Best trade surveillance software for small firms
Two kinds of software sell under this name. Market-abuse platforms read order flow for spoofing and insider trading; account tools read client and staff trades for suitability, share-class and restricted-list breaches. Eight vendors are read here against the FINRA and SEC rules, and the verdicts say which kind suits a small RIA and which a small broker-dealer.
Reviewed October 2026
Best overall
Docupace ComplianceEdge
Daily transaction monitoring with review queues, comment tracking and escalation, built for broker-dealers, RIAs and hybrid firms, is the closest match to a principal's review of every trade.
Read the review of Docupace ComplianceEdgeBest for a small RIA
Orion Compliance
Post-trade supervision of client accounts, drift and share-class checks, and brokerage feeds pulled in from named custodians, with a dashboard for outside compliance consultants.
Read the review of Orion ComplianceBest for a firm that handles its own orders
TT Trade Surveillance
Named spoofing, marking-the-close and wash-trading models across equities, futures, options, fixed income and FX, case management with a full audit trail, and data taken by drop copy or file upload.
Read the review of TT Trade Surveillance
The comparison table
| Vendor | Alert library: patterns and asset classes3110(d); 2111.05 | Supervisory review and sign-offFINRA 3110(b)(2) | Alerts and case notes kept as records17a-4(e)(8) | Custodian or clearing data feeds | Firm sizes served |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Docupace ComplianceEdgeAccount surveillance | Partial Suitability, conflicts, registration; asset classes not listed | Meets Supervisory approvals, review queues, escalation | Partial Comment tracking, audit trails; 17a-4 not named | Partial Aggregates data incl. FINRA; custodians not named | Partial Scales with headcount and AUM; small not named |
Orion ComplianceAccount surveillance | Partial Post-trade, pre-trade, drift, share class | Partial Alerts and an audit trail of remedies; sign-off not stated | Partial Record of all compliance activities; 17a-4 not named | Meets Brokerage feeds; Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing named | Partial “businesses of all sizes” |
TT Trade SurveillanceMarket-abuse surveillance | Meets Six named models; equities to FX | Partial Case assignment, SLAs; sign-off not stated | Partial Complete audit trail; 17a-4 not named | Partial Exchange and FIX drop copy, file uploads | Not stated |
ComplyEmployee-trade monitoring | Partial Employee trades, restricted lists, violations | Partial Preclearance routed for manual review | Partial Full audit trail export; 17a-4 not named for trades | Partial Direct broker feeds for employee accounts | Not stated |
HadriusClient and employee trades | Partial Restricted lists, mandates, abuse patterns; no named models | Meets Escalation, decisions on each case; cites 3110 | Partial Full issue lifecycle kept; 17(a)-4 named for comms | Partial Trade ingestion; sources not named | Partial Demo form starts at 1-50 staff |
NICE ActimizeMarket-abuse surveillance | Meets Standard models: equities, fixed income, FX, swaps, futures, options | Partial Case manager routes alerts; sign-off not stated | Partial Case manager audit trail; 17a-4 not named | Partial 700+ market data sources; custodians not named | Partial “organizations of all sizes” |
SteelEyeMarket-abuse surveillance | Partial Insider trading, spoofing, wash trading; asset classes not listed | Partial Audited case manager; sign-off not stated | Partial WORM records of orders and trades; case notes not stated | Partial 50+ trade data handlers; clearing not named | Not stated |
StratiFiAccount monitoring | Partial Share class, concentration, suitability, Reg BI | Not stated | Not stated Client books and records only | Partial Positions read from custodian statements | Partial Independent firms; RIAs and independent BDs |
Two kinds of tool share one name
Search for trade surveillance and two different products come back under one name. One watches the market: it replays orders against prices to catch manipulation. The other watches accounts: it checks each client trade against the client's profile and the firm's rules, and often the staff's own trades against a restricted list. A small firm usually needs the second, and sometimes both.
