Use Case: Fully Managed Trading Infrastructure

Author: Judy Misbin-May

As lead traders in large corporate investment firms and banks begin look for more control over their future, many are taking the leap to start their own Proprietary Trading Firms.  One such newly formed High Frequency Trading firm, came to CFN Services with a challenge. Their goal was to be up and trading real-time within a 30 day window. They had been working with many vendors to integrate a comprehensive solution that would optimize the trading ecosystem from pre-to-post trade execution.  As they dealt with contracts, vendors and many headaches, they requested of CFN to make this process easier so they could focus on their goals and profitability for their multi-asset trading strategy

Solution:

CFN FAST Platform (Financial Application Services Trading Platform) provided the value to this firm that they required, yet the flexibility and control they insisted on. Through the module approach offered by CFN Services, the trading firm was able to pick and choose the areas they wanted to keep in house and areas they wanted to outsource. They did not need to question their buying decisions as CFN is host/carrier neutral picking the best solution for each specific client. CFN also gave them peace of mind by providing the firm a few solutions with the pros and cons of each clearly articulated. The trading firm also did not want to lock up cash in their trading platform, and with CFN Services was able to implement their full solution with little capital outlay.

Outcome:

Utilizing CFN expertise and suite of products, this firm was able to greatly reduce the volume of partners and vendors they needed to negotiate and sign contracts with.  This alone provided them the ability to free up to 25 hours a week of the pre-start up time to focus on the core area of the business.  The goal to be up and trading within 30 days was accomplished, without divulging proprietary information. The trading firm acknowledged that CFN helped accelerate the development cycle and allowed them to strengthen their place in the market.

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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/use-case-fully-managed-trading-infrastructure-4326531.html

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Proximity Hosting Can Only take you Half Way There

Zero latency is the optimal trading speed that all firms hope to achieve at some point. But until that can become a reality, there is a race to keep reducing latency from all aspects of the trading process. From the server to the messaging to the sending and receiving of data, each piece must be optimized to reach the goal of zero latency.  There are many avenues companies are looking at to reduce variables and risk to latency – one of those is proximity hosting.

There are data centers where the trader can actually collocate with the exchanges. For example, in Weehawken, NJ there is a data center that houses five major exchanges including: the American Stock Exchange, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and BATS Trading. This is a way to ensure there is almost zero latency built into the trade to those exchanges. But it is not the complete puzzle. Even with proximity hosting to collocate within a data center that houses exchanges there are still external servers that play a role in the execution of the trade. These are the data feeds, the platforms, your proprietary content, and the messaging. Even the data centers that host the exchange as a simple cross connect, are rarely the only exchange a firm is trading on. So how do you close the gap?

While a firm may be trading a particular asset class and the majority of trades may be directed toward a single venue, the volumes and price-points on related exchanges play critical roles in execution decisions.  This means latency must be minimized from all data sources, not just the venue the majority of trades are placed on.  For instance, having the lowest latency on venue A, but being significantly behind the market on venue B or C could have disastrous impact on success of a trade decision.  It’s important then, to reach a delicate balance between the lowest latencies on all data sources and execution venues.

Where milliseconds and microseconds make a difference to the success of a trade strategy, the idea of Central Proximity hosting is to find locations that are central to most of the destination you need to access. There are a number of hosting locations within the NJ/NY trading area: Clifton, North Bergen, and Weehawken, NJ just to name a few that provide central proximity hosting. Central Proximity Hosting enables firms to locate within a few miles of all the locations and data a trade strategy needs for successful execution.  So that makes up half of the picture – how do you complete the race to speed-of-light transport?

The network provider does the rest. A Carrier is a good solution for the transport of data when latency and performance are important, but not critical. When latency reaches a level that’s critical to your success and your strategic advantage, you need a more agnostic approach to finding the best network. In working with each Carrier, they will provide you their “on net” best solutions between locations. This approach is not always the best solution for your specific needs. And it’s here that a network integrator offers you a measurable advantage comes into play.

The network provider that you partner with must be able to provide the lowest latency solutions for the metro ring and the longhaul. The network integrator you work with should be Carrier Agnostic, to ensure you are getting the optimal solution for your needs and not a solution based on the relationship an integrator has with a Carrier.   Some integrators, like CFN Services, can even go a step further. Beyond optimal solution recommendations for your specific strategy and requirements, they can also create new routes specific to your priorities. An integrator like CFN Services can actually utilize optimal spans of available fiber to create new fiber routes that do not exist along any single Carrier.

In the race to Alpha, the combination of Central Proximity Hosting coupled with the Low Latency Transport is key to your success.

CFN Services was pleased to particiate in Telx’s opening of their new Data Center location in Clifton, NJ.  The event took place April 23rd. The new facility in Clifton is the latest of Telx’ 15 network-neutral and network-rich colocation facilities designed to not only reduce costs for customers by enabling them to connect to one another, but also to even drive revenue for them through these connections. It also addresses the growing trend of businesses looking for a secure location for not only their communications hardware, but their entire IT infrastructure.

CFN Services, sees this location as a strategic way to support the growing Electronic Trading Enterprise firms in the NY/NJ metro. By adding more NJ locations it allows traders the ability to move their traffic to many of the NJ based exchanges without transversing into Manhattan. This also provides diversity and optimization for some of the exchange trades that occur on the other side of the Hudson.  Like Telx, CFN Services is Carrier Agnostic, this allows us to provide the best and lowest latency transport solutions available. CFN Services is able to provide the lowest latency because we can work with multiple Carriers to interconnect the optimal spans of fiber to provide a single fully managed end to end Network.