadsheet.

New BWIC: Step 2 - Set Rules

Select BWIC rules from predefined templates or customize your own.

New BWIC: Step 3 - Select Broker-Dealers

Send your BWIC to selected broker-dealers.

New BWIC: Step 4 - Adding Documents

New BWIC: Step 5 - Send BWIC announcement

Notify platform and off-platform broker-dealers in one email.

View BWIC Pipeline

Prepare for bidding by reviewing price talk.

Send Feedback

Send manual feedback or toggle auto-feedback to bidders.

Trade Securities

Submit the trade when you receive desired level(s).

Distribute Post-Trade Color

Choose public color distribution from pre-defined options, or send no color.

Set-Up Portfolio

Upload securities from your portfolio or create a watchlist.

Utilize Filters

Quickly locate relevant securities with filters.