Quant Trading Consultancy (QTC)

Four pillars. One route to production.

Quant Trading Consultancy (QTC) takes electronic trading businesses and products from first idea to live trading. Four pillars, Product Development, Project Management, Business Analysis and Technical Expertise, work together at every stage, across development, infrastructure and business processes in the front, middle and back office.

The four pillars

01

Product Development

Owns the product: what is built, why, and when it is ready.

We take a trading product from first idea to a live, supportable service, and keep the commercial case, the technology and the operating model pointing at the same goal.

  • Product definition, business case and success measures
  • Build-or-buy analysis and vendor selection
  • Target architecture across trading, market data, risk and post-trade
  • Readiness gates and go-live sign-off
  • Handover to an operating service model and roadmap
02

Project Management

Owns the plan: governance, gates and the joins between teams.

We run the programme so that vendors, brokers, specialists and in-house teams deliver to one plan, with evidence-based gates rather than optimistic status reports.

  • Programme plan, governance and RAID management
  • Staged go/no-go gates with defined evidence
  • Vendor, broker and specialist coordination
  • Controlled live testing, cut-over and hypercare
  • Stop, rollback and restart procedures agreed before launch
03

Business Analysis

Owns the requirements: what traders, operations and control functions actually need.

We turn ambition into requirements that can be built and tested, and design the front-to-back processes the platform has to support.

  • Requirements across trading, market data, risk and post-trade
  • Target operating model and front-to-back process design
  • Data, controls and reconciliation design
  • Acceptance criteria and go-live evidence
  • Current-state assessment of platforms and processes
04

Technical Expertise

Owns the engineering judgement: hands-on delivery and independent assessment.

Senior engineers and architects from the QTC specialist network either deliver the technical work or independently assess and oversee the people who do.

Hands-on delivery

  • Architecture, low-latency infrastructure and co-location
  • Connectivity: FIX and native exchange and broker APIs
  • Market-data capture, storage and access layers
  • Execution engineering, deployment and monitoring

Independent assessment

  • Independent technology, code and infrastructure review
  • Vendor and build-or-buy due diligence
  • Technical oversight of delivery partners
See the specialist capabilities →
Not a one-person consultancy

One accountable lead.
A senior team built for each assignment.

Costa Victoros leads every engagement personally. Around him, QTC assembles senior specialists from across the UK, Europe and the US, and vetted market partners in Asia, chosen for the specific assignment. Each has spent many years inside banks, brokers, market makers and quantitative trading firms.

Meet the specialist network →
  1. Led by Costa, end to endOne senior point of accountability, from the first call to go-live and beyond.
  2. Specialists chosen for the assignmentLow-latency infrastructure, Rust engineering, performance architecture, prime brokerage, post-trade and programme delivery, brought in as each stage needs them.
  3. Vetted partners in local marketsBrokerage and market-access partners in China, India and South-East Asia.
  4. One contract, one planQTC holds the contract. Specialists are named in the statement of work under mutual NDA.

How the pillars work across the route

Every stage of the route from inception to production needs all four pillars. What changes is which one leads.

Stage
Product Development
Project Management
Business Analysis
Technical Expertise
InceptionIs it worth building?
LeadsProduct Development: Business case, product definition and the build-or-buy decision
Project Management: Initial plan, budget and governance
Business Analysis: Current-state assessment and high-level requirements
Technical Expertise: Feasibility, architecture options and vendor due diligence
DesignWhat exactly are we building?
Product Development: Target product and service model
Project Management: Delivery plan, gates and RAID log
LeadsBusiness Analysis: Detailed requirements, target operating model and acceptance criteria
LeadsTechnical Expertise: Target architecture, infrastructure, connectivity and data design
BuildBuilding it right
Product Development: Scope and priority decisions as trade-offs arise
LeadsProject Management: Vendor, broker and specialist coordination to one plan
Business Analysis: Process, data and control detail; test cases
LeadsTechnical Expertise: Engineering, infrastructure and integration delivered or overseen
TestProving it works
Product Development: Acceptance against the business case
LeadsProject Management: Test plan, defect triage and go/no-go evidence
Business Analysis: Acceptance testing against requirements
Technical Expertise: Performance, resilience and controlled-market testing
Go-liveSwitching it on safely
LeadsProduct Development: Readiness sign-off against agreed gates
LeadsProject Management: Cut-over, rollback triggers and hypercare
Business Analysis: Operational readiness and procedures
Technical Expertise: Production deployment, monitoring and kill controls verified
OperateRunning and improving it
Product Development: Roadmap and next release
Project Management: Handover with service levels
Business Analysis: Reconciliation and reporting processes
Technical Expertise: Performance tuning and resilience reviews

Shaded cells show which pillar leads at each stage. Costa Victoros remains the single accountable lead throughout.

Three ways to engage

Every engagement starts with a diagnostic call. From there you can start small with an assessment, ask us to deliver the programme, or bring in senior leadership alongside your team.

01

Assess

Know where you stand before you commit.

A focused diagnostic built on the Trading Infrastructure Maturity Assessment and scored with the Trading Readiness Index.

What you get

  • Evidence-based findings that separate confirmed facts from assumptions
  • A maturity profile and readiness score by area
  • A prioritised roadmap with build-or-buy options
  • Go-live risks, gaps and the gates to close them

Suits

Firms planning a launch, a migration, a new market or a board decision.

Start with an assessment
02

Deliver

From inception to production, with one accountable lead.

An inception-to-production programme run with the Electronic Trading Optimisation Framework, using all four pillars.

What you get

  • Plan, governance and staged go/no-go gates
  • The right specialists brought in as each stage needs them
  • Vendor, broker and venue coordination
  • Controlled go-live with rollback, restart and handover

Suits

New desks, platforms, products, market entry and platform rebuilds.

Discuss a programme
03

Lead

Senior leadership, exactly when you need it.

Interim or fractional leadership and senior advisory alongside your team, with the frameworks as the shared baseline for decisions.

What you get

  • Interim head of product, programme or electronic trading
  • Board and investment-committee support
  • Independent challenge on vendors, plans and readiness
  • Coaching and mentoring for in-house teams

Suits

Firms between hires, scaling quickly or needing independent oversight.

Talk about leadership support

Evidence from recent engagements

See all case studies →

Are you ready for production?

Eight questions taken from our go-live sign-off process. Answer honestly; each "no" is a gap to close before launch.

Are the strategy, instruments, venues, accounts and initial capital agreed and signed off by named owners?
Do your data rights cover research, live trading, recording and storage?
Can you replay historical data reproducibly from preserved raw data?
Has the full order lifecycle (fills, partial fills, cancels, rejects and disconnects) been tested and reconciled with your broker?
Are pre-trade limits recorded as actual values, with tests showing both permitted and blocked orders?
Do you know who can stop trading, at what thresholds, and how working orders are then handled?
Is there a tested rollback and restart procedure, with approval required before restart?
Are on-call contacts, monitoring, incident ownership and responsibilities with your broker agreed in writing?
Book a diagnostic callPreview the go-live sign-off template →

FAQ

Can a specialist firm deliver a full programme?

Yes. QTC holds the contract and Costa Victoros leads every engagement. We bring in the senior specialists each stage needs, from infrastructure and engineering to middle office and programme delivery. The crypto execution platform case study shows the model in practice.

Do you build the software yourselves?

Sometimes. Through the Technical Expertise pillar, QTC can bring in specialist engineers to build, or we can select, assess and oversee your vendors and in-house teams. Either way, the requirements, architecture and readiness evidence stay under one accountable lead.

Can you start part-way through a programme?

Yes. Many engagements start with an assessment of a programme that is already under way, followed by a reset of the plan, gates and requirements.

Will you work alongside our internal PMO and teams?

Yes. We adapt to your governance and tooling, and focus on the joins between trading, technology, operations, vendors and brokers.

Can you introduce brokers and market-access partners?

Yes. QTC introduces vetted brokerage and market-access partners across the major global markets, including China, India and South-East Asia. Partners are selected for low-latency technical solutions, local onboarding knowledge and optimised trading and settlement fees. Details are shared after a mutual NDA, and your account relationship is with the partner directly.

Are you independent?

Our recommendations are not tied to any vendor, broker or venue. If an introduction or recommendation could benefit QTC or an affiliated firm, we tell you before you decide.

How do you handle confidentiality?

We sign a mutual NDA before any detailed discussion. Every specialist works under NDA and IP terms that match yours. Full case studies are shared on request.

How are engagements priced?

Every engagement is scoped to the client. That might be a focused assessment, a phased inception-to-production programme or ongoing senior leadership. We agree the commercial model once we understand your objectives, timeline and the specialists the work needs.

Is QTC regulated?

Quant Trading Consultancy does not provide investment advice and does not carry on regulated activities. Regulatory, compliance and tax workstreams are coordinated with specialist partners.

Know exactly what stands between you and go-live.

Book a diagnostic call with Costa Victoros. In one conversation we map where your platform is today, what must be true before you trade live, and the senior specialists it will take to get there.

Book a diagnostic call