Toronto Execution Venues Kickoff 2010 with Latency Focus

Latency - and minimising it - isn't just a focus among liquidity venues in the New York metro area. North of the border, recent developments at TMX Group and Chi-X Canada demonstrate efforts to make those markets more competitive in what's becoming a global marketplace.

Last week, TMX Group - which operates the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as other execution venues throughout Canada - successfully completed the implementation of its new TSX Quantum Order Entry Gateway, designed to support a significant increase in messaging rates and performance demands from the trading community.

"The average order response time is now five times faster because of the new gateway and other coordinated engine enhancements," says Brenda Hoffman, senior vice president and CIO, TMX Group.

Other technology initiatives underway include upgrading Internal networks to further increase throughput capability. In addition, TMX is expanding capacity to handle an ever-increasing number of messages; the first expansion phase, which is expected to be complete in Q1 2010, is designed to more than double capacity throughput.

Meanwhile, Chi-X Canada has decided to relocate its primary matching engines to Switch and Data's Toronto Financial EcoCenter, located at 151 Front Street. Connectivity to long-haul fibre - and hence lower latency access to participants in the U.S. and beyond - is a key driver for Chi-X Canada, which will maintain its Exchange Tower data centre as a backup.

“Since launching nearly two years ago, one of our primary foci has been working with both our global subscriber base and the vendor community to provide fair, seamless and low-latency access to our industry-leading trading platform,” says Dan Kessous, COO of Chi-X Canada. “Switch and Data’s world-class Toronto facility will enable us to provide the level of service that our existing clients have come to expect from Chi-X Canada, while at the same time allowing us to continue bringing new global trading participants to Canada.”

“By virtue of its downtown location, our Toronto Financial EcoCenter sits at the terminus of several of the long-haul fibre optic cables originating in New York and Chicago. As such, many of the world’s leading trading firms and vendors are already connected, making 151 Front Street an ideal location for Chi-X Canada’s primary data centre,” says John Panzica, Vice President Financial Services Practice for Switch and Data.

Switch and Data recently agreed to be acquired by rival data centre hosting and proximity services company Equinix, though the deal is currently undergoing regulatory scrutiny and is subject to Switch and Data shareholder approval.