Exchanges

NYX 360 – 20 Nov. 2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:11:03 -0500

Gold ETF's Lustrous 5-Year Anniversary (CNBC)

[I should have gone down to the floor to see if those guys needed help holding those gold bars.]

Floor Brokers Charity Trading Day to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. (NYX)

Equity is in vogue again in Europe. (FT)

NYSE Euronext Commission Head Warns On Corp-Governance Reforms (WSJ)

Dollar General, one of the biggest private equity-backed IPOs of the year, makes it debut on NYSE. (NYX)

Exchanges Will Push Clearing, Not OTC Trades, NYSE Euronext's Jones Says (Bloomberg)

Is your firm ready to trade five-character symbols on NYSE?

Celadon Group trucks over to NYSE from Nasdaq. (NYX)

U.S. financial trade tax faces uphill battle (Reuters)

New online form to submit a "clearly erroneous trade" request (NYX)

Yes, Dark Pool Trades Are On the Tape (WSJ)

WSJ Reinstates Dividend Table (Talking Biz News)

The changing voice of business journalism -- since the 1800s (Talking Biz News)

Duncan Niederauer on Mentoring Madness, IPOs, China and the market (CNBC)

Have a great weekend, folks.

Today in NYSE History (NYX)
20 Nov. 1939 -- The NYSE launched a new publication, "The Exchange," a magazine for individual investors.

Entrepreneur Leaders Unleash 'Mentoring Madness' at NYSE

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:56:22 -0500

"Movers & Changers" judges and finalists ring the Opening Bell.

Mentoring Madness takes over the Trading Floor.

Snoop Dogg and Maria Bartiromo share a moment on stage.

From Marisa Ricciardi: NYSE Euronext kicked-off Global Entrepreneurship Week with the second annual “Mentoring Madness” event on Monday, Nov. 16. CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo hosted this two hour event featuring conversations with the four judges from the “Movers & Changers” competition - TOM’S Shoes Founder Blake Mycoskie, BR Guest Restaurant Group Founder and President Stephen Hanson, Rapper Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus, and Starwood Capital Group Chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht. The judges and competition finalists also rang the Opening Bell to jump-start the day’s events.

In front of an audience of college students, the business leaders offered valuable insight into how they launched their companies and brands. While their individual stories differed, reoccurring themes quickly emerged such as following your passion, working hard, staying grounded and not being afraid to fail.

MTV (NYSE:VIA) and NYSE Euronext co-sponsored “Movers & Changers” to challenge young people to effect social change. Winners Nic Lagettta, Shea Shelton and Jay Zhao of Tulane University’s team, WET Tea won the ultimate prize of $25,000 in start-up funds with the idea to sell high-quality tea to support the Gulf Coast Wetlands. The judges were so inspired with what the students presented that they spontaneously decided to kick in $15,000 of their own money to be awarded to the two runner-ups in addition to the $5,000 already awarded to pursue their business ideas.

As a sponsor of Global Entrepreneurship Week, we are proud to support these programs and would like to thank all students who submitted entries in the “Movers & Changers” challenge. We invite you to pass along the “Mentoring Madness” web-cast to any budding entrepreneurs you may know and encourage them to attend next year’s events. Together, we can continue promoting innovative thinking and inspire the entrepreneurial leaders of tomorrow.

RDMA and TCP: Head-to-Head Over 10GigE

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:50:11 -0500

From Feargal O'Sullivan, Managing Director, High Performance Messaging at NYSE Technologies:

I’m here in Portland, Oregon, the city with the best micro-breweries, I’m told (a claim I’ll be sure to validate this evening), for Super Computing ’09. We’re back in action with our partners Voltaire and Intel, this time showing an enhanced version of the NYSE Technologies Data Fabric 10GigE RDMA demo we built for the Intel Developer’s Forum in September. You can read more about it in our press release or read on for a summary.

For the demonstration, we are using 12 identical, Intel Xeon 5570-based servers with NetEffect 10GigE NICs, running NYSE Technologies Data Fabric and Voltaire VMS, on a real-time Linux kernel. Note: Data Fabric can seamlessly switch between using LDMA, RDMA or TCP to transport data.

On one server, a publisher application generates 1 million, 100-byte messages per second, inserts a timestamp and then sends them to five subscribers on five other servers, all over 10GigE RDMA. One of those subscribers reflects the message back to the publisher box, which then timestamps again and calculates how long the message took.

