FOREX TECHNOLOGY
>>>
Tom Higgins, CEO of Gold-i, a UK-based trading systems integrator and official distributor of Meta Trader 4 and 5 trading systems, commenting from the retail FX brokerage perspective, says: “Te problem we see with brokers is that there are lots of different trading feeds. So, rates coming and trading going out, rather than just plain flat rates coming that you cannot do anything with.”
He adds: “With the issue facing brokers of substantial numbers of trades going across many different banks, do they use CLS or do they use a prime broker to net on their positions each day or each week? Or, are you going to do it yourself and do a daily sweep and say ‘OK, I’m long at UBS and Barclays, but short at Deutsche Bank so I’ll net everything out myself.”
New processing technologies
In terms of new processing technologies, compression techniques, hosting solutions and specialised content routers (including Complex Event Processing (CEP) and real-time operating systems) that are now available to assist with more efficient FX market data management and bandwidth optimisation, FXall’s Huffman says: “Specialised hardware routing devices have started to emerge as a viable option for market data distribution and management. Tese devices handle message traffic in rates of 1 million messages/ second or more with micro-second level latency.” Stream Base’s Tibbetts says: “We have seen it becoming much more common for institutions to utilise CEP. And, not only for StreamBase CEP but other vendors too. And, I think that is a major component of new dealing systems.”
He adds: “When it comes to compression, we’re seeing a few venues start to starting adopt FIX Fast (FIX Adapted Streaming (FAST)), a compressed FIX protocol, and particularly around market data. Tat works well. It’s not rocket science, but it’s a good protocol and a sound system. FIX Fast can assist with bandwidth optimisation and bandwidth constraints. So, the same amount of market data running over FIX Fast will be perhaps 5x-10x more dense.”
In terms of message support and the FIX protocols in the foreign exchange space today, FIX Protocol Ltd (FPL), the industry driven message standard and not- for-profit entity, notes “good support” in relation to Market Data (executable streaming prices) in FIX FIX 5.0 (including FIX 5.0 Service Packs 1 and 2) based on fields incorporated into the core protocol. Some level of support also exists for FIX 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4.
76 | april 2011 e-FOREX
Justyn Trenner
“A firm is also going to have to clean the data that they subscribe to, as well as having to evaluate what quantity of data to blend or to aggregate. For example, how many levels of liquidity are you going to choose to blend in.
And, finally what periodicity of data to use for writing and driving your algorithms.”
Tibbetts also observes greater adoption in the sphere infrastructure technology. Content-based routing technology or more sophisticated Middleware such as from firms like Solace Systems, Inca,, a Canadian company based in Ottawa and a leader in Middleware appliances.
StreamBase has a partnership with Solace that produces a hardware accelerated Middleware. “Tat is very performant,” states Tibbetts. “It avoids many of the problems that multicast has and allows fairly sophisticated routing to be undertaken. And, it has some very compelling data distribution and high availability.”
Solace not only helps with ‘Follow the Sun’ trading architectures, where firms have a large enterprise that has multiple worldwide desks, but Tibbetts contends it has some highly useful Wide Area Network (WAN)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188