When the team behind Ellida Alpha Machines prepared to launch in 2025, they made a choice rarely seen at the systematic launch stage. Rather than piecing together best-of-breed tools, they built on a single front-to-back platform from day one.
The logic was deliberate. The program trades futures systematically across all asset classes, combining signals of different natures, relative value, and tactical trading strategies, with the distinctive element being how those signals are blended across multiple objectives. Running that kind of operation with a small team at the time left no room for fragmented infrastructure. Each member of the team had spent more than two decades in systematic and quantitative investing, and they knew first-hand the hidden cost of building portfolio and trade infrastructure from scratch. That was, in Tarik Garidi’s words, “a very dangerous box” they were unwilling to open at launch.
After evaluating nine systems and testing several in-depth, the team selected Enfusion by Clearwater as the OMS/PMS foundation, pairing it with a prime broker and fund administrator chosen on the same principle: quality over to offload the operational work a small team simply could not carry.
When they tested competing platforms, several couldn’t articulate a clear value proposition. Others offered technical flexibility but expected the team to figure out the rest, handing over an open system with no guidance on how to make it work for a systematic program at launch. Enfusion was different. The team knew what they were selling, explained it clearly, and committed to working alongside the program through onboarding rather than stepping away once the contract was signed. For a team with no margin for implementation risk, that combination of clarity and hands-on partnership was the deciding factor.
An Automated Daily Cycle
Enfusion now sits at the centre of an automated daily workflow. Signals are computed overnight in Python. Between 8:00 and 8:30 each morning, the Enfusion API loads them directly into the platform. Pre-trade compliance and risk limits, codified in Enfusion and inaccessible to the trading team, must pass before any order reaches the market. Fills flow back via FIX and the portfolio updates in real-time throughout the day.
That compliance layer has proved particularly valuable in conversations with allocators and SMA platforms. Every order passes the same independent gate, giving investors and counterparties direct, verifiable visibility into how the fund stays within its mandate without relying on the trading team’s word. For a small senior team approaching institutional mandates, that kind of structural credibility is difficult to replicate and disproportionately valuable at this stage of growth.
As the program prepares to launch an intraday strategy, the same cycle will run every five minutes. Getting the portfolio back at that frequency is what makes intraday execution possible for a lean team.
“Enfusion by Clearwater is open all day. We see the fills come back, the portfolio update, the risk reports change in real time. And every time we add a new counterparty, we just contact the team and the plumbing is done,” explained Tarik Garidi. “For a firm with a strong growth roadmap, that combination of visibility and connectivity is enormously valuable.”
Scaling Without Operational Drag
The same team that launched the Ellida Alpha Machines is running it today, at approximately $150 million and heading toward $200 million, with no additional headcount, no new reporting infrastructure, and two SMAs actively onboarding. That’s the clearest measure of what the platform decision at launch has delivered.
Part of what makes that possible is the ecosystem around the platform as the pattern repeats with every new counterparty added since: the Enfusion team handles the plumbing, and the fund’s operational footprint expands without the team expanding with it.
“For quant firms whose developers like to build things in-house, you can’t underestimate the value of having Enfusion by Clearwater as the spider in the network,” said Jamil Ismail, CEO, Ellida Capital. “It connects you to the entire ecosystem, so you can focus on alpha rather than infrastructure. That’s the foundation we built on, and it’s what gives us the confidence to scale.”
Looking Ahead
As the team moves into intraday execution, brings additional SMA mandates online, and adds new prime brokers, the platform foundation put in place at launch will continue to support that growth. For a team with institutional ambitions, being able to scale without adding complexity is what will matter most in the next phase.
Footnote
All regulated investment management that is conducted by the Ellida team is done by the team as members of MRB as the licensed entity.
Running five systematic strategies across global markets means processing 40,000+ transactions a month – across cash equities, futures, FX forwards, options, T-bills, and more.
Beacon by Clearwater transformed energy risk management for renewable power provider, CleanChoice Energy, which experienced rapid growth in the U.S. power market.
