Pragma Financial Systems wants to bring algorithms to the common man. A five-man vendor based in New York, Pragma is marketing algorithmic trading software to broker-dealers and money managers. Today control of most algorithms is in the hands of a select few bulge-bracket shops. “The smaller broker dealers don’t have the algorithms that the banks have,” says Lee Maclin, a Pragma partner, “and their clients are going to the banks which are delivering the service cheaply. So, they feel pressure to implement it.”