SWX, Virt-x Prep FAST Datafeed

The launch of the FAST feed will follow the migration of SWX and the exchange's Virt-x pan-European blue-chip stock market onto a new high-capacity transaction platform dubbed Quotematch, which is expected to be completed in the summer of 2008.

The new data distribution architecture will replace SWX's "proprietary, relatively low-speed, but very rich market data feeds" with a FAST-format feed that delivers data with hugely reduced latency within a more customizable model, according to Jim Gollan, chairman of Virt-x.

SWX expects that the feed will allow the exchange to incorporate new capabilities to accommodate a range of user requirements. "Part of the design here is to allow for customized delivery of market data from different sources," Gollan says. "That means splitting it up into channels, different levels, different content, depending on market users' needs."

Detailed specifications about how the exchange will deliver the feed should be made public this autumn, though the feed itself is not expected to go live before the end of 2008, following the first phase of the project, which will involve the migration of SWX and Virt-x onto Quotematch (DWT, July 9). "At this stage we're not promising anything other than [that it will be available] by the end of 2008. A lot depends on how the first phase goes," Gollan says.

The Quotematch system, to which SWX is migrating, was developed in 2005 with the help of Nordic exchange systems provider OMX to support products trading in a quote-driven environment, and was later used to support a joint venture between SWX and Deutsche Börse for trading warrants and other structured products (IMD, Nov. 6, 2006).

OMX has implemented FIX engine connectivity with other clients of its X-stream trading platform and will provide a gateway that incorporates the FAST 1.1 specification based on version 5.0 of the FIX standard before the end of September this year, officials say. However, according to an OMX official, SWX chose to work with NYSE subsidiary TransactTools to FAST-enable the feed.

"We are providing a feed of market data via the X-stream proprietary API but have no involvement in the FIX work at SWX," says the OMX official. A TransactTools official declines to comment, while Gollan also declines to confirm the vendor, describing them only as a well-known vendor of exchange systems.

SWX's market data subsidiary Exfeed will continue to be the main distributor of data for both SWX and Virt-x markets. Exfeed currently makes data from these markets available via the Swiss Market Feed, which carries data from the SWX and Virt-x order-driven equities markets, and the Quote Market Feed, which carries data from the exchange's quote-driven markets for warrants, bonds and exchange-traded funds (IMD, Oct. 24, 2005).