Content about Algo, HFT and Execution

Customer requests for increased desktop functionality, as well as the opportunity to increase the footprint for its pre-trade risk and connectivity services, were key drivers for Mantara's acquisition of UNX, says president and CEO Michael Chin.

Broadway Technology, a leader in high-performance trading solutions for top-tier global banks and hedge funds, announced today that in response to Dodd-Frank regulations and the emergence of Swap Execution Facilities (SEFs), Broadway is set to launch turnkey liquidity aggregation, straight-through processing (STP), and e-commerce solutions for six Interest Rate Swaps markets in June 2012.

Deutsche Börse – Market Data & Analytics has launched AlphaFlash Trader, a new trading application that delivers ‘drag and drop’ automated event driven trading to popular execution platforms. The new tool is already available to traders using the X_TRADER Pro platform from Trading Technologies International, Inc. and will be adapted to other execution platforms going forward. With the launch of AlphaFlash Trader, machine-readable news becomes accessible to a new client group. Deutsche Börse is therefore enabling more traders to execute automated trades based on macroeconomic indicators.

Portware, the leading provider of global broker-neutral, multi-asset trading solutions, today announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the technology and analytical assets of Aritas Group, Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Charles River, a front- and middle-office investment management solutions provider, today announced that Kasikorn Asset Management (KAsset), with over US$25 billion in assets under management, has implemented the Charles River Investment Management Solution Version 9 (Charles River IMS) for order and execution management (OEMS), portfolio management and compliance.

Orc, a leading provider of technology and services for the global financial industry, today announced a service partnership with Newside, a consulting firm which serves international clients in the financial industry. The partnership will initially address the French market, with potential for extension into the UK and Hong Kong.

Fixnetix is tapping BittWare, and its latest Altera Stratix V FPGA-based network cards, to support the second phase of its iX-eCute trade execution and pre-trade risk service. The move represents a boost for Altera, since iX-eCute originally leveraged FPGAs from rival Xilinx.

Fixnetix, global managed services provider for trading, market data and risk control, announced today they are the first fintech (financial technology) company in Europe to offer the Altera Stratix V FPGA on the BittWare PCI Express slot-cards. The Altera Stratix V FPGA with integrated 10GigE and BittWare PCIe Gen 2 and 3 slot card is ideal for iX-eCute, the Fixnetix FPGA firmware announced November 2010. iX-eCute is an execution solution, (available in both firmware and software,) for nanosecond trading and pre-trade risk checks across multiple asset classes. BittWare PCI Express slot-cards are the hardware boards that iX-eCute operates on whilst Altera Stratix is the industry's highest performance FPGA with over 1 TeraFLOPS of processing. iX-eCute firmware deployment relies on minimal delays, significantly reduced jitter, energy and thermal requirements whilst commanding maximum performance per watt. BittWare offers a PCIe-compliant deployable slot-card that works out of the box, with validation, verification, and control software in place. iX-eCute, on the BittWare board, with Altera Stratix processing, is available for purchase through Fixnetix.

QuantHouse, a business of S&P Capital IQ providing real-time market data and end-to-end systematic trading solutions to global users, announced the release of QuantFACTORY 5.3.0 to enable quant traders, researchers and developers at banks, hedge funds and prop desks to quickly build and deploy alpha models thus allowing them to focus on business development.

ULLINK, provider of connectivity and trading solutions for the global financial community, has today released the latest and fastest version of an already proven connectivity trading platform. With innovative performance tuning, this release reinforces ULLINK's reputation as a constant innovator in the connectivity space.

SunGard’s Valdi Market Access service now provides access to TOM MTF, a multilateral trading facility located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, facilitating member participation on this new trading platform. TOM MTF offers trading in shares, derivatives and exchange-traded funds.

Last month's announcement by Arista Networks of its 7124FX Application Switch - which incorporates an Altera FPGA alongside low-latency network switching - has expanded the possibilities for system architects looking to incorporate hardware acceleration by running application code - such as algo trading - on FPGAs. It's also boosted the industry penetration of FPGA chipmaker Altera, over rival Xilinx.