What each kind watches
| Kind | What it reads | Typical alerts | On this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market-abuse surveillance | Orders and executions, read against market data | Spoofing, marking the close, wash trading, insider trading | TT Trade Surveillance, NICE Actimize, SteelEye |
| Client-account surveillance | Client trades and positions, read against firm rules and each client's profile | Suitability, share class, concentration, drift | Docupace ComplianceEdge, Orion Compliance, StratiFi, Hadrius |
| Employee-trade monitoring | Staff brokerage accounts, read against restricted lists and blackout windows | Trades without preclearance, restricted-list trades | Comply, Hadrius, Orion Compliance |
Vendor pages read October 22, 2026
The split follows how a small firm trades. An RIA that places client trades through a custodian is asking account questions: was the trade suitable, was the share class right, has the model drifted? A broker-dealer that introduces its accounts to a clearing firm asks the same, plus its principal's review of every transaction. Market-abuse models earn their keep when the firm itself handles orders, through a proprietary account or a trading desk. Our guide to trade surveillance for small firms walks through the alerts themselves.
What FINRA asks a small broker-dealer to review
FINRA's supervision rule sets the floor, and it is a wide one. Every transaction gets a principal's eyes, and the review leaves a written trace:
A second paragraph aims at the patterns market-abuse models look for. The procedures must include “a process for the review of securities transactions that are reasonably designed to identify trades that may violate” the rules against insider trading and manipulation, across the firm's own accounts, its associated persons' accounts and covered accounts, and “Each member must conduct promptly an internal investigation into any such trade”. A firm without a trading desk still owes that review of its staff accounts, which is where employee-trade monitoring fits.
On the client side, the suitability rule's third obligation is the one software watches best. FINRA lists “the turnover rate, the cost-equity ratio, and the use of in-and-out trading” as possible factors in quantitative suitability, and those are standard account alerts. Our guides to FINRA Rule 3110 supervision and FINRA Rule 2111 suitability set out both rules in full.
From the rule to the column
| Rule | What it asks | Column in the table |
|---|---|---|
| 3110(b)(2) | A registered principal reviews all transactions, evidenced in writing | Supervisory review and sign-off |
| 3110(d) | Firm, staff and covered accounts reviewed for insider trading and manipulation | Alert library |
| 2111.05(c) | Quantitative suitability: turnover, cost-equity ratio, in-and-out trading | Alert library |
| 17a-4(e)(8) | Reports reviewing unusual activity in customer accounts kept 18 months | Alerts and case notes kept |
FINRA Rules 3110, 2111; 17 CFR 240.17a-4
Surveillance is one part of a broker-dealer's compliance stack. The platforms that also run written supervisory procedures, branch inspections and correspondence review are compared in compliance software for small broker-dealers.
What an adviser's own rules ask
The adviser rules read for this page do not name trade surveillance at all. They ask for policies that fit the firm, and an annual look at whether they work:
The second duty is to “Review, no less frequently than annually, the adequacy of the policies and procedures established pursuant to this section and the effectiveness of their implementation”. By our reading, account monitoring is evidence for that review: if the trading policy says no client holds more than a set share of one issuer, a concentration alert log shows the policy was tested. The annual compliance review planner lays out the review itself, and our guide to Rule 206(4)-7 covers the rule.
Staff trading is the other adviser duty a tool can carry. Each access person must submit a transaction report “no later than 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter”, and an adviser whose only access person is its owner need not report to itself if it keeps records of all its own holdings and transactions. For a firm with a handful of access persons, the tools built for that job are compared in personal trading compliance software.
These rules bind SEC-registered advisers. A state-registered adviser should check its own state's rules with its compliance counsel.
Keeping the alert, the review and the outcome
An alert that was cleared without a name, a date and an outcome is a gap an examiner can see. For a broker-dealer the rule gives the reports themselves a clock of their own:
The same paragraph matters when a firm changes vendor. If a report cannot be reproduced from historical data in its original format because the system changed, the firm may produce it from the current system but “must be accompanied by a record explaining each system change which affected the reports.” Ask the old vendor for an export of past alerts before the contract ends.
What to keep, and for how long
- Exception reports on customer accounts (BD)18 months17 CFR 240.17a-4(e)(8)
- Order and trade memoranda (BD), first two years easily accessible3 years17 CFR 240.17a-4(b)
- Supervisory procedures manual, each version (BD), after use ends3 years17 CFR 240.17a-4(e)(7)
- Annual compliance review records (RIA)5 years17 CFR 275.204-2(a)(17)(ii), (e)(1)
Adviser periods run from the end of the fiscal year of the last entry; the broker-dealer rule states lengths only. The retention calculator works out the dates.
