FiNETIK – Asia and Latin America – Market News Network

Asia and Latin America News Network focusing on Financial Markets, Energy, Environment, Commodity and Risk, Trading and Data Management

April 20, 2013 • 11:28 pm 0

Mexico, The Emerging Latin American Powerhouse

TABB Forum:  For the past few years, coverage of Mexico in the U.S. media has largely been dominated by stories of violence stemming from the country’s drug cartels. Lately though, the media have increasingly been turning their attention to the story of Mexico’s booming economy, and new president Enrique Peña Nieto’s bold moves to radically reshape it. This robust growth in Mexico looks set to continue for some time, which has led the Financial Times to label Mexico as the “Aztec Tiger.”1

MexDer, the nation’s only futures exchange, has been taking steps to ensure that it grows apace with the nation’s economy by making substantial upgrades to its matching engine, while continuing to make it easier for foreign investors to access the market. As a result of these changes, as of yesterday, April 14, north-to-south routing to MexDer via CME Group’s Globex® platform is available on Trading Technologies. You can read the details in the news release that we published today and on  TradingTechnology website.

The Aztec Tiger 

A perfect storm of positive influences is coming together to make Mexico one of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses. Mexico has a young and growing population, low levels of government debt and low inflation. The country is developing into a leading exporter due in part to widespread implementation of new manufacturing processes, but also due to the fact that Mexico has free trade pacts with 44 countries—more than any other nation on earth.These forces have combined to make Mexico’s economy one of the few bright spots in a global economy still working off the hangover resulting from the credit bubble. Mexico’s economy grew at around four percent in 2012, quadruple the growth rate of Latin America’s largest economy, Brazil.2 The Mexican peso hit a 19-month high against the U.S. dollar in March, and has outpaced 16 other major world currencies over the last month.3

With its growth track record and favorable conditions for growth to continue, a Nomura Equity Research report in July 2012 predicted that Mexico would overtake Brazil to become the largest Latin American economy within the next decade.4 In addition, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch have indicated that in the near future, they are likely to upgrade Mexico’s debt, which is already investment grade.5

A Pact for Mexico, An Open Door for Growth

Much of the optimism for Mexico’s future can be traced back to its new president, Enrique Peña Nieto. He hails from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico uninterrupted for 71 years and was identified with corruption and inefficient bureaucracy. That being said, President Nieto is quickly making himself known as a risk taker, willing to take on fights in which none of his predecessors seemed willing to engage.

Within two days of his swearing-in last December, Nieto’s PRI signed a “Pact for Mexico”6 with the opposition National Action Party (PAN). This pact outlines 95 proposals to modernize and liberalize Mexico’s economy. Nieto began by taking on the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, by announcing plans to foster competition in the telecommunication and television industries, which are currently dominated by monopolies. Later this year, Nieto is expected to propose his most significant change, opening up Mexico’s energy market and allowing the state-run oil concern Pemex to work with the world’s largest oil companies. It’s expected that these reforms, once enacted, will increase Mexico’s GDP growth from four percent to six percent a year.7

Making MoNeT

In parallel, MexDer and the Mexican government have done quite a bit to attract foreign investors, and to make it easy for them to access the market. Perhaps one of the most significant changes has been the development of the MoNeT matching engine, which went live on Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV), the equities segment, last fall.

The MoNeT matching engine was designed to attract high-frequency traders, mainly from the U.S. and Europe. It boasts internal latencies of 90 microseconds, which is faster than the 110 microseconds of NASDAQ or 125 microseconds at the London Stock Exchange.8 BMV volumes have increased 30 percent to 40 percent since the launch of the new matching engine.9For international traders and investors, accessing MexDer is straightforward. The north-to-south routing available via CME Globex allows any TT customer with an existing CME infrastructure to route orders to MexDer’s matching engine. MexDer is also accessible now in TT’s MultiBroker environment, which is currently available in beta. Additional information regarding how CME users can access MexDer is posted on the CME website.There are a number of other reasons why doing business in Mexico is easier than most other Latin American countries. Unlike Brazil, there is no withholding tax of any kind on foreign investment. The Mexican peso is a freely traded and easily convertible currency, and MexDer’s clearing house, Asigna, accepts U.S. dollar-denominated collateral.

La Oportunidad Está En Todas Partes

Owing to the fact that the U.S. does $1.5 billion per day in trade with Mexico,10 the Mexican markets are, predictably, highly correlated with America’s. North-to-south customers trading MexDer via Globex have access to a number of financial futures that allow for arbitrage opportunities against their American counterparts.

MexDer lists the IPC index of the BMV, which in general tracks closely to the S&P 500. The full Mexican yield curve is available on MexDer, from one-month bills to 30-year bonds, and it converges with the U.S. yield curve. Finally, MexDer lists a Mexican peso/U.S. dollar FX future, one of the 20 biggest FX futures contracts in the world by volume, which sets up arbitrage opportunities with the CME’s equally liquid peso/U.S. dollar future. In a recent MarketsWiki interview, MexDer CEO Jorge Alegria indicated that going forward, the exchange would likely look to list commodity futures linked to similar contracts listed on CME Group.

