TS-A Readies Correlix Automated Reporting Module For TipOff

UK-based latency monitoring technology provider TS-Associates plans to integrate an automated reporting function -- the Analytic Business Reporting Module, which it released earlier this week as part of version 5.2 of its Correlix latency monitoring platform -- into its TipOff network and latency monitoring appliance.

The Analytic Business Reporting Module automates the previously-manual process of generating latency performance reports. For example, in previous versions of Correlix, users were required to write database queries manually to produce reports on trade flow activity and latency metrics -- including measurements on minimum and maximum latency for specific time periods like market open and close -- across a network, says TS-Associates chief executive Henry Young.

"The old way was very labor-intensive and unacceptably slow, so we have added more integrated reporting capabilities to provide [customers] with better visibility on the performance of their own systems," Young says. The reports can also be white-labeled if brokers want to share reports with clients.

Having completed the integration of the new automated mechanism and a front-end interface to version 5.2 of the Correlix platform -- which TS-A acquired last year (IMD, July 30, 2012) -- Young says the vendor is also preparing to integrate the functionality into TipOff, which monitors trade execution and market data flows in real time.

"We've developed the reporting module for Correlix in a manner that will allow for a future integration with TipOff," Young adds. "There are a number of plans underway to use the same core technology components in both products, even though they will remain distinct products for some time yet."

Separately this week, TS-A also announced improved account mapping in Correlix 5.2, to enable exchanges and brokers that use the platform to monitor high-frequency trading environments to match trading flows to customers when account information such as customer name is missing -- which is becoming more common as firms migrate from data standards using the FIX Protocol to alternative, less verbose protocols, Young says.

"When you use FIX, the messages will contain information about which customer submitted an order. But some exchanges and brokers have started to find FIX to be quite slow, as it contains redundant information. So there has been a move to create more efficient protocols, such as binary protocols," which omit this bandwidth-consuming information, he says.

This means exchanges and brokers monitoring trade flows must translate TCP addresses to identify the customer, so the new mapping functionality provides customers with meaningful account names instead of encoded addresses, Young adds.