Fidessa group, provider of the Fidessa and Fidessa LatentZero trading, market data and global connectivity solutions, has announced the delivery of data from the London Stock Exchange with
Fidessa group, provider of the Fidessa and Fidessa LatentZero trading, market data and global connectivity solutions, has announced the delivery of data from the London Stock Exchange with the lowest latency available for more than 200 of its customers.
In line with the launch of the new Performance Channels service from the exchange, Fidessa undertook a major redevelopment of its internal systems to handle this new delivery mechanism for exchange data, launching the system live into production on the day the London Stock Exchange switched on its service.
‘Our strategy is to deliver the lowest latency solutions possible to the widest community, and so it was vital that we were able to offer the benefits of this new service to our customers,’ says Phil Beevers, head of infrastructure development at Fidessa.
‘While it required a major redesign of the way we process information, we were committed to providing those of our customers who receive LSE data via Fidessa with the optimum delivery service available from day one.’
Noting that the volume of price updates across Europe is now at three times its level of a year ago, Beevers adds: ‘Reducing latency is one part of the problem, but just as important is the need for Fidessa to keep up that performance throughout the trading day and then record every price tick for historical analysis as part of our algorithmic trading and compliance solutions.’
Performance Channels, the new delivery mechanism for Infolect data, is delivered over 100 megabit lines and provides an ultra low-latency feed of market data, effectively removing the so-called throttles affecting the exchange’s standard Service Channels at peak trading times. Although an optional service from the exchange, Performance Channels has been fully implemented by Fidessa.
Performance Channels, high-speed delivery mechanisms that increase the rate at which data can be sent out to the market, are designed to be of particular benefit to customers who need to have the lowest latency connectivity to the exchange during peak trading periods.
Performance Channels also have a new liquidity-aligned structure the UK data channels to increase the efficiency of market data delivery and optimise the way in which messages are distributed across channels.
The exchange’s current Service Channel throttling policy protects customers’ connections and systems from high volumes of data overflowing their Extranex connection. This can mean that during extremely busy periods Service Channels can be subject to minor latency as the high volume of messages being disseminated are throttled back to protect customer systems and networks from high data spikes. Performance Channels effectively remove the throttles by increasing the available bandwidth for the data to ensure it is disseminated as it arrives. To receive the service customers must migrate to an Extranex 100mb connection.
Wendy Morgan, head of real time data at the London Stock Exchange, says: ‘As trading volumes grow and latency becomes more crucial, it is essential that our customers have a wide variety of options when choosing to connect to the exchange’s markets. We welcome Fidessa’s investment in delivering their service in parallel with the launch of Performance Channels, ensuring that market participants have low-latency access to our markets.’
Beevers adds: ‘Working in close partnership with the London Stock Exchange, the Fidessa development team has been at the forefront of testing this new service and in the onward provision of this low-latency data delivery to clients. Many suppliers talk about low latency and try to demonstrate their claims in laboratory conditions. At Fidessa we are able to demonstrate our operational and service capabilities by delivering an unrivalled low-latency solution live to over 200 clients in one go.’
The Fidessa product suite provides integrated trading, market data and connectivity solutions to more than 520 clients around the world, including 85 per cent of tier-one equity brokers. The Fidessa network provides connectivity to around 1,500 buy-side institutions, 255 brokers and 92 exchanges worldwide.
Fidessa group is a supplier of multi-asset trading, portfolio analysis, decision support, investment compliance, market data and global connectivity solutions for both buy-side and sell-side. Headquartered in London with offices in New York, Boston, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris and Toronto, the group serves some 22,000 users at 520 clients worldwide. Fidessa was founded in 1981, has revenues of USD270m and employs more than 1,100 people.