Meanwhile a different publisher application on a different server generates 50,000, 100-byte messages per second, inserts a timestamp and then sends them to five subscribers on the remaining five servers. These servers use the exact same type of 10GigE NICs only this time Data Fabric is configured to publish using the standard Linux TCP stack rather than using the RDMA iWarp hardware acceleration built onto the NIC. One of those subscribers "reflects" the message back to the publisher box which then timestamps again and calculates how long the message took.

To display everything we have a charting application showing the throughput and 1-second average latency of each transport. Drop by the Intel Booth (#1935) to see the comparison for yourself. Oh… okay… I’ll fill you in here in case you can’t make it. On average, Data Fabric RDMA has a seven times better latency profile than Data Fabric TCP (its lack of jitter is an even bigger improvement) and can handle 20 times the throughput.

So, NYSE Technologies Data Fabric and the MAMA API give users the flexibility to deploy applications with whatever latency profile they need for the business use case, all through a simple configuration change.

For:
• Ultra-Low-latency: Local Direct Memory Access on a single server.
• Low-latency: Remote Direct Memory Access over 10GigE or Infiniband.
• Enterprise Fan-out: TCP over 1GigE.

Direct Market Access Risk Controls Are Going Global

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:25:23 -0500

From Daniel Romanelli, Managing Director, Business Development, NYSE Technologies:

As more and more exchanges are offering direct market access, brokers around the world are looking for solutions to provide pre-trade risk controls. NYSE Technologies has created the Risk Management Gateway (RMG) Suite to meet these demands and provide a flexible deployed system.

We’ve also been winning awards: Bursa Malaysia’s DMA platform for derivatives (which is powered by the RMG) was recently named the "Best Innovation by An Exchange" by the Futures & Options World (FOW) Awards.

And we’re not stopping there: we have recently released an updated Webinar (now archived for playback here) that explains the RMG systems available now for US Cash Equities. In this quick presentation we describe the RMG Direct™ and RMG Service Bureau™ product lines and how they can complement any member firm’s current trading risk management solutions.

During the webinar, a poll of participants confirmed that risk controls are at the top of the financial industry's agenda:
• 87% of respondents said pre-trade risk management is an important aspect of preventing systematic risk in today's markets
• In terms of deployment of a risk-management solution for sponsored-access clients, 37% of those surveyed said they are currently in production or have plans to deploy within the next six months.
• Asked what factors are important in choosing a risk management solution, the results were:
o 90%: Latency
o 75%: Total cost of ownership
o 55%: Normalized view of risk
o 50%: Time to market

More to come on this important topic. Please look to this space for future updates and information on the Risk Management Gateway Suite! As always for more information please contact us by e-mailing: NYSE-Technologies-Sales@nyx.com

NYSE Arca: The Home of Market Order Price Improvement

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:38:59 -0500

From Steven Poser in Strategic Analysis and Statistics:

NYSE Arca offers higher price improvement for market orders than other venues, as shown in the table below:

NYSE Arca’s proprietary market order algorithm, attractive rebates for posting liquidity, in combination with market order interaction with two special order types, differentiates NYSE Arca from other markets. The Mid-Point Passive Liquidity (MPL) and Post No Preference Blind (PNP B) order types on NYSE Arca allow liquidity providers to offer dark liquidity that is aggressively priced, inside the NBBO. Market orders will execute against these orders, resulting in approximately 22% of net shares receiving price improvement of market order volume.

The MPL order is an undisplayed limit order that is priced at the midpoint of the Protected Best Bid and Offer (PBBO). MPL orders generally interact with all order types including contra MPLs excluding: cross or directed orders. MPL orders will be entered as a limit order, but are executable only at the midpoint of the NBBO. When the market is locked, eligible MPLs will trade at the locked price. MPLs have a minimum entry and execution size of 100 shares.

The PNP B order is an undisplayed limit order priced at or through the Protected Best Bid and Offer (PBBO), with a tradable price set at the contra side of the PBBO. When the PBBO moves away from the price of the PNP B and the prices continue to overlap, the limit price of the PNP B will remain undisplayed and its tradable price will be adjusted to the contra side of the PBBO. When the PBBO moves away from the price of the PNP B, and the prices no longer overlap, the PNP B shall convert to a displayed PNP limit order.

(Additionally, most NYSE Arca listed products have a Lead Market Maker, who is required to quote both sides of the market at all times with a minimum spread. Some 95% of all U.S. Exchange Traded Products are listed on NYSE Arca.)