BMV IPC vs. S&P 500
Chart obtained from Yahoo! Finance

The ascent of the Aztec Tiger is no sure thing. There is always the danger of President Nieto’s PRI party losing its appetite for reform and returning to its old ways. There’s the chance that the hiccups in the U.S. economic recovery may impact Mexico, given that 30 percent of the Mexican economy is tied to U.S. exports. There may even be signs that Mexico’s economy is stalling already, which led the central bank to reduce interest rates for the first time since March 2009. Either way, TT users now have the ability to participate in one of today’s most interesting markets.

1 Thomson, Adam. “Mexico: Aztec tiger.” Financial Times. January 30, 2013.
2 Rathbone, John-Paul. “Mexico’s reform plan lifts hopes for greater prosperity.” Financial Times. March 20, 2013
3 Kwan Yuk, Pan. “Mexican peso hits 19 month high”. Financial Times. March 14, 2013.

Filed under: BMV - Mexico, Exchanges, Latin America, Mexico, News, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 8, 2013 • 11:39 am 0

Mexico City-Based Broker CI Casa de Bolsa Signs with Perseus Telecom

  •  For the Fastest, Market-To-Market Connection with Mexico
  • Partnership enables New York and Mexico City trading communities to receive market signals and send transactions at the lowest latency rates available

Perseus Telecom, a leading global provider of connectivity, today announced that it has signed CI Casa de Bolsa to its ultra-low latency network between the New York and Mexico City markets. The launch of this partnership represents a landmark development as the fastest trading route between the two marketplaces and creates new opportunities for trading firms across the globe.

CI Casa de Bolsa, a leading Mexico City-based brokerage house, has a global client base seeking liquidity in the Mexican marketplace. With US-listed stocks displayed in Mexico, CI Casa de Bolsa has chosen Perseus Telecom for its high-speed, ultra low-latency network connection from New York to Mexico City for the fastest execution capabilities possible for foreign investors.

“We are very happy with our decision to use Perseus Telecom. Their network is built for performance and customer satisfaction without the overbearing costs that low-latency technology can sometimes bring to our bottom line,” states Mauricio Suarez, Head of International Sales at CI Casa de Bolsa. “The beneficiaries of lower costs and lower latency are our clients and serving them stands as CI Casa de Bolsa’s primary objective.”

Dr. Jock Percy, CEO of Perseus Telecom, explains, “We are quite pleased to have a reputable firm like CI Casa de Bolsa join the Perseus Telecom global network. As Perseus Telecom looks to bring more value to investment communities at different corners of the globe, markets like Latin America, led by Brazil and Mexico, are important to us and our customers. CI Casa de Bolsa coming on-net is a testament to our commitment to these markets.”

Source: Perseus Telekom, 07.01.2013

Filed under: Mexico, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , ,

September 17, 2012 • 11:59 pm 0

Mexico: BMV Mexican Stock Exchange Aims to Attract High Frequency Traders with Platform Upgrade

Mexican stock exchange operator Bolsa Mexicana de Valores detailed its investment in a new trading platform that the bourse hopes will reduce execution time for trades while also boosting trading activity.

The platform will enable the bourse to complete a trade in 90 microseconds, or to facilitate around 100,000 transactions per second, putting it on par with the Singapore Stock Exchange and besting the New York Stock Exchange’s completion rate of 150 microseconds per trade, the Mexican exchange said. The platform, which began handling stock transactions on Sept. 3 and will handle derivatives trades starting in December, cost the bourse 150 million pesos ($11.5 million.)

The Mexican exchange hopes the updated platform will attract a greater number of sophisticated international market participants who are interested in executing algorithmic trades. Currently, such high-frequency trades account for 17% of the volume operated on the bourse, versus 70% of the volume in the U.S., the exchange said. In August the exchange averaged 1.9 million stock transactions a day.

The new platform also incorporates filters to prevent erroneous trades, for example by detecting price action that is out of sync with the market or unusually high volumes. In April the local brokerage house of Bulltick Capital Markets triggered a mini “flash crash” by entering an erroneous trade, knocking Mexico’s benchmark IPC stock index down about 2 percentage points.

Source: FIF Financial Information Forum, 17.09.2012

Filed under: BMV - Mexico, Exchanges, Latin America, Mexico, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 13, 2012 • 10:46 pm 2

Brazil: Perseus Telecom acquires ETradeLab Brazilen Trading Tech Co

Perseus Telecom, a global connectivity provider, today announces the acquisition of ETradeLab, a Sao Paulo-based financial technology provider of hosting, managed connectivity, order routing and trade monitoring support. The purchase comes at a time of global demand for efficient trading systems with low-latency connectivity and local support models suited for banks, hedge funds and proprietary firms.

The joint company expects to add significant value to its services by tightly integrating them. Combining ETradeLab’s hosting solutions with Perseus’ ultra-low latency networks will provide cost effective, efficient and valuable network solutions for its customers. Anticipating and responding to innovative demands while having pricing sensitivities further led to this agreement.

“Our purchase of ETradeLab shines light on the accelerating market growth in Brazil, Peru, Chile, Panama and Colombia where capital markets require ultra-fast, reliable connections to mitigate risk and to provide worldwide reach,” states Dr. Jock Percy, Chief Executive of Perseus Telecom. “Incorporating ETradeLab into our brand was an easy decision given its expertise in the market and trade monitoring services.”

Effective immediately, Marcos Guimarães, founder of ETradeLab, is President of Perseus Telecom, Brazil. “It is a thrill to be part of Perseus Telecom’s top-tier management team. Perseus brings innovation and high performance networks at fair prices due to its strong portfolio that allow customers to increase revenues while reducing operating costs,” states Guimarães. “The LATAM region’s continuing market growth requires such building blocks for optimum time-to-market and even faster development; Perseus has the DNA to deliver them allied to ETradeLab’s local market knowledge. I’m ready for the challenge and can’t wait to start working with our customers.”

The expansion of Perseus’ Brazilian presence follows its recent Global Telecoms Business award for “Best Innovation,” related directly to building the fastest connectivity from London to BM&F BOVESPA, Brazil. Prior to the award, Perseus announced the fastest route to BM&F BOVESPA with its strategic partner GlobeNet.

“Our recent announcements and awards with regards to Brazil and South America have indicated the firm is taking a permanent and local stake in the region and we have done this with the valuable acquisition of ETradeLab,” says Percy. “We welcome Marcos Guimarães as President of Perseus do Brazil and will continue our path of commitment to providing the lowest latency networks globally whilst delivering intelligent and cost efficiencies.”

Source: LowLatency.c0m, 12.09.2012

Filed under: BM&FBOVESPA, Brazil, Latin America, News, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 13, 2012 • 12:27 am 0

Fidessa explores the development of electronic trading in Latin America

Fidessa group plc , provider of high-performance trading, investment management and information solutions for the world’s financial community, has today announced the publication of a white paper, Life in the fast lane: the development of electronic trading in Latin America. The paper explores the current trading landscape in Brazil, Mexico and the Andean region, and how recent technology and regulatory developments will affect domestic and international brokers trying to establish a rewarding position in these fast-paced markets.

White paper looks at market growth and trading technology in Brazil, the Andean region and Mexico

To highlight the unique trading conditions, market challenges, technology and regulatory changes shaping each market, Fidessa’s white paper considers specific regions in Latin America individually: from the extreme growth of Brazil as a strategic trading destination, to upgrades being made to Mexico’s trading infrastructure as well as the Andean region’s efforts to boost liquidity and exploit economies of scale. The paper explores the challenges presented by Latin America’s varying stages of growth as an electronic marketplace and concludes that flexibility, agility and scalability will be key attributes of the technology solution.

Alice Botis, Fidessa’s Head of Business Development in Latin America comments: “Latin America is attracting significant interest from global market participants and this shows no signs of stopping. Brokers are looking at the unique benefits each country has to offer and are taking the necessary steps to gain a presence in multiple locations across the region, in financial centers such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Each country retains its unique style of trading, so it is important for buy-side and sell-side firms to understand how the marketplace is evolving in each region within Latin America and how those developments fit in with their local and global trading strategies.”

Source: Bobsguide, Fidessa 12.07.2012

Filed under: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Latin America, Mexico, News, Peru, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 29, 2012 • 12:37 am 0

Interactive Data Asian ticker plants go live

Interactive Data Corporation, a leading global provider of managed ultra-low latency IT and market data services to facilitate electronic trading today announced that its ticker plants in Asia are now live.  Based in two data centres in Hong Kong, the new ticker plants offer a significant reduction in the latency of PlusFeed, Interactive Data’s low-latency, consolidated global data feed.

With increasing adoption of electronic trading in Asia, market data has become a crucial issue. Firms require high quality data at the desired speed from across the region. The new ticker plants, located with Pacnet at MEGA-iAdvantage and with Equinix in their HK1 facility, provide Interactive Data’s clients with lower latency access to Asian venues covered by PlusFeed, as well as to a wide range of additional international sources.

Interactive Data’s new low-latency co-location facilities in Hong Kong will also offer international clients the option to co-locate their applications alongside the ticker plants. This will enable them to obtain optimised low-latency delivery of Asian data via the Interactive Data sites in Hong Kong.

Emmanuel Doe, president, Trading Solutions Group for Interactive Data, said: “With the growth of electronic trading in Asia and higher data volumes globally, clients in Asian markets have an increasing need for cost-effective, real-time market data and delivery. We continue to expand our electronic trading services in Asia and elsewhere throughout the world to meet these requirements.”

Dan Videtto, managing director for Asia Pacific for Interactive Data, added: “The addition of two new ticker plants within one of the region’s primary trading hubs is a significant development. This is one of many enhancements that we will be delivering to Asian markets as we look to support firms in the region through our low latency data and global trading infrastructure solutions.”

Interactive Data’s PlusFeed delivers low-latency data from more than 450 sources worldwide, covering more than 140 exchanges and including multi-asset class instrument coverage and extensive Level 2 data. The feed is used by financial institutions globally to power algorithmic and electronic trading applications and is now supported by ticker plants located in Europe, the US and Asia.

In addition, clients can use the Interactive Data 7ticks network to gain direct market access (DMA), advanced co-location and proximity hosting to global direct exchange data, consolidated data, as well as reference and corporate actions data.

Direct or cross-connect access to a wide range of global exchanges is also available in Asia through Interactive Data’s Points of Presence (POPs) with leading global providers of data centers and technology services, including Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), Interxion, Telex and KVH.

Source: Finextra, 27.06.2012

Filed under: Asia, Data Management, Data Vendor, Market Data, , , , , ,

June 12, 2012 • 11:15 pm 0

Brazilian Markets Still Driving Low-Latency Connectivity

The Brazilian financial markets – with the Sao Paulo-based BM&F BOVESPA securities market in particular – continue to drive activity among connectivity and infrastructure providers looking to support trading firms looking to take advantage of trading opportunities in a hot market.

Most recently, GlobeNet – which operates a submarine cable from Nasdaq’s Carteret, NJ data centre to BM&F BOVESPA with 106 milliseconds of round-trip latency – reported that is has built out its own network infrastructure within Sao Paulo, connecting in to Florencio de Abreu, 195, a connection point for the exchange.  Previously, it relied on third party telecom providers for the leg within the city.  The new link gives it more control and faster implementation of customer connections.

Meanwhile, Sidera Networks is looking to the future by purchasing bandwidth on Seabras-1, a new 32 Tb/second submarine cable, being built by Seaborn Networks, linking Miami, FL to Sao Paulo.  The network – which Seaborn execs say will be the fastest route, but they are not saying yet by how much – is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2014.  Seaborn execs also say connectivity from Miami to the New York City metro area will also be announced in due course.

Also, back in April, Thomson Reuters opened an Elektron Hosting and Managed Services centre in Sao Paulo, to provide low-latency access to BM&F BOVESPA.

Source: Low-Latency, 12.06.2012 Peter Harris

Filed under: BM&FBOVESPA, Brazil, Exchanges, Trading Technology, , , , , , , ,

May 4, 2012 • 1:03 pm 0

Coming to Grips With Big Data Challenges by Dan Watkins

The rate of data growth in financial markets has scaled beyond the means of manageability.

Debates have gone so far as to dismiss Big Data as being tamable and controlable in the near term with the current computing architecture commonly adopted as an acceptable solution. I agree but argue that conventional data transport – not management – is the real challenge of handling and utilizing Big Data effectively.

From exchange to trading machine, the amount of new ticks and market data depth are delivered only as fast as the delivery speed can endure. Common market data feeds that are used in conventional exchange trading are but a fraction of the market information actually available.

Perhaps due to high costs of $100,000 per terabyte, many market participants deem the use of more data as a bit too aggressive. Or they believe that high performance computing (HPC) is the next generation technology solution for any Big Data issue. Firms, therefore, are sluggishly advancing their information technology in a slow cadence in tune with the old adage: “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

Over the last decade, Wall Street business heads have agreed with engineers that the immense perplexity of Big Data is best categorized by Doug Laney’s 2001 META Group report’s Three B’s: Big Volume, Big Velocity and Big Variety.

When looking at “Big Volume” 10 years ago, the markets had just defragmented under Regulation ATS. A flurry of new market centers arose in U.S. equities as did dark liquidity pools. This gave rise to a global “electronic trading reformation.” Straight-through processing (STP) advocates and evangelized platforms such as BRASS, REDIPlus and Bloomberg Order Management Systems (OMS) resulted in voluminous and fragmented market data streaming to 5,000 NASD/FINRA trading firms and 700,000 professional traders.

Today, the U.S. has 30+ Securities and Exchange Commission-recognized self-regulatory organizations (SROs), commonly known as exchanges and ECNs. For the first time since 2002, full market depth feeds from NASDAQ allow firms to collect, cache, react, store and retrieve feeds on six hours of trading for nearly 300 days a year more transparently than ever. Big Data volume has grown 1,000 percent and has reached three terabytes of market data depth per day.

Billions of dollars are being spent on increasing “Big Velocity.” The pipes that wire exchanges through the STP chain to the trader have become 100 times faster and larger but still not fast enough to funnel the bulk of information laying idle back in the database. Through “proximity hosting,” the telco is eliminated and latency is lowered. This structure results in adjustments made for larger packets but not really for more information as Big Data remains the big, quiet elephant in the corner.

Five years after Reg ATS, markets are bursting at the seams with electronic trading that produces explosive market data that breaks new peak levels seemingly every day. The SEC’s Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS), struck in 2007, requires exchanges and firms to calculate the best price for execution to be compliant. Firms are also now mandated to sweep all exchanges’ market order books and process all of that data for a smart execution.

After the execution, traders have to track the “order trail” from price to execution for every trade and store all of that information for seven years in the event of an audit recall of a transaction.

Under Reg NMS, subscribing to the full depth of all 30+ markets in “real time” would mean a firm would have to have a 1x terabyte pipe for low latency. Since a T-pipe is not realistic, data moves at 1x gigabits, which is relatively slow with the data in queue at 50-100 terabytes deep. Multi-gbs pipes, as fast as they seem, are still similar to driving five miles an hour on a 55 mph highway.

Analysts typically call data from a database with R (Revolution Analytics) and “SAS” Connectors. The process includes bringing data to an analytical environment in which the user runs models and computations on the subsets of a larger store before moving on to the next data crunch job. The R and SAS Connectors between the file servers and the database are at 10/100BASE-T, making the movement of 50 terabyte environment like driving one mile per hour in a 55 mph zone.

We all hear the polemics regarding data formats and the jigsaw puzzle of unstructured data and the fact that “Big Variety” is the obstacle. Even after standardization of SQL-based queries where analysts can ask any “ad hoc” question, too many sources and too many pipes from analytic servers cause traffic jams. SQL databases are ideal for unstructured queries but are slow in unstructured data compiling. Aggregating market information is where much of market’s processing technologies are being evaluated today to meet the requirements of regulations, sweeping for best execution and for risk management.

