IBM speeds up analysis process

By combining IBM’s Infosphere Streams data analysis software with the BlueGene/P supercomputer the IBM Research development team created a system that can analyse live streams from numerous data sources with low latency delivery of ‘crunched’ data for action to be taken as needed.

As Rizwan Khalfan, chief information officer at launch partners, TD Securities, explains: “In the constantly evolving electronic market place, innovative technology solutions that can better manage high volumes of real-time information, are a competitive advantage.”

• The need for speed is also evident in the new BT Radianz Ultra Access package, which provides connectivity between brokers and exchanges. Introduced in London in May, the service gives financial services firms sub-one millisecond access to the expanding number of market data and execution venues, including Turquoise, Chi-X and Bats Europe. The solution will be rolled out in other key European centres later in the year.

• Knight Capital Group’s custom-designed EdgeTrade algorithmic suite for European equities is intended to be used in the rapidly changing European equity markets, where many more execution venues and data providers are available after the introduction of the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). The smart order execution algorithm can source liquidity from multiple exchanges and MTF destinations simultaneously. Buy and sell-side traders in the fragmented US equity market have been using the system to complete executions since 2006, and the new ‘Europeanised’ version can fulfil the same function on this side of the Atlantic as our markets become equally fragmented.