Market Data Headaches? You Are Not Alone. Do We Have the Answer?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:05:14 -0500

From Combie Cryan, Head of Business Development, Global Data Products, NYSE Technologies:

The arena of market data is increasingly complex:

Market data volumes increased by over 70% in the past year alone. The continued arrival of new venues and increasing rate of fragmentation of liquidity shows no sign of abating. Fidessa’s fragmentation index in Europe show that investors now need to connect to four or more venues to trade, for instance, in UK blue chips (as opposed to just the one that was necessary a little over two years ago).

Incumbent venues’ fast reactions to new arrivals means that exchange-driven changes -- and the demands they place on clients to react -- shorten the useful life of infrastructures designed to capture this data. In addition, the traditional vendors increasingly rely on the data feed segment, versus their more mature terminals business, for growth. New entrants are also circling with perceived unique propositions in network flexibility, latency performance, speed to market or customer service.

All this complexity inevitably means more challenges for users in a world where costs of handling data feeds and data center spend and drivers for renewed investment in hardware, software and network infrastructure have never been higher and have never been faced by such a wide cross section of the investment community. The race to be connected in the lowest latent way to as many venues as possible has gone ”mainstream.”

All of this is happening at a time when budgets have never been tighter.

Clients are looking to address these challenges in three main ways:

1. Many are looking to outsource to a third party who can take away the headache of responding to this fast-changing environment, leaving them free to do what they do best: invest.

2. Counterbalancing this, with the collapse of some outsourced service providers in 2008, many clients are being extra vigilant about who they outsource to, with many deliberately choosing multiple service suppliers to minimize impact should a service supplier not last the distance.

3. Given that the rise in volumes and fragmentation is here to stay, many clients are calling a halt to throwing money at the challenge and asking what venues do I need to be on. how fast do I really need to be, and what is the cost benefit of the money spent on that extra micro second or that extra venue?. In short, they are looking to right size their solutions based on hard evidence of what venues and what performance maximizes their return on capital employed.

4. Related to the above, many are looking for the greatest possible transparency.

To mark the launch of its SuperFeed service in Europe, NYSE Technologies has published a white paper on how its clients can look to address these headaches and how SuperFeed may play a key role in reducing cost and complexity while maintaining performance and flexibility. The paper includes a useful tick list of criteria in making data acquisition decision and case study of a client who has recently slashed its market data spend using SuperFeed.

All of this should be great news in these tighter times.

Sounds too good to be true? See for yourself by requesting your copy of the SuperFeed White paper by emailing: NYSE-Technologies-Sales@nyx.com

2009 in the World of Options at NYSE Euronext

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:25:09 -0500

From Todd Wilemon:

“We’re on fire!”

No, not literally, but the options business here at NYSE Euronext is going gangbusters. Can I use a few more clichés before I get to the meat of the story?

With two months left in 2009, it is amazing what has taken place. Under the leadership of the Ed Boyle, Senior Vice President of US Options, and with the support of the entire organization, we have been setting goals and ruthlessly executing our plan to become the places to trade options both electronically and via open outcry. In the US, there are only four physical option trading floors and we operate two of them.

What a year 2009 is turning out to be for us in the options world.

After buying the Amex, we gave ‘em a brand new home, new technology, the fastest trading engines in the business and put together an amazing support staff made up of the very best of the Amex staff and our awesome NYSE Arca folks. This was for an exchange that had not updated their technology since the ‘90s. Oh yes, it was that bad… avert your eyes and just keep walking. The good news is that NYSE Amex technology now has the same “look and feel” of NYSE Arca, with its very own pro rata, customer-centric market structure.

At the end of last year, volume on the Amex had declined to a 5.7 percent share of total option volume among the seven exchanges. In seven short months since we opened the new NYSE Amex Options exchange at 11 Wall Street, we have increased NYSE Amex market share by 54%. Yes, you read that correctly, we have increased our market share by more than 50%. This was a mighty team effort of exchange staff in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and all of our customers. The trading firms along with their their desk and back office staff, the brokers, traders, clerks and exchange floor staff have caused a resurrection in the Amex. And let’s not forget NYSE Arca, where we implemented several new order types and increased throughput and capacity, and nobody here even has three hands! To all involved, take the weekend off and celebrate…you deserve it. (But make sure you come back Monday because we are not finished!)

Technology has been a key driver of our success. When we resurrected the Amex, it was through technology. A brand-spanking-new floor with the latest technology for our floor brokerage community to interface in an electronic environment, with an audit trail to ensure compliance with our exchange rules that assure transparency and fair orderly markets. For electronic business we left 100% of the legacy Amex technology behind and ported over production to a new, tested and proven technical infrastructure.

