CME Takes CORBA For Link Between Legacy TOPS Order System And Globex

CHICAGO--The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is using the Orbix object request broker (ORB) from Iona Technologies to implement a new link between the CME's Trade Order Processing System (TOPS) and the Globex electronic futures trading system.

This project is the CME's first major use of Iona's Orbix, and an endorsement of the Object Management Group's Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) open object-oriented middleware specifications. The CME intends to use CORBA for many of its trading systems projects, says Louis Davis, senior director of trading floor systems for the CME.

"We're even using Orbix on our Internet project," Davis says, referring to the CME's next major effort to provide Internet links for TOPS, a project scheduled to be completed next March. The CME's 23 developers will also be using CORBA for many other projects such as the CME's new wallboards.

The new application link follows the CME's decision earlier this year to use a future version of Globex based upon the Nouveau Systeme de Cotation (NSC) electronic after-hours trading system from Paris Bourse. The switchover is scheduled to take place next year.

Part of the reason the CME decided to switch was Reuters' decision to no longer lease the Globex technology; Bourse will be responsible for the revamp and rollout of a new Globex.

Along with the CME, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Commodity Exchange (Nymex/Comex), and France's Matif and Monep have also signed a letter of intent to adopt the Bourse's Globex/NSC.

The CME and Matif will continue using Globex as the name to describe their after-hours trading. In conjunction with the move to NSC, the six exchanges also plan to adopt Clearing 21, the clearing and settlement system that the CME and Nymex have jointly developed (Trading Systems Technology, March 3, 1997).

A core component of CORBA is the Interface Definition Language (IDL) for defining remote interfaces. Orbix and other third-party tools conform to the IDL, and this should make for transferral to other CORBA environments possible, says Davis. "If you had to switch (out of Orbix), you could," he says.

Davis says CORBA solves a lot of problems for the CME developers because it enables them to bypass the frequent inconsistencies of so-called open systems such as the TCP/IP protocol. Even though it's a standard, vendors have implemented TCP/IP in ways that create discrepancies caused by the varying sockets and exceptions put in place by a variety of TCP/IP vendors.

Orbix and Orbixtalk push technology from Dublin-based Iona serve as the glue for inter-process communication between Globex and TOPS, which runs against fault-tolerant systems at Tandem Computers, says Davis. The revised version of Globex will also run against Tandem hardware.

During this past July and August, CME developers added the Iona middleware to the four existing TOPS gateways into Globex. The middleware made the order management/order routing system possible, Davis says. "The events services of CORBA are very useful," he says.

"We glued Globex to TOPS. Any one of the 400 TOPS terminals can enter an order into Globex and the average execution takes three to four seconds. We get fills back in the same time. In the futures industry, that's incredibly quick," he says. "The CORBA middleware is handling in excess of 2,000 orders and fills every day, and it's growing."

The new link was functional by September 9 when traders in the CME pits, who are using Microsoft Windows NT front-ends, were able to launch orders from TOPS to the CME's E-mini S&P 500 stock index futures contract, small-order routing and execution system that kicked off September 9.

In addition to Iona, the CME reviewed offerings from Visigenic Software, of San Mateo, California, and the Dais ORB from ICL Inc., the Reston, Virginia-based subsidiary of ICL, which is owned by Fujitsu, says Davis. He and his staff selected Iona because of Orbix's maturity and the support that Iona provides.

Davis and his production staff have four Sun Microsystems Ultrasparc servers at their disposal.

Among the CME participants who use TOPS are: ABN Amro Chicago; First Chicago Futures; and ING Securities/First American Discount. Seven exchanges also use TOPS: Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange; Kansas City Board of Trade; Mid-America Commodity Exchange; Minneapolis Grain Exchange; New York Cotton Exchange; NYMEX/COMEX; and the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange.