The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has confirmed that PureMatch, its dedicated trading platform for high-frequency trading (HFT), will launch during Q3 this year.
PureMatch was initially slated to go live during Q1 2011, but according to an ASX spokesperson, its launch was always planned to coincide with Australia’s new equity market rules and the introduction of competition.
At the start of this month, national regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) released an initial timetable for the implementation of market integrity rules that would enable competing trading venues to challenge the ASX. Chi-X Australia is currently the only prospective competitor seeking an Australian market licence. The timetable was based on the feedback received to ASIC's CP 145 consultation on equity markets.
While ASIC's timetable enabled Chi-X Australia to start preparing for a launch during October or November this year, the regulator intends to consult further with market participants on other aspects of its consultation that have still not been finalised.
This includes a threshold for dark pool trades, consolidation of post-trade data and maker-taker pricing. It is anticipated that rules relating to these areas will be set in early 2012.
PureMatch is part of the ASX's plan to cope with competing trading venues. The exchange has already introduced ASX Trade, a new low-latency trading platform based on Nasdaq OMX's Genium INET technology. ASX Trade has a latency of 300 microseconds and a capacity of 100,000 orders per second. The ASX has also launched VolumeMatch, a block-trading venue that has a minimum order size of A$1 million (US$990,000), and TradeMatch, a platform that caters for the bourse's existing customers.