The success of the “new” NYSE Amex is a major contributor but not the only driver of our growth in options. We have been busy on other fronts as well. We have expanded our suite of order types on both exchanges including the PNP order types. PNP or Post No Preference ensures that orders that you want to stay on our exchange do not route out to another exchange. You can check out each of the PNP order types as well as our other innovations by looking at some of my previous blogs or by visiting our order types page here (for NYSE Arca) and here (for NYSE Amex).

Here at NYSE Euronext, we want to empower the trader to have as much control and say in how his order interacts with the marketplace.

We have new Complex Matching functionality on both exchanges to handle multi-leg option orders. On NYSE Arca, we also support options with stock orders. With the new matching engines we unveiled the PNP+Complex order type, which is designed to give price improvement over the leg markets. Not only is this order type innovative, it is dynamic in that it always keeps your order at an aggressive price in the market. Check out my PNP+Complex posts and the Amex Complex post for more information! Also, stay tuned because in Q1 2010 (just around the corner) we have more exciting news regarding our complex order functionality and pricing.

On another front, the Penny Pilot program is expanding. The penny pilot program has been a huge boon to investors and traders alike. It decreases the spread between the bid and ask thus saving investors money when they trade options. It is nice to keep more of your money in your own pocket. The Penny Pilot program promotes tighter markets while increasing transparency of screen markets. No longer do investors have to hope for price improvement in some dark opaque process. Pennies allow market makers and traders post their true markets on the screen.

Did you see the list for the expansion of issues traded in pennies? If not or want to peruse it again, please go here.

And if that is not enough, we also made some of our stakeholders stockholders in NYSE Amex. We partnered with seven firms in the new NYSE Amex Options exchange. As Ed Boyle said, “Having important partners in like this allows us to feel that we are building the structure in the right direction.” It is no exaggeration to say that for NYSE Euronext the best is not enough, we are pushing on all fronts to continuously improve

One last thing -- so you are the first to know (between you me and the fence post) 2010 promises to be just as exciting for NYSE Euronext Options participants. 2009 is just the beginning. Keep checking back for more, we have a lot to tell you about in the coming months!

I have expounded enough about NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex, the “wonder twins” of options trading, so what do you think of us? Seriously, have you traded on our exchanges? We want you trading here.

Trade ‘em up!

P.S. In my next blog I’ll fill you in on our progress getting the Universal Trading Platform (UTP) into production. This is a fundamental piece of NYSE Euronext’s ability to “Power the Exchanging World,” and it is pretty amazing stuff.

Juniper Networks at NYSE to Mark 40th Birthday of Internet (and Juniper’s Move to NYSE)

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:09:28 -0500

Juniper Networks’ CEO, CTO and others will be at NYSE this morning to ring the Opening Bell and hold an analyst and press meeting on the occasion of the company’s transfer to NYSE from Nasdaq and the 40th anniversary of the Internet.

I had no idea the Internet was turning 40. Should I have baked Al Gore a cake?

At 10:30 a.m. EDT, Juniper Networks’ management will host a global press and analyst meeting to discuss its vision for the “new network” that will propel enterprises and service providers over the next decade. CEO Kevin Johnson and Pradeep Sindhu, founder and chief technology officer, along with other executives will unveil several new breakthrough products and partnerships, following a brief welcome by NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer.

A live webcast of the meeting will be available here.

If you don’t know Juniper, the company describes itself as follows:

From devices to data centers, from consumers to the cloud, Juniper Networks delivers innovative software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. The company serves more than 30,000 customers and partners worldwide, and earned more than $3 billion in revenue over the last year. Additional information can be found at www.juniper.net

On a completely unrelated note (and since when were you expected something related from me?), today also is the 80th anniversary of a real chiller in financial-market history. May today be a whole lot better:

Today in NYSE History
28 Oct. 1929 -– “Black Tuesday,” the most dramatic day of the 1929 Crash. The DJIA was off nearly 12 percent on volume of 16 million shares, a record that would stand for decades.

Why You Should Add Tracking Orders to Your Options-Trading Toolkit

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:25:45 -0500

From Todd Wilemon:

Have you heard about Tracking Orders?

If you have been involved trading equities, you are probably familiar with this order type. A Tracking Order is a limit order that is not displayed and only activates to trade when certain specific conditions are met (we’ll talk about that in just a bit). Tracking Orders allow you to always trade on the NBBO or National Best Bid or Offer while also giving you the ability to choose the size of orders you will interact with and at a price range of your choosing.

