RBC Capital Markets is preparing to launch Aiden in Europe and to launch another algorithm on its artificial intelligence-based electronic trading platform. Shary Mudassir, co-head of global electronic trading at RBC Capital Markets, told Markets Media: "We are in the final stages of preparing to launch Aiden in Europe over the coming months." The Canadian bank launched Aiden in October last year after being developed jointly by RBC Capital Markets and Borealis AI, a research center created by the bank. The platform has been available to RBC Capital Markets clients trading in U.S. and Canadian equities. "As client activity and data increased, we began exploring ways to make changes more efficiently and started investing in machine learning and artificial intelligence with Borealis AI five years ago," added Mudassir.

Customers want much more information, including data on counterparties to help judge the risk of doing a deal. For example, is a big buy order coming from a giant mutual fund company or a high-frequency trading shop? RBC can combine its massive data sets with custom code to help provide answers to these sorts of questions. Mudassir, RBC's director of global algorithmic trading, said that competition is fierce from hedge funds and the other big investment banks as well as emerging technology companies that have their eyes set squarely on Wall Street. Mudassir didn't provide names, but venture-backed companies applying machine learning to trading include Sentient Technologies, Alpaca and Walnut Algorithms.