Comparing where current prices of stocks are against bids and asks to trade across multiple exchanges, markets, sources, asset classes and clients is essentially the Big Data task of risk management. In addition to managing data changes, firms are also tasked with managing their trading accounts, client portfolios and trading limits such as with the implementation of Credit Valuation Adjustments (CVAs) for counterparty risk.

So why are we still piping data around the enterprise when we just need more compute and memory power? Hardware-accelerated core processing in databases such as XtremeData’s dbX and IBM’s Netezza are powered by FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays). Processing of massive amounts of data with FPGAs can now occur at “wireless” speed. Along with high performance computing, high-speed messaging technology provided by companies like TIBCO, Solace Systems and Informatica have redefined transport times into ultra-low latency terms from one database to another in single microseconds, sometimes in nanoseconds, from memory-cache to memory-cache.

The colloquial phrase “in-database” analytics is an approach of running analytics and computations as near as possible inside a database where the data is located. Fuzzy Logix, an algorithmic HPC vendor, replaces the need for SAS and R connecting analytics, which stretch along the wire from the database to the analyst. With Fuzzy Logix, the need to call a database for small files is eliminated because computations can be done with the rest of the database in real-time: days to seconds faster.

With in-database or in-memory analytics, BI engineers can eliminate transport latency altogether and now compute at server speeds with computations sitting inside the database or in memory for tasks to be completed locally, not on the transport wire.

Wall Street is as risk averse as ever in today’s atmosphere so the adoption of new technology or new vendors continues to present operational risk challenges. ParAccel is a company that appears to be addressing the operational risk of new technology adoption by helping firms utilize the power of parallel processing of Big Data analytics on OEM hardware.

Since ParAccel is software, an IBM, HP or Dell shop could essentially rely on the reliability of their well-known, established database vendor but use next generation Big Data analytic processing an order of magnitude faster than what is currently in place. ParAccel allows firms to aggregate, load and assimilate different data sets faster than traditional platforms through its “columnar database” nodal system. The columns in a ParAccel environment provides firms with the flexibility to first run analytics in-database or in-memory, then bring massive amounts of data to a common plane and finally, aggregate the unstructured data and do it all in lightning speed.

Other companies like NVIDIA have been building graphic processing units (GPUs) for the video game industry for three decades and are now swamped with customer requests to help build parallel computing environments, giving financial firms the ability to run trillions of algorithmic simulations in microseconds for less than $10,000 per card, essentially. GPUs can have up to 2,000 cores of processing on a single NVIDIA Tesla card embedded inside. A GPU appliance can be attached to a data warehouse for advanced complex computations. Low-latency processing can also be achieved due to minimum movement of data over a short distance analyzing most of what Wall Street claims is Big Data in seconds compared with the days it takes now.

The vendors and players are ready to get to work; there just needs to be some consensus that the Big Elephant in the room is there and it’s standing on a straw when it could be surfing a Big Wave!

Source: Tabb Forum , 02.05.2012 by Dan Watkins, President @ CC- Speed dwatkins@cc-speed.com

Filed under: Data Management, Market Data, Risk Management, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , ,

April 24, 2012 • 2:00 pm 0

Market Data Technology to Hit $3.6B in 2012

Demand for market data acceleration is driving the global investment in sell-side, market-data distribution technology in 2012 to $3.6 billion, according to a report released by the Tabb Group.

The report, Market Data Acceleration: More than Just Speed, also predicts 4.5% compound annual growth in these investments for the next three years based on expected growth in FX, Derivatives and Commodities as well as movement by Asian markets towards automation.

The largest segment of this investment, 73%, will come from Europe and North America, but according to Tabb Group, there’s considerable growth potential from the Asian markets.

Moreover, while the equities markets are matured from a growth perspective, driving 45% of the global spend, a strong percentage of growth will come from over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, FX and commodities.

According to the report, market data is an area where performance can play a crucial role for a host of trading activities. Obtaining, decoding and utilizing market data in a timely and efficient manner are no longer the purview of the ultra-low-latency firms; everyone involved needs to be able to get at market data in as timely a fashion as possible.

“This is not to say that everyone needs to be at the ‘tip of the spear’; however, it does mean that anyone who is actively involved in trading needs to be moving in that direction,” said the report.

However, according to the research firm, firms are struggling with conflicting pressures of the “need for speed” in comparison to the “need to save,” as they try reconcile price with performance.

“Market participants need to ensure that their investment in speed gets them more than just a solitary solution for a single platform,” said Tabb partner and report writer Alexander Tabb in a statement.

Different firms, according to Tabb, have different strategies, thus different needs. Whether a firm is a high frequency trader, an institutional market maker, or an algo-trading desk, the challenge is placing speed into its proper context within the accelerated market data equation.

“Due to the democratization of speed, it’s essential for every buyer to remember to factor in total cost of ownership, price versus performance, operational flexibility, control, scalability and time-to-market,” says the report.