Tracking Orders got their name because they track the NBBO. They will always trade at the NBBO price. Since they are also limit orders, you can set a maximum price or limit you would pay on a buy tracking order and set a minimum price or limit at which you would sell on a sell tracking order. Example: If the current National Best Bid (NBB) is 1.29 and a buy Tracking Order is then entered with a 1.35 limit, the tracking order will match the NBB of 1.29 and will follow the NBB as it moves up or down, up to the 1.35 Tracking Order limit.

Now, to discuss those conditions I mentioned in the first paragraph: Tracking Orders are eligible for execution only after all other interest has been exhausted at the NBBO price; they will execute only against contra orders that are about to route to an away exchange and only against a routable order that has a size equal to or less than the size of the tracking order. Example: if a Tracking Order is entered for 15 contracts and the routable quantity of a contra order is greater than 15, the contra order routes and will not interact with the Tracking Order. So although the order is not displayed or ranked in the book, the Tracking Order gives you control over price range and size you are willing to trade against.

I hope I have whetted your appetite to start using Tracking Orders. To quote Amy Farnstrom, Managing Director, Options, NYSE Euronext, “This is just another tool to keep in your options toolbox.” Options traders understand how options give you options.

With the advent of Distributive Linkage, if an incoming order exhausts the displayed size on our exchange but other exchanges are also at the limit of that order, we will route an ISO (Intermarket Sweep Order) to sweep those away markets. However, if an order is about to route but has a quantity that is less or equal to the size of the tracking order and is within the limit of the Tracking Order it will trade with the Tracking Order and not route out. It gives the user of the Tracking Order a last shot to fill incoming orders on our exchanges at the NBBO.

Tracking Orders have no standing with regard to open outcry trading since they are not displayed nor are they represented in the disseminated bid or offer size. They only have standing or eligibility to trade if contra interest in the NYSE Arca or Amex System would otherwise be routed to another market center at the NBBO. Quick example: NBBO market is 2.05 at 2.15. NYSE Arca is displaying a market of 2.00 at 2.15. A tracking order is in the system to buy 10 with a “top” limit price of 2.10 (currently tracking the NBBO price of 2.05). An order is received to sell 6 contracts at 2.05; this order will be matched against the Tracking Order and will trade at a price of 2.05 since that was the NBBO bid at the time. You are going to like this order type.

Another example with the same initial markets: NBBO is 2.05 at 2.15. NYSE Arca is 2 bid. We have the buy side tracking order with a limit price of 2.10 for 10 contracts. Another Tracking Order is received, 2.05 limit for 20 contracts. An order is entered into the system to sell 15 contracts at 2.05. This order is matched against the 2.05 bid tracking order because the 15 contracts are more than the amount of the first tracking order. The balance of the tracking order that was executed will not post to book or route out but will be canceled.

If a Tracking Order is executed but not exhausted, the remaining portion of the order will be cancelled. It will never route out to another exchange or market participant. Tracking Orders can not be contingent orders or market orders. Tracking Orders are identified by using OrdType (Tag 40) =2 and ExecInst (Tag18) =d.

If you have further question, your relationship manager is ready and willing to help.

Trade ‘em up!

NYX 360 -- 10.23.2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:40:26 -0500

NYSE Euronext to provide more transparency for dark pools. Such a good idea, apparently, that Nasdaq announced something similar a day later.

Wall Street & Technology on how NYSE Euronext innovates at warp speed.

How have investors fared since the Crash of October 1987? Ask Floyd Norris.

NYSE Arca begins trading the Claymore/AlphaShares China All-Cap ETF (ticker: YAO).

Did you catch the "Trading in a Box" and data-fabric demo's at the FIA show?

Your network -- SFTI -- can take you to the clouds. More bandwidth, too.

My latest rant about insider trading.

Dow 10,000 in Bill Radke's brilliant rhyme (hat tip to Felix Salmon).

On a wistful note: I grew up watching White Fang, Black Tooth, lots of pies in the face, and doing the Mouse. As I remember it, it was a kids' show that didn't teach, didn't preach, it was just funny as all get-out. Rest in peace, Soupy Sales.

Have a wacky weekend, for Soupy's sake.

Today in NYSE History
23 Oct 1868 -- The NYSE made membership a saleable property right. A seat on the Exchange was worth about $8,000 in 1868.

