Turquoise, the pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) majority owned by the London Stock Exchange, has improved the performance of its trading engine to help it better cope with growing dark and market maker volumes.
According to the MTF, its new matching engine will have a median system latency of below 800 microseconds as well as “substantial additional capacity”.
The upgrades were undertaken because of improving volume in Turquoise’s dark mid-point book – which exceeded €200 million worth of turnover for the first time on 28 April – and to provide extra capacity for new market makers that have recently joined the MTF.
This September, Turquoise’s current Cinnober-supplied matching engine will be replaced by Millennium Exchange, the trading platform built by MillenniumIT, the Sri Lankan technology firm bought by the LSE in October last year.
In addition, the LSE has sought to improve synergies between its UK domestic market and Turquoise with the implementation of a low-latency link between the LSE’s data centre and Turquoise’s trading system. The connection will carry market data from Turquoise to market participants and allow them to send orders back to the MTF at no additional cost.
Using the link, clients that have hosted their systems within the LSE’s co-location facility will have a single virtual location for all the exchange group’s platforms. LSE members providing traders with sponsored access will also be able to include access to Turquoise in their offering.
“This low-latency link gives every member firm co-located at the London Stock Exchange’s data centre free, virtual access to Turquoise, helping our group clients trade on Turquoise in a simple and cost effective manner,” said David Lester, CEO, Turquoise, in a statement. “Turquoise will further differentiate itself from competing venues later this year when we migrate to Millennium Exchange, offering synergies for clients who choose to access both the London Stock Exchange and Turquoise through shared co-location, connectivity and common trading interfaces.”