How the record is stored differs by firm type. A broker-dealer's electronic records fall under Rule 17a-4(f), with its audit-trail or non-rewriteable storage modes, explained in SEC Rule 17a-4 and WORM storage. The adviser rule asks for records safeguarded “from loss, alteration, or destruction” and says nothing of WORM. No surveillance vendor on this page names Rule 17a-4 for its trade-case records, which is why that column reads Partial or Not stated and the cards name the document to ask for.
Where the data comes from
A surveillance tool reads what it is fed, so the custodian and clearing column matters more for a small firm than any alert count. Most small firms do not hold their own trade data: an RIA's trades sit with its custodians, and an introducing broker-dealer's with its clearing firm. The rule lets the introducing firm lean on the clearing firm's records, but not on its responsibility:
- An introducing broker-dealerIts clearing firm's trade and position filesAsk whether the vendor already loads your clearing firm's files, and on what schedule.
- An RIAIts custodians' daily feedsOrion names Schwab, Fidelity and Pershing among its custodial sources; StratiFi reads positions from custodian statements.
- A firm that handles its own ordersExecution drop copies and market dataTT takes exchange or FIX drop copy and file uploads; SteelEye lists over 50 trade data handlers; NICE Actimize cites 700+ market data sources.
Only Orion names custodians on the pages we read, which is why every other vendor reads Partial in that column. Without a feed, someone loads statements by hand, and alerts arrive only as often as the statements do. The wider set of duties a small member firm carries is in our guide to FINRA compliance for broker-dealers.
Which kind your firm needs, and what to ask
Pick the firm type and tick what the firm does. The answer names the kind of tool each activity points to, the rule behind it, the vendors of that kind on this page, and the questions to send them before a demo.
- Client-account surveillancePrincipal review of all transactions, evidenced in writing (3110(b)(2)); Quantitative suitability and Reg BI care (2111.05(c); 15l-1(a)(2)(ii))On this page: Docupace ComplianceEdge, Orion Compliance, StratiFi, Hadrius
- Which custodians or clearing firms do you take daily data from, and do you already hold a feed for ours?
- Which alert rules ship ready to use (turnover, share class, concentration, drift), and which do we write?
- Does each closed alert record the reviewer, the date and the outcome, and can we export that record?
- Employee-trade monitoringReview of associated persons' accounts for insider trading (3110(d))On this page: Comply, Hadrius, Orion Compliance
- Which brokers send employee account data to you directly, and how do you collect the rest?
- How are restricted lists and blackout windows applied before and after a trade?
- Can access persons file holdings and transaction reports through the tool, with the date each was filed?
- For any system a broker-dealer buysIf we change systems, can past exception reports be reproduced from historical data, and will you give us the record of each system change?17 CFR 240.17a-4(e)(8)
Each vendor, read against the rule
Docupace ComplianceEdge
Account surveillance- What it is
- The supervision and surveillance product of Docupace, a wealth operations platform. Its trade surveillance and blotter review runs “Daily monitoring of transactions for suitability, conflicts of interest and registration compliance”, with centralized review queues, comment tracking and escalation workflows, and account monitoring against configurable thresholds across advisory and brokerage accounts.
- Who it fits
- A small broker-dealer or hybrid firm whose principal must review every transaction. The page names broker-dealers, RIAs and hybrid firms, and bank trust companies, and says the documentation “scales as advisor headcount and AUM grow”; it also pitches enterprise scale and names no small-firm plan.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesPartialSuitability, conflicts, registration; asset classes not listed
- Supervisory review and sign-offMeetsSupervisory approvals, review queues, escalation
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialComment tracking, audit trails; 17a-4 not named
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartialAggregates data incl. FINRA; custodians not named
- Firm sizes servedPartialScales with headcount and AUM; small not named
- Not verified by us
- Which custodians and clearing firms it takes daily data from, the asset classes its alerts cover, and how long alerts, comments and sign-offs are kept and in what storage.
Orion Compliance
Account surveillance- What it is
- The compliance module of the Orion platform, sold in three parts: employee, firm and client oversight. Client Oversight lists “Post-Trade Compliance of Client Activity (Supervision)”, Drift, Pre-Trade Compliance and Share Class. Its plans page says Drift and Share Class need Orion Risk Intelligence, and Pre-Trade Compliance needs Eclipse.
