Japan’s Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has launched futures trading on its Tdex+ System for trading derivatives, as part of a plan to increase volumes and draw in more market participants, including high-frequency traders.
Based on the LIFFE CONNECT system used by NYSE Liffe in London, the new platform brings futures trading into line with options, which have been traded on Tdex+ since October 2009. Futures orders at the TSE can now be processed at an average order response time of 5 milliseconds, with 36 thousand orders processed per second.
In conjunction with the launch, the TSE introduced a market maker scheme for futures products. The exchange currently has 35 market makers for mini-TOPIX futures and 25 market makers for mini-10 year JGB futures. The market maker scheme is intended to increase liquidity in the overall TSE derivatives market, particularly in mini futures. The venue also shortened the noon recess and extended trading hours for index futures, options and individual securities options to 23.30, from 19.00 for TOPIX futures and 18.00 for Japanese government bond futures.
“Today, the replacement of TSE’s full line of trading systems was completed with the launch of the new Tdex+ system,” said Atsushi Saito, president and CEO of the TSE Group. “This will allow us to provide all our listed products on the world’s highest level of trading systems. In addition, the introduction of the market maker scheme and the expansion of trading hours will improve the convenience of futures and options trading in a transparent exchange market.”
Rival proprietary trading system Chi-X Japan recently announced plans for its own market maker pricing promotion, which will run for the month of January 2012.