Source: Securities Technology Monitor. 23.04.2012

Filed under: Data Management, Data Vendor, Market Data, , , , , , , , , , ,

April 4, 2012 • 12:37 pm 0

S&P Capital IQ aquieres QuantHouse low latency market data provider

S&P Capital IQ, a business line of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) offering global multi-asset class data solutions, market research and portfolio risk analytics to global investors, today announced it has acquired QuantHouse, an independent global provider of market data and end-to-end systematic trading solutions. This includes ultra-low-latency market data technologies, algo-trading development frameworks, proximity hosting and order routing services for hedge funds, market makers, proprietary desks and latency-sensitive sell-side firms.

“The acquisition of QuantHouse will provide our clients with access to exchange pricing globally, including securities valuations and portfolio analytics, throughout all our desktop and enterprise solutions. In addition, the extensive capabilities QuantHouse brings will enable S&P Capital IQ to build our own unique real-time monitors, derived data sets and analytics,” said Lou Eccleston, President of S&P Capital IQ and S&P Indices.  “As the foundation for our growing Enterprise Solutions business, QuantHouse will enable us to offer one integrated low-latency feed for all our data, including fundamental, fixed-income, equity and derivatives.”

“We are very excited to be a part of S&P Capital IQ,” said Pierre-Francois Filet, chairman and co-founder, QuantHouse. “Together, we can focus on developing a new generation of alpha-generation tools, low-latency transaction infrastructure and integrated low-latency data feeds to maximize offerings and strengthen S&P Capital IQ’s competitive positioning.”

This purchase, along with the recently announced acquisition of R2 Financial Technologies and the expected acquisition of CMA later this year, provides S&P Capital IQ with the components necessary to offer its clients the most comprehensive market data and risk analytics platforms in the industry.

Following the acquisition, QuantHouse’s 90 employees, based in Paris, London and New York, will become a critical component to S&P Capital IQ’s global growth strategy as part of the Enterprise Solutions unit. In the short term, its products and services will continue to be sold as standalone feeds and applications, although all S&P Capital IQ and S&P Indices content will gradually be consolidated into QuantHouse feeds.

Source: Mondovisione, 04.04.2012

Filed under: Data Vendor, Market Data, , , , ,

April 4, 2012 • 10:04 am 0

Active Financial expands offerings through Global Infrastructure ActivNet

Activ Financial, a global provider of fully managed low-latency and enterprise market data solutions, today announced that ActivNet, the firm’s global infrastructure for the transmission of financial data worldwide, is expanding its offerings to include raw feed delivery and trade order routing. Originally developed to provide access to locally aggregated raw direct exchange feeds as well as globally aggregated exchange feeds, the collocated, highly managed and reliable system is now also being utilized for trade/execution transport and other latency sensitive data.

“ActivNet is a fully realized global infrastructure that has a proven track record as a high-performance, stable and low-latency communications platform,” said Antonio Bernard, Chief Network Architect of Activ Financial. “By offering additional capabilities vital to the financial sector, businesses across the world can access high-quality data and execute trades at the fastest speeds available, all without the added costs necessitated by building and maintaining their own global network infrastructure.”

ActivNet is optimized for real-time information services related to price discovery, eliminating transfer issues often facing multi-purpose networks. To support the infrastructure, ACTIV’s proximity centers operate in more than 20 physical global centers around the world, either in or near exchanges in key market locations, ensuring space, power, cooling, and an extensive, flexible network that is able to meet demanding requirements.

The architecture behind ActivNet provides the speed advantages of local direct feeds plus fast delivery of content from away markets. By leveraging the concept of an A & B Ring, which provides a fully resilient and dynamic path for delivery of raw exchange data and market data, coupled with strategic points of presence across major international locations, users are granted extremely high levels of traffic engineering capability. This architecture provides best in class latency characteristics while also providing the highest degree of resiliency. In addition, the commitment to carrier neutrality allows ACTIV to leverage the best providers between points where reliability is critical.

“ActivNet was originally designed to drive our core business at Activ Financial, and as such customers can trust that the network is maintained at the highest level.” said Activ Financial President Frank Piasecki. “We are consistently searching for and testing new routes and offerings and investing in our infrastructure, and businesses can take advantage of the quality system that Activ Financial uses for its own data needs every day.”

Source: A-Team, 03.04.2012

Filed under: Data Vendor, Market Data, Trading Technology, , , , , ,

March 2, 2012 • 6:23 pm 0

Bloomberg boosts network speed and efficiency in Asia

Bloomberg L.P., financial data, news and analytics provider, has extended availability of its enterprise data services in markets throughout Asia. An efficient network of data centers across the region enables the delivery of reliable collocation, connectivity and infrastructure services along with reduced latency in data distribution.

The expansion of low-latency services throughout Asia includes Equinix Inc.‘s Hong Kong and Sydney-based International Business Exchange (IBXÒ) data centers, further strengthening the existing Bloomberg deployments in New York, Chicago, Slough and Frankfurt. Current and prospective customers located inside these Equinix IBX data centers can now directly connect to Bloomberg’s real time data, B-Pipe and Event Driven Trading feeds.

The coordinated service delivery also benefits customers of Bloomberg’s agency broker, Bloomberg Tradebook, in New York, London and Hong Kong.

“Together, Equinix and Bloomberg address a market need for secure and reliable connectivity to multiple partners simultaneously,” said John Knuff, general manager, global financial services at Equinix. “The expansion of services into Asia enables Bloomberg customers to leverage our global footprint of data centers. And Bloomberg’s presence across these markets adds further value to the global financial ecosystem inside Equinix.”