- Who it fits
- A small RIA, or the outside consultant who runs its compliance: the page calls it the platform “for RIAs, broker-dealers, and compliance consultants”, says brokerage feeds are pulled in automatically, and names Schwab, Fidelity and Pershing among custodial sources. The best fit when the firm already uses Orion.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesPartialPost-trade, pre-trade, drift, share class
- Supervisory review and sign-offPartialAlerts and an audit trail of remedies; sign-off not stated
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialRecord of all compliance activities; 17a-4 not named
- Custodian or clearing data feedsMeetsBrokerage feeds; Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing named
- Firm sizes servedPartial“businesses of all sizes”
- Not verified by us
- Its list of client-account alert rules, whether a reviewer's sign-off is recorded with each closed alert, and which client oversight features run without other Orion products.
TT Trade Surveillance
Market-abuse surveillance- What it is
- Market-abuse surveillance from Trading Technologies: “Monitor and investigate multi-asset trading activity and compliance risks across global markets.” Core models include Spoofing, Marking the Close and Order Book Dominance; configurable ones include Insider Trading, Wash Trading and Momentum Ignition. Cases are assigned, tracked against service levels and kept with “a complete audit trail”.
- Who it fits
- A broker-dealer that trades for its own account or works client orders on its own desk, across equities, futures, options, fixed income or FX. Data can arrive by exchange or FIX drop copy or by file upload, which suits a firm without a data team. Its page names no firm size and no SEC or FINRA rule.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesMeetsSix named models; equities to FX
- Supervisory review and sign-offPartialCase assignment, SLAs; sign-off not stated
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialComplete audit trail; 17a-4 not named
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartialExchange and FIX drop copy, file uploads
- Firm sizes servedNot stated
- Not verified by us
- Its retention and storage for alerts and case notes, whether its case record names the reviewing principal, and whether it takes a clearing firm's files for an introducing broker.
Comply
Employee-trade monitoring- What it is
- A compliance suite sold as Comply Platform (formerly ComplySci) and Comply for RIA (formerly RIA in a Box). Its trade monitoring watches employee accounts, not client accounts: “a full view of employee brokerage accounts through the industry’s largest network of direct broker feeds”, with preclearance against restricted lists and violations documented as they occur.
- Who it fits
- A firm whose surveillance gap is personal trading by its own people. The page names RIAs, wealth managers, broker dealers, private funds, investment banks and insurance companies; it names no firm size.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesPartialEmployee trades, restricted lists, violations
- Supervisory review and sign-offPartialPreclearance routed for manual review
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialFull audit trail export; 17a-4 not named for trades
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartialDirect broker feeds for employee accounts
- Firm sizes servedNot stated
- Not verified by us
- How many brokers send employee data directly (no count is given), and the storage mode behind its trade-monitoring records.
Hadrius
Client and employee trades- What it is
- An AI compliance platform whose account surveillance reviews trades against “restricted lists, issuer relationships, client mandates, market conditions, and behavioral patterns”, covering both client and employee trading on one dashboard. It “preserves the full lifecycle of each issue”, from the underlying trades to the final decision.
- Who it fits
- A small broker-dealer or RIA that wants client and employee trades, communications and marketing review in one system. Its broker-dealer page cites FINRA Rules 3110, 3120 and 3130; its demo form's size choices start at 1-50 employees.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesPartialRestricted lists, mandates, abuse patterns; no named models
- Supervisory review and sign-offMeetsEscalation, decisions on each case; cites 3110
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialFull issue lifecycle kept; 17(a)-4 named for comms
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartialTrade ingestion; sources not named
- Firm sizes servedPartialDemo form starts at 1-50 staff
- Not verified by us
- The custodians and clearing firms it ingests trades from, a list of its detection patterns, and whether its 17(a)-4/WORM retention covers trade cases as well as communications.
NICE Actimize
Market-abuse surveillance- What it is
- An enterprise financial-markets compliance suite. Its market surveillance ships standard models for “equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, swaps, futures, and options” and a web-based case manager with audit trail. A separate Sales Practices and Suitability solution names FINRA among the regulators it supports.
- Who it fits
- A broker-dealer with real trading volume and its own surveillance staff. The page says it “meets the needs of organizations of all sizes”, but it describes no small-firm package.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesMeetsStandard models: equities, fixed income, FX, swaps, futures, options
- Supervisory review and sign-offPartialCase manager routes alerts; sign-off not stated
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialCase manager audit trail; 17a-4 not named
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartial700+ market data sources; custodians not named
- Firm sizes servedPartial“organizations of all sizes”
- Not verified by us
- Which modules a small firm needs at minimum, its data intake from a clearing firm, and the retention and storage mode of alerts and case files.
