BestEx Research Group LLC, an independent provider of execution algorithms, trading technology, and trade analytics for global equities and futures, has announced the launch of Pulse AI — described as the world's first AI-native interface for institutional trading analytics.

Pulse AI connects the firm's existing Pulse Analytics suite to AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT that trading desks already use, allowing traders to ask natural-language questions and receive answers grounded in BestEx Research's proprietary models and realized market data. The platform is designed to streamline trading cost analytics across the full lifecycle of a trade — from pre-trade analytics that inform how positions are planned and executed, to broker-neutral post-trade transaction cost analysis (TCA) that evaluates execution performance across brokers and recommends adjustments aimed at reducing costs. The launch comes as generative AI adoption accelerates across capital markets, with asset managers, banks, and trading firms increasingly exploring large language model applications for research, risk management, and operational workflows.

Pre-Trade Analytics Now Live for Global Futures

Pulse AI's pre-trade analytics capabilities are currently live for global futures, with equities pre-trade scheduled to launch in October. Institutional trading desks routinely process enormous volumes of market data, and converting that data into actionable decisions typically requires quantitative analysts to spend significant time extracting, cleaning, and modeling it. Pulse AI Pre-Trade is designed to eliminate that overhead, freeing analysts to focus on deeper evaluation for the trading desk.

The platform streamlines liquidity analysis workflows by generating answers to questions such as: which products tend to be most liquid at a given time of day; how an instrument's spread and depth typically behave; how a market's liquidity conditions affect trading cost; what effect scheduled economic events have on the order book; how quickly a large position can be worked across different participation rates; and what the expected cost of trading at varying speeds may be. Because Pulse AI draws on BestEx Research's processed algorithmic inputs and execution cost model, the answers reflect current liquidity conditions and are delivered with supporting visualizations and interpretation that a trader would otherwise need to assemble manually.

Broker-Neutral Post-Trade TCA Planned for Q1 2027

A second major component — broker-neutral Post-Trade TCA — is scheduled for release in Q1 2027. Fair comparison and evaluation of broker performance has long been a challenge for institutional investors. Each broker typically measures only the flow it executed, using its own methodology, and presents results limited to that portion of activity. A desk working with multiple brokers is left with several partial report cards and no standardized way to compare them on equal terms. The need for consistent execution quality measurement is amplified by best execution obligations under regulatory frameworks such as MiFID II in Europe and FINRA Rule 5310 in the United States, which require firms to demonstrate reasonable diligence in seeking the most favorable terms for client orders.

Broker-neutral TCA applies a single, unified methodology to all of a buy-side firm's executions. Traders can identify which brokers actually delivered, which strategies were effective and under what conditions, and where algorithm modifications or customization could reduce costs. Pulse AI makes this analysis conversational, enabling investigation within the same AI assistant the trader is already using rather than relying solely on quarterly reports.

Leadership Perspective

"AI is changing how we interact with information, and buy-side traders have been waiting for execution providers to optimize and simplify the TCA process which has remained rigid and complex for decades," said Hitesh Mittal, Founder and CEO of BestEx Research. "We built Pulse Analytics specifically to support traders, quants, and portfolio managers in their most complex decisions. With Pulse AI, a trader can chat with their AI assistant about execution quality, get help navigating changing market conditions, or set an agent to work through their TCA overnight and find a rigorous analysis of performance across brokers waiting at their desk in the morning. It's a fundamentally different relationship with the data than a quarterly report can produce. Pulse AI is built to lead that shift."