Two providers of low-latency technology, Fixnetix and ACTIV, have released new hardware to support microsecond trading and compliance with market access regulations.
Fixnetix, which supplies high-speed market data and trading services, has filed a US patent for an integrated microchip, called iX-ecute, which it claims can deliver single-digit microsecond trading capabilities.
iX-execute is a programmable logic device and is designed to meet recent regulatory requirements for greater pre-trade risk control and transparency.
At the start of November, US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) passed a law that requires brokers and dealers to have risk controls in place before providing their customers with access to the market. The approved rule prevents broker-dealers from providing customers with unfiltered direct access to a venue.
According to Fixnetix, iX-ecute protects market participants by filtering out rogue orders that may have a potentially negative impact on the market.
“Due to industry demand, we have been working with our customers and regulatory bodies to provide a compliant solution with single digit performance, “says Hugh Hughes, CEO, Fixnetix. “This latest development contributes greatly to the success of our overall plan to be a full front office managed services provider to the global financial marketplace.”
“iX-ecute enforces pre-market risks at nanosecond time frames whilst preventing impact on latencies that historically have slowed down more traditional trading systems and models,” added Matt Dangerfield, director of trading solutions, Fixnetix. “Unlike other solutions, the iX-ecute microchip has zero impact on latency for governing the required checks directed by the recent SEC Rule 15c3-5 and anticipated declarations from other regulatory governing bodies.”
Meanwhile, market data solutions provider ACTIV Financial has announced the second generation of its Market Data Processing Unit (MPU) which uses chips with programming built into them to provide faster processing of data. According to ACTIV, its MPU helps firms to manage growing data volumes without the need for additional hardware or investment.
The latest version of the ACTIV MPU provides access to exchange data from US, Asia-Pacific and EMEA markets at microsecond speeds. The solution can support five million messages per second per card.
“The once dominant ”throw another server at it' mentality has become costly and unsustainable for financial firms today, particularly as data volumes continue to explode,” said Frank Piasecki, president and co-founder of ACTIV Financial. “With MPU Gen2, ACTIV is delivering a global enterprise solution that will solve our client's message rate problem while at the same time significantly reducing their hardware footprint by as much as 80%.”