Source: NetworkAsia,02.03.2012

Filed under: Asia, Australia, Data Vendor, Hong Kong, Japan, Market Data, Singapore, , , , , ,

February 17, 2012 • 12:17 pm 0

Nyse Euronext to buy Fixnetix stake

Nyse Euronext has agreed to acquire a 25% stake in UK trading technology outfit Fixnetix. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

More than 90% of Fixnetix’s shareholders have already accepted the offer from Nyse Euronext, which also has the option to buy the rest of the business at any time in the next three years.

London-based Fixnetix provides low latency data provision, co-location, trading services and risk controls for more than 50 markets worldwide. This complements the Nyse Technologies unit, providing “a unique combined offering of core managed services delivered to markets and market participants around the world,” says a statement.

Nyse also hopes to use the deal to plug in more trading clients to its network of Global Liquidity Centres, which are based in the US, Europe, Tokyo and Toronto.

Fixnetix will continue to operate as an independent company but work “where appropriate” with Nyse technologies to offer customers integrated services. Meanwhile, both parties will seek to benefit from streamlining the process for designing and installing elements of complex global trading infrastructures.

Stanley Young, CEO, Nyse Technologies, says: “This strategic shareholder interest in Fixnetix aligns with our mission to build a global capital markets community supported by world-class technology, broad connectivity and diverse customer participation that yields greater liquidity and market innovation. With our collective experience in delivering customer-driven technology solutions that facilitate global multi-asset trading, we will create an even more compelling value proposition for market participants trading anywhere in the world.”

Nyse Euronext has quickly turned its focus to technology revenues in the wake of the failed Deutsche Börse merger. After posting record fourth quarter revenues for the Information Services and Technology Solutions segment of $127 million, the company recently revealed plans to double annual tech revenues to $1 billion by 2015.

Michael Geltzeiler, Group Executive Vice President and CFO of NYSE Euronext added, “Today’s announcement further demonstrates NYSE Euronext’s commitment to using our strong capital position to create immediate strategic value that delivers greater opportunities for the company, our diverse global customers and the broader marketplace. Acquiring this strategic interest in Fixnetix allows us to better leverage our combined technology presence to reach more customers in more locations.”

“We at Fixnetix are thrilled with the investment from NYSE Euronext as this will enable us to expand our U.S. coverage and expand into Asia,” said Hugh Hughes, Chief Executive of Fixnetix. “Fixnetix and NYSE Technologies share common philosophies of working with our customer base to increase efficiency and reduce costs.”

Deutsche Börse has taken a similar road, setting out plans this week to create a new business unit that will be responsible for all data and information technology activities as it seeks to win customers and boost revenues.

Source: FinExtra, Mondovision 17.02.2012

Filed under: Exchanges, FIX Connectivity, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , ,

February 15, 2012 • 5:38 pm 0

LatAm Traders reach home base – Brazil/Mexico

Latin America continues ease market access for foreign capital, and in the process, garners home bias from local participants.

Throughout the 1980s, U.S. capital flow to foreign markets averaged roughly U.S. $50 billion per year. Such levels have risen greatly to pre-financial crisis times; outflows to foreign capital markets increased to reportedly $2.1 trillion in 2007. While net inflows dipped by approximately 75% during the financial crisis, the emerging markets today have bounced back at a healthier rate than the sluggish developed economies of the U.S and Europe.

Due to its macroeconomic and private-sector growth, as well as its ease of market access, U.S. investors and traders have come to favor Latin America. Currently, a reported $57 billion of U.S. dollar is being poured into Brazil—often seen as the region´s  most developed nation.

Mexico comes in second with approximately $20 billion coming in from the U.S. last year. Local entities have poured interest in Mexico as well, as Mexican pensions, which aggregate $150 billion, have a primarily domestic mandate. Carlos Slim, the world’s richest investor, also recently announced plans to surge a $10 billion peso investment in Mexico’s telecom industry.

As a result of budding local and foreign interest, LatAm’s sell side has gone to work in building a “best-of-breed” suite of products to help provide access to Mexico. The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, the country’s equity exchange and its derivatives exchange, MexDer are channeling efforts to better technology and infrastructure to attract liquidity providers. Yet, just how effective is the push to be better?

In 2011, MexDer experienced a 30% increase of trades to roughly 43,000 a day. Mexican brokerage assets were $21.4 million in 2005, to $2 billion in 2011–a clear reap of rewards from the sell side’s efforts to host opportunities for market participants.

While high frequency traders increased their activity in Mexico by 105% in 2011, buy-side views on trading via local resources have been mixed.

“Local knowledge on the part of on-the-ground brokers and exchanges is useful, but, it’s not essential to have a well developed sell side,” said Nick Robinson, director of the $250 million dollar Aberdeen Latin American Equity Fund. “As long as the market works and you can use the market without counter party risk then that should give (participants) enough comfort.”

MarketMedia, 15.02.2012

Filed under: BM&FBOVESPA, BMV - Mexico, Brazil, Exchanges, Latin America, Mexico, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 10, 2012 • 9:04 am 0

Fidessa on Latam Trading – Opportunities and Challenges

Electronic trading in Latin America continues to be a hot subject, with action moving beyond Brazil to other countries. Low-Latency.comspoke to Fidessa’s head of business development for the region, Alice Botis, to get an update, and a handle on low-latency initiatives in the marketplace.

