Revamped LiveTrade set to revolutionise market

What do fine wine and whisky investors need in 2024? With the relaunch of its transformed LiveTrade online platform, dynamic merchant Bordeaux Index believes it has a compelling answer.

The new system promises to break down the storage-related barriers presented by many merchants to provide a seamless, transparent and secure trade of fine wine and whisky from any UK or European bonded warehouse to buyers worldwide.

As the fine wine and spirits market has evolved well beyond its buy-on-release model to become a serious, dynamic investment category with a global client base, it needs a trading system to match. With this revamped LiveTrade, Bordeaux Index promises a platform that is not just capable of keeping pace with contemporary demand, but of enabling this sector to reach ever greater heights.

“LiveTrade has had a significant impact on the fine wine market in recent years,” argues O’Connell. In particular he suggests that “the provision of ongoing two-way prices on around 1,000 wines has led to greater market liquidity in these wines and given collectors and investors confidence to buy and sell more actively.”

“The most important thing to any customer is a clear, efficient and transparent trading experience,” maintains Matthew O’Connell, CEO of LiveTrade and head of investment at Bordeaux Index. With that in mind and in response to client feedback, the platform’s My Portfolio tool now shows all valuations on a net basis. Users can also see at a glance how far apart bids and offers lie, as well as areas of the market where activity may be imminent.

One of the greatest challenges the LiveTrade team needed to overcome was meeting client demand for quick trading access to fine wines stored in any UK or European bonded warehouse, while still providing the security of a full Bordeaux Index guarantee. Here O’Connell stresses the importance of “our deep market knowledge and business trading scale” to overcome the problems posed by such a fragmented marketplace.

“Many large merchants insist on holding wine in their storage before offering it for sale,” he remarks. “We offer a genuinely accessible, open and efficient market, which is what the wine space needs.”

While all wines sold on the LiveTrade platform must come from UK or European storage, LiveTrade’s client base is highly diverse, with users scattered in every corner of the globe. Nevertheless, explains O’Connell, “The common feature is that regardless of location of the client, they all want and value efficient access to such a large quantity of pristine wine and indeed the integrated underlying logistics, whether that is storage or shipping to the final destination.”

The relaunched platform doesn’t just aim to help investors and collectors, but also the many different fine wine-focused businesses who have emerged in the last couple of decades to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the concurrent rise of online trading and an increasingly attractive commodity. O’Connell explains how the new LiveTrade helps level the playing field.

“The wine market has seen an emergence of many new, generally smaller, businesses in recent years and usually it is difficult for such businesses to work on a stock-intensive model,” he outlines. “In offering continual instant access to such a broad range and quantity of wine and whisky, LiveTrade is facilitating superior market access without the requirement for businesses to increase their stock.”

Of particular importance here is LiveTrade’s API (Application Programming Interface) integration, a system which allows other businesses to list wines for purchase or sale directly on or from LiveTrade on an automated basis.

For Bordeaux Index, that ecosystem extends beyond the confines of fine wine into the highly complementary world of spirits. In line with this focus, LiveTrade offers the same opportunities to the growing number of individuals and businesses involved in the trade of the spirit category with the most significant secondary market presence: whisky.

“Fine wine and whisky are similar to us in their trading characteristics and we are pleased to have facilitated greater market access for whisky as well as wine in our new platform,” comments O’Connell.

Indeed, this additional whisky focus often caters for the very same clients who use LiveTrade to buy or sell fine wine. “In terms of category crossover we see many collectors, investors and businesses trading wine and whisky as well as those who focus on one or the other,” he remarks.

Now, looking ahead to the opportunities presented by this 2024 relaunch, O’Connell remarks: “We believe LiveTrade is a game-changer for the modern fine wine market and we are excited to see its impact over the coming years.”

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