Insider Trading: Still Crazy After All These Years

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:10:09 -0500

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front-page article laying out some of the investigative puzzle pieces that led to authorities uncovering the alleged major insider-trading scheme involving Galleon Group. This particular passage was close to home here:

The tipper identified as Ms. Khan began cooperating with the government in November 2007, according to the government. The New York Stock Exchange picked up unusual trading in Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Hilton shares on one of its internal monitoring systems and alerted federal authorities, according to a spokesman for the NYSE. It is unclear whether the SEC was already looking into the situation.

I'm glad such articles make the front page because of their deterrent value, but after reading amazingly similar-sounding cases over the course of my 21 years here, I think that for some people, greed and ignorance just win out in the end. The money sounds too good, and they think they're too smart to get caught.

I'm reminded of the scene in "Body Heat" where the ex-con played by Mickey Rourke schools the ne'er-do-well lawyer played by William Hurt on how to commit arson, and then leaves the lawyer with this warning:

I got a serious question for you: What the [expletive] are you doing? This is not [expletive] for you to be messin' with. Are you ready to hear something? I want you to see if this sounds familiar: any time you try a decent crime, you got fifty ways you're gonna [expletive] up. If you think of twenty-five of them, then you're a genius... and you ain't no genius.

It loses something without the expletives, but you get the picture. As long as there are stupid, greedy people, there will be stock cops on beat. As I wrote here earlier this year about a different insider-trading case in which NYSE Regulation uncovered helpful evidence:

So for those too lazy or ignorant to go to school on Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine, the School of Hard Knocks is always open to new students. Your trading records? Available to regulators. Your access to advance, material, non-public information, or to others who have it? Available as well. Put them together with some investigative work, and you have an excellent chance of getting caught, even if you're outside the securities industry...

SFTI Network Offering More Destinations, More Bandwidth -- Even Access to the 'Clouds'

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:40:02 -0500

It's not every day that we bring you news datelined from a booth at a trade show, so I thought I'd share this:

NYSE Technologies Continues to Enhance SFTI Network
-Customers Enjoying More Destinations, More Capacity, Easier Access and Better Customer Service-

Oct. 21, 2009, Chicago, Futures & Options Expo, Booth #327 – NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology unit of NYSE Euronext (NYX) and operator of the global Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI®) network, announced that it is making significant enhancements to its SFTI® network [Helpful hint: it's pronounced "safety." -- Ed.]. Top broker dealer matching facilities and new cloud services for financial institutions will be available over the SFTI network. In addition, the core bandwidth of the network will double, going from 10 to 20Gb. NYSE Technologies also has added remote access via the Internet and a new self service portal for SFTI network customers. Current SFTI® clients can register for free access to this support resource at http://www.nyxdata.com/connectivity.

“Financial services companies who want the industry’s best connectivity solutions are finding the SFTI® network to be a more attractive choice every day. We have a fast-growing business community here, used by more members than ever because of its combination of reach, reliability and speed,” said Ken Barnes, Vice President, Global Connectivity, NYSE Technologies. “A single path connects you to nearly every displayed market - not just the NYSE’s - in the US, and now to the top broker dealer execution facilities, and hosted order routing, market data and computer services as well. More importantly, we’ve made substantial improvements to our customer service operations which are resulting in faster implementations and more intelligent and responsive customer service. Although we’re far from done, we are proud of the results we have begun to deliver with this offering.”

The NYSE Technologies’ SFTI platform continues to be a leader in low-latency connectivity for U.S. trading markets and has aggressively expanded its presence in key trading markets in Europe and Asia. The SFTI network is NYSE Euronext’s highly resilient, ultra low-latency communications backbone created for the use of financial industry participants. It offers connectivity to multiple exchanges, market centers and financial services content providers, including all of the National Market System markets and over 1,300 market participants in the U.S. and others throughout Europe and Asia. The SFTI FIX protocol provides open, standards-based access for data and trading transactions. The SFTI network’s dynamic routing capabilities, supported by the OMS neutral FIX router, enable our members to interact with any destination on the SFTI network through the ease and simplicity of a single FIX connection.

NYSE Technologies will be hosting an informative webinar on Oct. 29 on these latest enhancements to the SFTI network. Please register for “SFTI® Americas: Connectivity Options for an Evolving Marketplace” at http://nysetechnologies.webex.com.

So hey (hey) you (you), get onto our cloud-accessing network. (Forgive me that, Mick and Keith.) Or at least stop by our booth at the show or check out our webinar.

Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday. A little hisotical trivia for you:

Today in NYSE History
21 Oct. 1931 -- Great Britain abandoned the gold standard, prompting the closing of almost every important European stock exchange.

Also on this day (NYTimes.com): Edison invented the light bulb (in 1879; check out the Times article featuring the classic subheadline, "Conflicting Statements As To Its Utility." Also, today is the birthday of Steve Cropper of Booker T and the MGs (happy 68th) and Whitey Ford (still looking good at Old Timers' Days at 81!).

NYSE Euronext to Provide Transparency for Alternative Trading Systems

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:30:25 -0500

From the press release we just issued:

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2009 – NYSE Euronext (NYX) announced that beginning next month, it will provide a means for participating broker-dealers’ alternative trading systems (ATSs) and off-exchange market centers to create transparency regarding volume and individual “dark pool” activity by allowing the firms to “print” trades on the FINRA/NYSE Trade Reporting Facility (TRF) and display the daily activity of each trading venue on NYSE.com.

“This is an example of NYSE Euronext and the industry working together to develop a positive solution to address the lack of understanding regarding the extent and nature of ‘dark pool’ trading, which has been a concern for regulators and legislators,” said Joseph Mecane, NYSE Euronext’s Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for U.S. Markets. “We believe this will bring requisite and appropriate sunlight to alternative trading systems and other sources of off-exchange liquidity, and also help standardize the way their trading volumes are reported.”

NYSE Euronext has been discussing the idea with a number of firms that operate ATSs and off-exchange trading venues, and Barclays Capital, GETCO, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P., Knight Equity Markets, L.P. and UBS Investment Bank have volunteered to begin reporting their respective venues’ activity to the FINRA/NYSE TRF in November 2009. Other firms have indicated an interest in NYSE Euronext’s transparency initiative and are establishing the necessary technology to begin participating in the program in the coming weeks.

"This initiative is an important step toward the standardization of trade volume reporting across ATS venues," said Frank Troise, Head of Equities Electronic Product at Barclays Capital. "Industry participants will be able to make more informed order placement decisions and thereby improve their execution quality."

"We need to maintain the right balance between vibrant public price discovery and individual execution preference," said Jon Ross head of GETCO Execution Services. "This initiative is an important first step in collecting the data critical to analyzing and preserving that balance."

“We’re looking forward to the launch of NYSE Euronext’s ATS -transparency initiative,” said Greg Tusar, Head of Electronic Trading in the Americas at Goldman Sachs. “By publishing trading volume on its website, NYSE Euronext has spearheaded an industry-driven solution which provides a public source for evaluating broker-dealer ATS volumes.”

"Knight is pleased to work with NYSE Euronext to increase transparency among off exchange liquidity providers through their FINRA/NYSE Trade Reporting Facility,” said Jamil Nazarali, Managing Director, Knight Equity Markets. "This new facility will enable market participants to better evaluate and compare competing pools of liquidity to make more informed routing decisions."

Charlie Susi, Head of Direct Execution for the Americas at UBS Investment Bank, said, “The way the industry has advertised non-displayed volumes and crossing rates has been highly inconsistent – which makes it very difficult for clients to get a clear picture of liquidity. This initiative is something we're pleased to see, because it will establish better objectivity and clarity. We encourage all of our peers to join us in participating.”

The daily trading activity volume published by the FINRA/NYSE TRF will be based on trades reported to the FINRA/NYSE TRF, which follow FINRA’s trade-reporting rules. Basing the published volume strictly on trade reports will address some of the problems associated with voluntary reporting by ATSs of their own volume, such as counting both sides of a trade, and counting trades that are routed by not executed. Trades reported to FINRA/NYSE TRF will be single-counted and matched-only. All ATS trades are currently reported to an industry TRF, which in turn drives the various “time and sales” market data feeds. This initiative attributes the volumes to the matching destination.

Each trade reporting facility provides a mechanism for the reporting of transactions effected otherwise than on an exchange. While each TRF is affiliated with a registered national securities exchange, each TRF is a FINRA facility and is subject to FINRA's registration as a national securities association.