Q: Can you start by some scene setting – where is the electronic trading action in the Latam market?

A: Electronic trading is already well established in ;Brazil, Mexico and Chile, and with the introduction of MILA, both Colombia and Peru have also adopted FIX order routing. Colombia has not yet opened their market to allow FIX connectivity to third-party network providers, but they are looking forward to making that available in 2012-2013.

In Peru, the decision to make FIX connectivity available to third-party network providers is still pending regulatory approval, but if approved, they expect implementation to move swiftly.

Buy-sides in Latin America have been slow to adopt electronic order routing, but where they have, they often still pick up the phone to have a conversation with the trader for local colour. But, by having electronic connectivity, the sell-side is able to enter the order into their OMS and send unsolicited notices of execution back to the client which minimises manual errors.

The move toward the adoption of electronic order routing in Latin America is significantly driven by the desire to attract international order flow and to make trading in Latin America as seamless as trading in other mature markets.

Q: Where does Fidessa have operations, and connectivity? What’s the latest news on that front?

A: Fidessa recently opened an office in Sao Paulo to serve our clients in Latin America, including Mexico. The office was opened to provide on-the-ground technical and production support to our local clients. Our plan is to continue building out the appropriate infrastructure to offer data centre hosting, hosted services such as a local ticker plant and a local network hub to facilitate North, South and local order routing and execution. We will also be hiring local staff to ensure support in both Spanish and Portuguese.

We currently have 21 receiving brokers in Latin America concentrated in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia, and we are in discussions with several others in the region to join the Fidessa network.

Q: What are the infrastructure challenges of working in Latam?

A: The greatest infrastructure challenges are being seen by international players looking to gain access to the local markets. There are many challenges, such as hardware and telecom acquisition, so they seek the expertise of local brokers, custodians and technology vendors to help them put the appropriate infrastructure in place to start trading.

It is important to understand the workflow the client is looking to facilitate to assure a balance of cost and speed. As demand in the region continues to increase, things will only get easier, and we can hope, with scale, less expensive.

Q: Focusing on Brazil, it looks like competition is heating up there with Bats and Direct Edge planning to take on BM&FBOVESPA. What opportunities does this open up for Fidessa?

A: With the introduction of fragmentation comes the increased responsibility for brokers to provide best execution to their clients. In some markets, the exchanges themselves will be mandated to provide aggregated quote data and routing to the best price, but even in these markets, brokers will compete for business by aggregating the data feeds and connecting directly to each market themselves to more quickly identify and access best price and volume.

Whether you are an international player who has experienced fragmentation in other markets or a local player who has never had to overcome this challenge before, there will be a significant investment in time and money to accommodate the data feed, connectivity and smart order routing requirements. Working with experienced vendors in other markets like Fidessa, who has worked with Bats and Direct Edge, can provide a time to market and cost advantage to implementing the required technology and infrastructure.

Q: Are Latam markets looking to invest in low-latency technologies and offerings in a similar way that markets in North America and Europe have? Is this ‘me too’ or are they learning from others’ experience and doing things differently?

A: Brazil, Mexico and Chile have all made significant investments in their exchange technology to provide lower latency, higher throughput execution for their participants, setting the stage for algorithmic and HFT participation in their market. Brazil is leveraging the experience and expertise of the CME by partnering with them for the implementation of their new multi asset trading engine. Chile has extended their proprietary technology along with partnerships with technology providers like IBM for their low-latency messaging, and Mexico ;is enhancing their proprietary technology to provide significant improvements to latency and throughput.

Brazil has seen the highest rate of clients seeking to set up local infrastructure to facilitate low-latency market access for algorithmic and HFT participation. But, there is a delicate balance that firms are trying to find between investment in low-latency technology and return on investment on that technology purchase. That said, the amount of high frequency trading participation in the region as a whole is still growing, so as volume continues to increase, so might the returns on those technology investments.

Q: What about regulatory oversight for all of these developments? Is there a MiFID in the works for Latam?

A: There is not currently a regional regulation such as MiFID or Regulation NMS for best execution in place because Latin America is not yet fragmented. However, each country does have its own regulatory rules in place to oversee the various different types of order flow and assure quality execution for retail transactions.

In Chile, for example, there are three exchanges that are not electronically linked. The brokers are not obligated to provide best price. As long as they demonstrate they are trading on the primary exchange, and provide the best price along with the executed price on the confirmation, they are in compliance with the local rules.

As fragmentation is undoubtedly coming to LatAm, I do believe you will see local regulators augment their current rules to protect their market participants.

Q: What do you expect to be some other specific developments in the coming year in Latam, for the markets and for Fidessa?

A: As far as market changes that might affect the region, the potential addition of Mexico to the Integrated Latin American Market (MILA) will certainly affect the development of the region. Mexico has already signed a letter of intent to join MILA, and if they do, it will further drive connectivity in the region and the need for trading systems to manage higher volumes and provide multi-regional orders and execution capabilities.

The region is very dynamic with growth, change and investment, and we are excited to be working with partners in the region who are driving the extension of our trading services to accommodate their growth and success.

Source: Low Latenency, 08.02.2012

Filed under: BM&FBOVESPA, BMV - Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, FIX Connectivity, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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