The MiFID and Best Execution Seminar is designed and delivered by two MiFID specialists with demonstrated expertise in transaction cost analysis and best execution models; Jean-René Giraud , the Director of Development of the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre and Catherine D'Hondt, Associate Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School.

The seminar gives participants a practical understanding of the directive's impact on their business and on the wider asset management industry, provides them with a roadmap for compliance with new operational requirements and equips them with the indispensable conceptual and practical tools to set up the processes to achieve and demonstrate best execution. It replaces and extends the scope of the Investment Services Directive on 1 November 2007.

Described as a "bigger bang" for European capital markets, MiFID will revolutionise trading by opening execution services to full competition, create new level playing fields for investment service providers holding EU financial service passports, and impose extensive new organisational and business conduct requirements upon firms dealing with securities.

Providing research insights into the newly introduced Directive and its implications for all aspects of the execution process, this intensive seminar allows participants to go beyond MiFID compliance and embrace best execution as a competitive advantage in the new pan-European financial markets. As such it should appeal to all buy- and sell-side professionals involved in the design, implementation or control of execution processes in securities and other financial instruments.

While "Best Execution" should be at the core of the MiFID strategy of every investment firm conducting business in Europe, the notion remains complex and ambiguous, making effective implementation and compliance highly challenging.

This two-day seminar builds upon the latest results of the best execution and operational risks research programme conducted by EDHEC and includes two case study presentations by key industry players in the field of execution operations.

The seminar addresses questions such as:

• What are the objectives and the key provisions of MiFID?
• What is the impact of MiFID on buy- and sell-side institutions?
• How will MiFID transform the European execution landscape?
• How to comply with the operational requirements of MiFID?
• What should the practitioner know about market structure analysis?
• What models can be used to measure quality of execution?
• How to analyse and measure transaction costs?
• How to estimate market impact and timing risk before order submission?
• What order submission strategies can be used to optimise execution?
• How to use algorithmic trading for best execution?