Sell-Side Technology Awards 2016: Best Data Provider to the Sell Side — Thomson Reuters

From Thomson Reuters’ perspective, speed is becoming less of a differentiator and more of a market data infrastructure core component. As trading houses invest more in low-latency feeds, though, these firms are also looking to reduce their total cost of ownership.

It’s with these market conditions in mind that Thomson Reuters launched its Elektron Direct Feed (EDF) in 2014, which provides low-latency access to real-time market data sourced directly from individual trading venues. EDF is a hybrid solution that offers hardware acceleration—using field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology for real-time data processing—to achieve low-latency and software optimization for recovery and static data mapping, according to the data giant. It also allows users to input multiple direct feeds that can be supported on a single server, which can help reduce a firm’s infrastructure and operating costs.

In the last year, Thomson Reuters has expanded EDF’s coverage beyond US cash equities to include the Options Price Reporting Agency and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s CME Globex electronic trading platform. Through these enhancements, traders were able to gain futures and options data that helped them to reduce their total cost of ownership. In addition to the Elektron Direct Feed, Thomson Reuters also offers Elektron Real Time, which delivers low-latency feeds to customers from thousands of exchange-traded and over-the-counter (OTC) markets. It also serves as an analytics tool and a market data platform.

Another recent highlight from the Thomson Reuters stable was the completion of the Elektron distribution service, which served as a complete overhaul of the technology underpinning the sourcing, normalizing and distributing components of its real-time content, globally. Additional highlights over the last 12 months, according to the company, include the extension of the services it provides within CME Group’s Aurora co-location facility to include managed real-time data feeds and its low-latency news service. It also launched its market data services inside Singapore Exchange’s co-location data center.

Data as a whole—in addition to the ways it is delivered—is becoming increasingly valuable, and Thomson Reuters has established itself as a vital player in this network. But with three consecutive wins in the data provider category, firms are likely to become more expectant, which means that Thomson Reuters will have to continue to evolve in order to stay at the head of this competitive field.

In the last year, Thomson Reuters has expanded EDF’s coverage beyond US cash equities to include the Options Price Reporting Agency and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s CME Globex electronic trading platform.