First-Hand Experience

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:16:00 -0500

From Feargal O'Sullivan, Managing Director, High Performance Messaging at NYSE Technologies:

As promised in my last blog entry, we are ready to show our "Trading-In-A-Box" demo again at the FIA Options Conference in Chicago this week, so if you are in the neighborhood we'd love to see you drop by and check it out. Here are the details:

FIA 25th Annual Futures & Options Expo (October 20-22)
Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago
NYSE Technologies at ~ Booth #327 ~
http://www.futuresindustry.org/expo-2009.asp

This time around, Intel gave us an improved, beta-version of a Nehalem-EX server with 32-CPU Cores, and it's getting us even closer to meeting that high-frequency trading nirvana I was talking about. Using NYSE Technologies Data Fabric Local Direct Memory (LDMA) Transport and a combination of Market Data Platform V5 and Universal feed handlers, we successfully got all North-American equities feeds and OPRA running on the one server. Then we added some mock algorithmic trading engines and two Market Access Gateways. We also re-jigged the display GUI to show the processor utilization better although this time Intel asked us to "hide" the latency results because they want to save the big news for the official launch in Q1 next year.

Finally, I would be totally remiss to not mention our 10Gigabit Ethernet demo too, so here's where I mention it: We will also show a live demonstration of NYSE Technologies Data Fabric publishing between six servers over 10Gigabit Ethernet using Remote Direct Memory Access, and this time we added a TCP comparison test (remember, we support LDMA, RDMA, TCP, RV and LBM all transparently under the MAMA API). Intel's NetEffect team helped set this one up and will be on hand to answer all your questions also. If you still had any doubt as to the performance penalty an application takes when relying on an IP-based middleware, then this is the demo for you.

So please, if you are anywhere near the Hilton Chicago, drop by the show and come and check out these two revolutionary demonstrations. Hope to see you there!

- Feargal

P.S. Contact your NYSE Technologies Sales Rep if you need a show pass!

NYX 360 -- 10.16.2009

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:48:25 -0500

This is the second weekly edition of the NYX Aggregator, but with a new name: NYX 360. I asked for suggestions about the name, and one of you stepped up: hat tip to Mark Schaedel, my MDCWIA (Market Data colleague working in Amsterdam). The new name is shorter (which is always better) and has a more global-view feeling to it. Perfect for a fast-moving, global company.

Now to it:

"A good day...for the hatmakers," I overheard Art Cashin quip on the NYSE trading floor at the close on Wednesday, when the Dow again closed above 10,000. From MarketBeat that day, this pictorial history of the "Dow 10,000" hats proves Art right (as usual), and this one puts the milestone in proper perspective (seen this movie before).

How will our new U.S. data center impact member firms? Read up on it here.

CEO Duncan Niederauer sees no reason to restrict high-frequency trading, Reuters reports. At the same press briefing he also says that centrally clearing over-the-counter derivative trades and tightening reporting requirements are more important than moving swaps onto listed trading platforms, Dow Jones reports.

The bad idea that never dies -- that of a securities transaction tax -- is under discussion again, Traders magazine reports. Read how in Sweden, even a small tax sent would-be taxpayers to other markets, and volume fell by 85 percent.

The most-viewed item on John Lothian's metals newsletter the other day was the trailer for "FLOORED," a movie about trading futures in Chicago.

NYSE Euronext and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation finalized their agreement to create an innovative new joint venture, New York Portfolio Clearing (NYPC). NYPC will be the first to bring together cash positions and their natural derivatives hedge in an open manner designed to substantially improve operational and capital efficiency as well as transparency.

A Little Rock, Ark. newspaper publisher won't drop printed stock listings. He says he doesn't want to give readers another reason not to pick up the paper -- wow, what a concept!

NYSE Amex's plan to trade Nasdaq stocks is "a good move for the NYSE and it'll be good for investors to have an additional market destination providing liquidity in Tape C stocks," Jamil Nazarali, managing director of Knight Equity Markets, tells Traders.

Conor Allen, head of R&D at NYSE Technologies, says speed is on the rise in our feed handlers, not just our exchanges.

NYSE Euronext's Alternext market aims for more listings.

We've streamlined the process for getting permissioned to participate in NYSE MatchPoint and the New York Block Exchange. So if you're not on board already, no better time to get started.

Ringing the NYSE Bell was a high point for business students at High Point University. I never cease to be amazed by the effect of visiting the trading floor on guests from every walk of life, not to mention ringing the bell.

The New York Times runs a front-page story that is more than two years old -- Big Board loses market share -- and misses the turnaround story going on right now. Pity that.

I demand a recount: somehow the Huffington Post's list of hottest bell ringers failed to include your humble blogger, who has been up on the bell balcony a couple of times and is very hurt by this.

And we close the week with a tongue-in-cheek question: Did high-frequency trading kill Michael Jackson? HFT has jumped the shark as a scapegoat, says "Kid Dynamite."