IRESS, a trading technology provider, has unveiled a price promotion for its Australian multi-market routing system ahead of the introduction of alternative trading venue Chi-X Australia at the end of this month.
IRESS clients that are already using the Operator Trader Workstation (OTW) as a standalone terminal will be offered the vendor’s Best Market Router at no cost for 12 months from the start of November. The monthly charge for the OTW is A$250.
The Best Market Router is a fully-managed solution that is designed to trade at the best price across all available venues.
Noting that familiarity with trading tools will be an important consideration for Australian market participants as they prepare for a new equity trading landscape, Andrew Walsh, managing director at IRESS, said: “Clients who already rely on and are familiar with the IRESS suite of products will find the transition much easier with OTW.”
The firm says the promotion is also targeted at brokers that want to replace their existing ASX ITS Trader Workstation with a solution that has the same functionality but with additional routing capabilities. Connectivity to Chi-X Australia is managed via IRESS’ low-latency network, ION.
The launch of Chi-X Australia on 31 October will bring long-awaited competition to domestic bourse the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). In preparation for competition, the ASX has partnered with software vendor Fidessa to develop ASX Best, its own routing and consolidated market data platform that will serve as an upgrade to the ASX ITS Trader Workstation.
The ASX has also developed three new trading platforms in response to competition: ASX Trade, a market for traditional market participants based on Nasdaq OMX’s Genium INET technology; Volume Match, for block trading flow; and Pure Match, which is geared towards high-frequency trading participants and is scheduled for launch shortly after the arrival of Chi-X Europe.