SteelEye
Market-abuse surveillance- What it is
- A trade and communications surveillance platform. Its trade surveillance detects “insider trading, spoofing, wash trading, and more” from “over 50 trade data handlers”, with a “fully audited case manager”; its home page offers “WORM-compliant record keeping” for orders, trades and communications.
- Who it fits
- A broker or asset manager that wants trade and communications surveillance in one place. Brokers and broker-dealers are named audiences and FINRA is listed among its regulations; no firm size is stated.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesPartialInsider trading, spoofing, wash trading; asset classes not listed
- Supervisory review and sign-offPartialAudited case manager; sign-off not stated
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsPartialWORM records of orders and trades; case notes not stated
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartial50+ trade data handlers; clearing not named
- Firm sizes servedNot stated
- Not verified by us
- Its US clearing-firm connectors, the asset classes its alert models cover, and whether case notes sit in the same WORM store as trade records.
StratiFi
Account monitoring- What it is
- A wealth-management platform whose compliance monitoring says it will “Automatically monitor every account for share class violations, concentration, and suitability issues”, with Reg BI among the violations its dashboard catches. Positions are read from custodian statements.
- Who it fits
- A small RIA or independent broker-dealer that wants account checks bundled with risk profiles and investment policy statements. It names RIAs and independent broker-dealers; its pages say nothing of a review workflow.
- What the rule requires, and whether it meets it
- Alert library: patterns and asset classesPartialShare class, concentration, suitability, Reg BI
- Supervisory review and sign-offNot stated
- Alerts and case notes kept as recordsNot statedClient books and records only
- Custodian or clearing data feedsPartialPositions read from custodian statements
- Firm sizes servedPartialIndependent firms; RIAs and independent BDs
- Not verified by us
- How an alert is reviewed, signed off and kept, and whether it takes daily custodian or clearing feeds rather than statements.
How we read these vendors
Questions firms ask
Does FINRA require a broker-dealer to buy trade surveillance software?
No rule we read names software. Rule 3110 requires a supervisory system “reasonably designed to achieve compliance”, and its procedures must include “the review by a registered principal, evidenced in writing, of all transactions relating to the investment banking or securities business of the member.”
The rule asks for review evidenced in writing, not for a system, so a blotter a principal initials and dates is still writing. Software earns its place when volume, or patterns a person cannot see across weeks of blotters, makes that review thin. Your compliance counsel can say where your firm sits.
FINRA Rule 3110(a), (b)(2)
Does an RIA need trade surveillance?
The adviser rules read for this page name no tool. Rule 206(4)-7 requires written policies and procedures “reasonably designed to prevent violation” of the Advisers Act, and access persons must report their own trades: a transaction report “no later than 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter”. By our reading, account monitoring is one way to test the trading policies in the annual review, and employee-trade monitoring is one way to collect the code-of-ethics reports.
17 CFR 275.206(4)-7(a); 17 CFR 275.204A-1(b)(2)(ii)
How long must a broker-dealer keep surveillance exception reports?
Rule 17a-4(e)(8) keeps “All reports produced to review for unusual activity in customer accounts until eighteen months after the date the report was generated.” A firm may instead produce them promptly on request, and if its system has changed so a report cannot be reproduced the same way, the rule asks for a record explaining each change.
17 CFR 240.17a-4(e)(8)
Which suitability patterns should account alerts look for?
FINRA's suitability rule has three obligations: “reasonable-basis suitability, customer-specific suitability, and quantitative suitability.” For the third, it names “the turnover rate, the cost-equity ratio, and the use of in-and-out trading” as possible factors, which is why turnover and in-and-out alerts are standard. Rule 2111 “shall not apply to recommendations subject to SEA Rule 15l-1” (Regulation Best Interest), so by our reading the same alerts serve Reg BI for retail recommendations.
FINRA Rule 2111.05(a)-(c), 2111.08
Is any surveillance tool approved by FINRA or the SEC?
No. Neither regulator approves vendors, and FINRA retired its Compliance Vendor Directory effective March 19, 2024. A vendor that calls its tool “FINRA compliant” is describing how it can be used; the duty to supervise stays with the firm: “Final responsibility for proper supervision shall rest with the member.”
FINRA Rule 3110(a); finra.org/industry/cvd